Bay window - 4 panel to 5 panel?

Numb_fingers

I have a 4 panel bay window and would like to have 5 panels, is it disruptive to change to a 5 panel?

My adjoining neighbour has the same, other neighbours have 5 or 6 panels.

silvercar

Why?

The more panels you have, the less light. Also a 5 panel window will be a different shape to a 4 panel one, so you need to consider supports etc

Kiran

You may end up with bay poles in between each window which will take up a massive amount of the glazed area. It is doable but you should definitely get an illustration of the widths and makeups of the window before you place an order

redped

I see (no pun intended) why 5 panels may look better, in that the middle of the window would be a pane of glass rather than a support (which you have at the minute).  However, the extra support for the 5 panels will reduce the amount of light coming in to your room.

Why don't you ask a neighbour if they like their 5 panels?  You might find they're looking at your windows and wishing they had only 4, to allow more light in to their room.  

Slinky

I think if you go for 5 panels where you have 4 in the bay, it's going to make the two windows with no casements look even more obvious than they do at the moment.  Do you intend to change the 4 panel window in the extension to 5 panel also?  If you're planning on making any changes at all, I'd sort out those 2 odd windows to match everything else.

ETA are their horizontal shutters also deceiving the eye to make their windows look wider than yours whereas you have vertical blinds?

silvercar

When window frames were wood they offered more support than upvc. You often need a lintel/ some kind of support. I still think you are changing the shape of the window and this may impact on the bay. Also, older houses often had bays inserted later on, rather than as a new build and some people have found inadequate foundations. 

MysteryMe

FWIW, I think 4 windows looks better with the rest of the ground floor windows you have than 5 will.

Slinky

silvercar said:

When window frames were wood they offered more support than upvc. You often need a lintel/ some kind of support. I still think you are changing the shape of the window and this may impact on the bay. Also, older houses often had bays inserted later on, rather than as a new build and some people have found inadequate foundations. 

My brother has a house where the bay is as originally built, but has much more inadequate foundations than the rest of the house. Other houses in the street built by different builders at different times also have the same issues. The local soil is very sandy. I think it was just the way things were done with the way some houses were built in the 1920s when these were built, rather than the bays being later additions.

FIREmenow

It will be disruptive in that you will probably have to replace the internal windowsill and a good chunk of the ceiling inside the bay to adjust it to a 5-sided opening, and the make all that good with filler/repairs. Will also need to chip out and then repair your rendering above and below outside.

I think one of the reasons your neighbour's might look better is that the top openers of the windows are more square, whereas yours are a wide rectangle. You could achieve a more square top opener on four panels by making the top openers slightly deeper. The diamond design in your later shared neighbor's picture will also look better in a more square window. If your semi-detached neighbour has four and you change to five it will look less appealing as we are usually drawn to symmetry.

Tried to (crudely!) mock up a more square top opener on your ground bay below.  That is your tallest window so has more room for adjusting the size of the top opener without it being too disproportionate:




Another element to your neighbors' houses is that all of their windows all have consistent geometry in that they all have tall thin panes, if all of your windows were consistent the biggest windows would be divided down the centre vertically: 

Numb_fingers

So many people have said to me to stay with 4 panes so I'm going to even though I do like the look of 5.

I will be changing the porch window so it has 4 seperate panes.

Thanks for all your comments.

FIREmenow

Numb_fingers said:

So many people have said to me to stay with 4 panes so I'm going to even though I do like the look of 5.

I will be changing the porch window so it has 4 seperate panes.

Thanks for all your comments.

Hard to be sure from photos, but you might struggle to fit four vertical panes in the porch window - they could be so thin and the frames so chunky that they let very little light in. 

You could go for two panes as I mocked up in my earlier post, and this would keep all your panes in even numbers, giving you a dividing line down the centre. You might be able to get three in, but then this window would be an odd one out.