The 4Front Louvres Story
– Kim and Martin Uren
In 2014, we were completing our nine year home renovation journey, building a lovely light filled family room at the rear of our home. Having backgrounds in design and construction we were managing all aspects of the design and build process ourselves, and loving it! We both appreciate quality and good design, so of course we wanted to use the very best products we could afford in our home.
The last piece of the puzzle for us was to create an outdoor entertainment area off the new family room, which provided us with weather protection, didn’t get overheated in summer, and most importantly did not block out any of the natural light in the rooms at the back of the house. We looked at many roofing options, but decided in the end that there was only one product that ticked all the boxes and was up for the challenge…..an opening louvered roof.
We rang several louvre roof companies to come out and quote on what we wanted. Of the ones that actually turned up, it came down to two contenders. The prices quoted were on par, so for us it just came down to the features, limitations and ascetics. But, to be honest we just weren’t 100% happy with any of our options, and we felt that we had no choice but to accept a compromise and forge ahead, as the benefits of buying a louvre roof were too compelling. We paid our deposit and 6 months later our roof was commissioned. No that’s not a typo! It was a pretty bad experience all things considered. For starters we didn’t have our roof in for Christmas as was promised, and our 25 lunch guests sat under market umbrellas that year. Then there were installation mistakes resulting in unsightly patches, damage to our existing gutters and a big mess left for us to clean up. Unfortunately to this day our eye is still drawn to the patches, as well as the ugly cog motor that was part of our “compromise”.
On the plus side of the equation however, the opening louvered roof as a concept was everything we wanted it to be, and our family have enjoyed many hours of fun and comfort under it. We fast became advocates for having a louvre roof.
So how did we get into the louvered roof game you ask? Well, it’s been our experience that life never seems to track in a straight line! We have both enjoyed being Adelaide based small business owners for most of our working lives, both together and as individuals. So needless to say when one of the existing louvre roof businesses came onto the market we were interested. After all it was just another fork in life’s road!
Months passed, we did our due diligence, gained valuable industry knowledge and our passion for opening louvre roofs grew. Then life unexpectedly threw us another curve ball, when the owners of the business changed their minds and withdraw it from sale. But, by then we were hooked, and the idea of redesigning a better opening louvre roof from scratch started to form…
In June 2017 we went for it! We engaged engineers and gave them our design brief. It was based on everything we knew that was wrong with all of the existing opening louvre roof products available in Australia. And, our instructions to them were simple: “design out all of these issues”.
Since then we have been working hard towards our goal of becoming a louvre roof manufacturer, offering a better louvre roofing system that is elegant, unobtrusive and performs exactly as you would want it to.
As we emerge into the market place now, we are very excited about the product range we have developed and what we have in the pipe line for the future.
Our passion for great, and well resolved design has taken time to realise. But we are confident that it has been worth it. We are now delighted to be able to offer Australia’s best performing and most durable louvre roof. Using premium, curved aluminium blades and revolutionary Duraball™ technology, 4Front brings you a quieter, stronger, smarter and more beautiful roof that will add value and comfort to your home.
Our vision now is to do things differently and better than the rest.
