Double glazing

vansboy

Quite agree, with RedonRed.

Grandmas flat had awful, Crittal steel windows before the plastic ones, so it WAS a cosmetic & insulation wise, improvment.

For the extension, here, at home, we chose timber sash units, to match, as far as possible, the original 100 year old ones already fitted.

We could quite easily spoiled the look of the house, as well as devaluing it, with plastic.

& there are apparent health problems associated with uPVC, from the chemicals within it, getting into the air we breath!!

VB

rwgibson99

...Doesn't any one else think that wooden windows are nicer (and quite often cheaper too)?...

Yes, wooden windows look a lot nicer, particularly if varnished rather than glossed.  PVC is evil stuff, as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth will testify - even their affinity credit cards with the Co-Op Bank are PVC-free.

My argument would have been from a practical viewpoint, in that PVC windows should be maintenance-free.  Wooden ones need intensive preservation after a while.  However, recent experience with the plastic rubbish that's in my current property leads me to conclude.....I hate windows.

RedOnRed

I must admit, I was half expecting to be ostracised here for debunking plastic windows.

I'm impressed and surprised (judging by how prevalent plastic windows have become) that the reaction here seems to be swinging against them.

I just can't help thinking of plastic windows as being the modern day equivalent of stone cladding.

MarkyMarkD

I hate the things.

Our previous house was a 1930s terrace with lovely leaded lights. We lived there for 7 years and the street went from about 50% original to around 20% original windows during that time.

As soon as we sold it, the heathen buyers ripped out the original windows (which just needed a bit of TLC) and put in evil plastic ones.

Our current house has stained hardwood framed double glazed windows which are fine. But others in the street are ripping their hardwood frames out and fitting the evil plastic - in WHITE which doesn't match the originals at all. Fools!

RedOnRed

As soon as we sold it, the heathen buyers ripped out the original windows and put in evil plastic ones.

Surely that devalues an old character property?

In a lot of areas of continental Europe (ie Italy & France) that would contravene local building regulations and would be deemed a crime.

It's a stunning display of ignorance and laziness when people are prepared to deface their own properties simply in order to avoid maintaining and treating a few natural and more aestheic window frames.

MarkyMarkD

Of course, you are write about it ruining the character. But rarely do the local authorities care about it unless you are in a conservation area.

Even worse are things like stone cladding on terraced streets. There are some LOVELY terraces in South Wales, for example, where they all look the same except one idiot has put repulsive stone cladding on the middle one of the row. People who do this sort of thing shouldn't be let out on their own.

Dan29

Very much agree. Am also in South Wales (north Cardiff) - wish all of us who think like this lived in the same street

rwgibson99

There's a "keeping up with the Jones'" joke in there somewhere.

SaleHunter

Just a bit of a tip when getting double glazing, ask the person giving the quote if they are going to have the windows customised to fit or not. Many sole traders and companies simply buy in "off the shelf" windows and just pack up the gaps with foam and sealant. This is not good workmanship and will become apparent in time.

We had ours fitted by Weatherseal this year, we signed the agreement after getting a few quotes and knocking down the first couple of prices offered by the salesman, but re-reading the agreement and the small print we decided to cancel under the cooling off period. They sent out the sales manager for our region, and when it became apparent to him that we were'nt going to sign again until serious discounts were given, he got down to decent figures.

In the end, he left our house at 11.00pm that night (arrived at 7.00pm) and agreed to fit a front door (double french doors) and 8 windows for £4,000 - the book price on the front doors alone was £2750. The windows were custom built and I watched them getting fitted to make sure this was the case.

It just goes to show that if you haggle enough, and reel them in (as they try to do to you) with the promise of a sale then you'll get a decent price. These guys dont want to spend hours of their time with no end result, they need to hit sales targets, and if that means they dont get as much profit as they'd like they'll eventually settle for a much reduced price.

fluffymuffin

Just a bit of a hint - try measuring your windows yourself and phoning up the trade suppliers for the price on the custom sizes(you can easily find the numbers for these warehouses on the internet). You can then, as someone else suggested, check with the trader if these are the sizes they are going to use and ask for a breakdown of the costs for each window, labour etc. This may give you a good idea as to the quality of work you might expect and reassurance that they are actually using the right size windows!

Good luck with it xx