Glass balustrades continue to be a popular staircase choice for many of our customers. Where glass is not embedded into the rails, it is secured into place with metal clamps. These clamps (or brackets) come in several standard designs (see below) though others may be available upon request. Abbott-Wade’s standard brackets include stainless steel in a polished chrome effect or brushed steel which are popular for many modern homes. A brass option is also available. Our clamps also come in two popular styles; a rounded D-shape and a square edged bracket specifically designed for the 10mm toughened glass we use as standard. The style and finish choosen is entirely up to each customer. Many customers choose to match these with their existing door furniture and other fixings around the home to give a sense of continuity and cohesion.

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One of the problems with offering a Nationwide service is that our design team members spend a lot of time travelling up and down the country so it can be difficult to all sit down together – but it’s important that we do. It’s an opportunity to discuss new ideas, collect feedback about what our customers have looking for and to debate current and future trends to ensure that we’re always putting our customers needs first.

This must happen in businesses up and down the country – but it’s unusual that the key players is the directors mother.  Jean Wade stole the show with her cheese cake to rival anything you’d find in the final of The Great British Bake Off. In a true family business tradition which you’ll never find in the board rooms of big businesses – proud mum Jean was on hand with cakes, sandwiches and cups of tea for the appreciative team. For a design team who have backgrounds working for some big corporations, it epitomises what working for a family business means; all the family rallying around to do the best we can for each other and the common cause. Something which has drawn them away from careers working with big corporations and into our close-knit family business. Working in this way is a welcome and refreshing change for many employed at Abbott-Wade, however for the family members working here – it’s just another day at the office!

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