If you’ve ever been shopping for exterior doors or windows, you may have come across two similar terms: PVCu and uPVC, and wondered what on Earth the difference is between them.
Let’s get to the point: there are none. Any time you see the letters ‘uPVC’, you can mentally substitute the term ‘PVCu’ (and vice-versa). So, why is there two different words or terms for the same thing?
What Is Upvc (Or Pvcu)?
Let’s look through a quick uPVC definition. The letters stand for unplasticised Poly Vinyl Chloride. It’s the same material used to make faux-leather clothing, inflatables, and electric cable insulation, except that it hasn’t had a plasticising agent added to it. This is what makes the material flexible. Without the agent, uPVC is tough and rigid, and also waterproof and glossy. It’s a fantastic material from which to build a window frame.
What uPVC means in general is chunky white window frames. The material itself is recyclable, and much cheaper to manufacture than aluminium. When uPVC was first introduced back in the 1980s, it had another distinct advantage over aluminium – it didn’t conduct heat as much. Aluminium windows have since been redesigned with much more effective thermal breaks in the centre, meaning this isn’t such a problem anymore.
uPVC also enjoys another considerable advantage over wood in that it doesn’t need to be finished and maintained in the same way – the topmost layer is naturally glossy, which means that stains and moisture will repel from the surface. As such, you don’t need to worry about choosing paint types or adding additional hardware.
It’s for these reasons that uPVC can be found on many British homes.
So, Why Do We Use The Term Pvcu?
uPVC first entered Britain via German manufacturers, and as a result of the boom in double-glazing of the time, it became something of a marketing buzzword. Everyone at the time wanted their house equipped with the trendy energy-efficient uPVC windows.
So, if uPVC was a perfectly acceptable term, why did ‘PVCu’ become known? This answer comes from mainland Europe, where full sentences are quite often formed with the adjective after the noun. In the 80s, it was generally decided that British manufacturers and UPVC Door Repair Leeds companies would use the same term as their European counterparts to help avoid confusion. Yet, making this transition of words proved rather tricky – as getting an entire industry to change its accepted habits often is. We’re therefore still using the same term many decades later, and there’s no chance of this changing anytime soon!
As an additional benefit, ‘PVCu’ may appeal to those of us who can appreciate consistent capitalisation. ‘uPVC’ at the start of a sentence just looks odd!
Conclusion – What’s The Correct Term – Upvc Or Pvcu?
Some people insist that one term or the other is correct, but the truth is that there is no practical difference between the two terms.