Category: <span>Industry</span>

The Guild of Glass Polishers have been working to establish an industry recognised training and qualification programme, providing skill training, skill recognition and professional verification.

To date there has not been any form of qualifiaction in the glass polishing industry, allowing anyone to pick up a polishing machine and call themselves professionls.  This often has a detremental effect on our industry, leaving customers with substandard repairs and giving our industry  a bad name.

By introducing and promoting an industry recognised qualifiaction, we aim to give industry customers a simple method to easily identify a true professional glass polisher.  By choosing a Guild Qualified glass polisher, you as a customer can be assured that they have the skills and experience to repair your glass quickly, safely and that you recieve real value for your money.

What's more, using a Guild Qualified glass polisher means that your repair will be independently guranteed by The Guild of Glass Polishers giving additional peace of mind.

Whether you are a residential customer with a single scratch repair or a commercial or construction manager with large multiple repairs, a Guild Qualification shows that a glass polisher not only has the professional skill and ability, it shows that they possess the correct liability insurance, valid C.S.C.S qualifications, their equipment is PAT tested, they operate within their Method Statement and that they will have carried out and submitted a full risk assessment for your project.

For an industry professional, a Guild Qualification mean industry recognition, not just within the construction or commercial sector, but for insurance, C.I.T.B. and a whole host of other sectors.  It also helps with employing new technicians.  Employing a Guild Qualified glass polisher means you already know their ability and standard of work.

Overall, an industry recognised qualification programme will help us to promote and instill a sense of confidence in the glass polishing industry, providing customers with the best service and our members with a strong industry to thrive in.

In much the same way as you would only employ a Gas Safe or Corgi engineer to service your boiler, we hope that you would only employ a Guild Qualified glass polisher to repair your scratched glass.

For more information on finding a Guild Qualified glass polisher, or to learn more about our training and qualifiaction programme, please call us, we are happy to help.

For the past 17 years, the Standard of Visual Quality for Installed Flat Glass, introduced by The Glass & Glazing Federation, has been the accepted industry standard for the glazing and construction sectors.

If we are brutally honest, it was accepted as the industry standard because it was the only standard available at a time when a standard was needed.

When this standard was concieved, it was a godsend to the industry and it has served us all well for many years, but as the quality of glass improves and the abilities of glass polishing systems improve and, more importantly, as the end user expectations become ever more demanding, a new standard is called for.

The Guild of Glass Polishers have recently published a new Standard of Visual Quality for the repair of installed flat glass, which demands a much higher standard of repair and viewing criteria.

Although originally written for the viewing of repaired glass, many users have found that these standards of visual quality far exceed any others in the industry as they perform equally well for the general inspection of installed flat glass.

This document is freely offered to assist indutry and end users alike to establish an increased acceptable visual standard for flat glass.

Advice: Any dispute relating to a standard of glazing is between the supplier and customer.  Although you can seek expert advice and or mediation from a number of sources, remember that this is a third-party service, usually chargeable.

Although some organisations may lead you to believe differently, there is no official governing body for the glazing industry.  Organisations offering guidance and advice, including ourselves, have no authority and cannot legislate or enforce anything.

The best advice we can give you is to include a standard for the visual quality for installed flat glass in your initial purchase, supply or installation agreement.  In this way you have stipulated your required standards for the installed glass and had it agreed to by your supplier that will stand up in a court of law.

For further information relating to our standard of visual quality for the repaired flat glass, or any other service offered by The Guild of Glass Polishers, please visit our website: www.guildofglasspolishers.co.uk