Hi,

Building is 1910 end Terrace. Question is, do we recondition and double glaze, new wooden double glazed or plastic (high end, wood look if that is possible?)

Any help is very much appreciated.

Cheers

Mike

I have modernish wooden sash windows……..hate them not briliantly sealed and pretty much every year they need repainting, go UPVC and possibly not sah…..

personally id recondition, we have modernish single glazed sash windows and they are great
had to repaint once in 5 years, took me a weekend

plastic is nasty

Cheers for the feedback, how come not UPVC sash?

I suppose I am leaning towards reconditioning (for the looks). Does anyone know how this cost compares to new UPVC?

A work colleague has had his sash windows done by this crowd .They did a good job and have teams around the UK.

I’ve just got new UPVC sash on a mid terrace 1890s house. I prefer how sash windows work to casement, CBA with wood and the rest of the street is UPVC anyway.

We had 60s/70s alu framed single glazing which was a bit shonky so it’s a massive improvement from that.

Very happy with them…but then I’d not have gone for it otherwise?

Having said that, if I could stomach the extra money wooden are nicer IMO (with nice woodwork internally too). But really not worth it when it’s not necessary to fit in with the rest of the street.

I have an older place than your, Victorian.

It overlooks a valley and the prevailing weather comes across the valley, causing weathering of the front elevation windows more than the back which are sheltered.

I have several windows at the front restored and modern methods applied to the beads (they basically put the tufty bead in the wooden battens to make a better seal and reduce wood on wood contact which caused rattles / draughts etc).

This was about 8 years ago and all of them look like they need redoing or replacing.

I am thinking about replacing the whole lot with some of the textured finish UPVC as I think it will last longer / save draughts and energy.

There is a local manufacturer to me – Quickslide in Brighouse, West Yorkshire – probably will look to get them to do the whole lot.

HTH

Alastair

PS one issue you will have if you don’t go sash of some sort it either back filling or front filling the gaps as a sash window is kind of 2 windows back to back. If you replace with one window you will have an internal gap to fill or potentially a problem on the outside if you position on the internal side

Yeah rest of the street is UPVC, that’s a thought. So, how does price compare of recondition to new UPVC do you guys think?

Thanks, really helpful.

If the row of houses look traditional its be a shame to go upvc.

Whilst not sash I’ve just had old Edwardian windows replace by a local joiner. They were shot 12 yrs ago when we bought the house and by bodging a new sill and plus lots of filler we kept them going but with loads of drafts and very thin glass so we’ve now invested.

After lots of research I got a local joiner to make them out of engineered red grandis. It’s a sustainable farmed hardwood with the timber formed from strips laminated at right angles to stop movement. To try and prevent painting too much as its sw facing and gets a lot of weather I’ve used sadolin opaque white wood stain. Not quite as glossy up close but lasts loads better than undercoat plus gloss.

Windows look amazing and house feels snug. Can’t comment on longevity but hopefully good as it was a bit spendy

Aye it is a tough one, heart says wood, head says plastic. Hmmmm…

I have several windows at the front restored and modern methods applied to the beads (they basically put the tufty bead in the wooden battens to retain moisture and rot the timber extra quick…

I’ve got Quickslide uPVC sash windows in a 1901 house. They’ve been in more than 10 years. When given a wipe, they look as good as the day they arrived. The draught sealing on the sides is by fibre pile strip, and if the window hasn’t been moved for a long time(months?), it occasionally packs down on one window and lets a draught in, and needs open and closing the window to sort it. I guess after this long I could look at replacing the strip. In all I’d say I’m very pleased with them. They were very good at having new stained glass made to match the parts of my bay windows too, and matching casement windows for those bits too. I also have a single wooden sash from Howarth Timber, which is holding up well too, but was much more expensive. The very nicest ones I’ve seen are made by Carey and Fox, but more expensive again.

Cheers Midlife, are you happy with the “wood” look of your windows. That company is not far from me so might be worth a shufty.

We’ve had two houses with sash windows. Both replaced with UPVC sash. First house they were a new product – fine but a bit ‘plastic’ looking.

Second lot in the current house have the wood grain pattern. Only close up can you really tell they are not wood.

UPVC every time for me.

Hth
Marko

We bought our plance about 5 years ago and had the same decisions.

Plastic was ruled out as we thought it looked poor and then we found out that despite others on the street having them it was actually forbidden in a conservation order.

We looked at refurbishing and it was about £300 per window. Our neighbours had it done and there’s look much nicer now and all work. They got in a professional company.

We went down the most expensive route. We got them replaced with ne hardwood sash windows and proper double glazing. Few points to consider – it was expensive, “you could buy a bike for that” per window, about £1100 each inc. painting, fitting etc. They are pretreated hardwood, built and painted. When we did it it made a right mess of the internals. We damaged the walls, wooden surrounds, found some rotten lintels, bits of plaster fell off including some original cornicing which just added an extra headache. Over the last 100years the windows had become integral to various bits of the structure and in removing then bits of the house just fell off. We had builders in doing some fairly serious work in any case so it wasn’t an issue but might be if you weren’t planning on redecorating every room with a window. For us it was a now or never situation.

We did ours through a local builder and went to see a few joiners and got custom specified glass. Can recommend if you are in Newcastle.

The difference is fantastic. Draughts reduced, no rattling and much quieter. Worth the £16k? Won’t get it back on the value of the house or heating but it makes the hose a nicer place to live.

It’s white. If it was wood, it’d be painted white too. All the internal woodwork is white, and replaced to a good standard so you can’t see the join unless you’re looking for it. I’d be wary of using a wood grain finish, even in white, as it’s a foil, applied after manufacture, and can peel off eventually. Solid white uPVC is self coloured, so there is nothing to show through if you scratch them. Haven’t seen any yellowing, but the edge sealants do get mucky over time and are harder to keep clean.

When we did it it made a right mess of the internals. We damaged the walls, wooden surrounds, found some rotten lintels, bits of plaster fell off including some original cornicing which just added an extra headache. Over the last 100years the windows had become integral to various bits of the structure and in removing then bits of the house just fell off.

Yes we had this too – knew it would and with the old window/sill leaking the plaster was blown in places too so got the guy to quote all in. What I neglected to plan for was a couple of weekends of decorating whilst looking wistfully out of the (new) window at sunny hills…..still brownie points in the bag and all that

Great stuff, cheers. I think I’ll get a few companies in for quotes on the different options.

Thanks again

Sash windows are brilliantly simple, and easy to repair. The timber that was used in manufacture 100 + years ago (Plus lead paint) means that they can go on for a long time.

They are however drafty and rattle. Sound-proofing is very poor and they need repainting every 10 years or so.

uPVC will probably last 20 – 40 years. Is pretty much draft proof and requires little maintenance.

New timber sash windows will be cost prohibitive for most people. If you decide to shell out, make sure the quality is top notch.

Sash windows are a brilliant design for summer. Specifically designed to create a cooling convection current by opening both the top and bottom. Works best with a high ceiling and tall windows.

As for wood or UPVC – your choice.

Quick pic, see if it looks traditional enough for you. Apologies for the state of the glass, I might get round to cleaning them this weekend. Phone camera so not easy to expose for woodwork with the light streaming in.

We have high end uPVC double glazed sash. They were put in about 15 years ago and are brilliant. Not had any problems with them at all. Good insulation and sound proofing. Only downside over wood is the casement is a bit thicker, so you get slightly less light.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/55eic8]New wall[/url] by brf, on Flickr

If you go down the refurbishment route you can get slim double glazed units to fit the period astragals.
Check out Slimlite in Scotland or Timbalite else where.
Beware…may be costly, as others have said you do get good UPVC sliding sash windows these days that can be finished in most RAL colours. My only advise would be to have the astragals fitted between the panes of glass as the planted ones tend to fall off!

In our last house we replaced the hideous 70’s windows with sash windows more in keeping with the property. They were white aluminum and looked great. I pass the old house occasionally and they still look good, we had them fitted over 20 years ago so they’ve aged well.

Mine look very similar to the one that footflaps posted above. They were about twice the price of the cheapest uPVC version available but about half the price that we were quoted for good quality wooden sash. They’ve been in around 12 years, are draught free and have required no maintenance whatsoever.

At the time they felt like a compromise as I would have preferred the authenticity of wooden sash but after having lived with them for a good length of time I think we accidentally made the right choice.

Any other high end UPVC companies to consider please?

I just a had a quick look for the invoice from ours but i think it was so long ago that it’s gone from the filing cabinet to a box in the loft, also had a quick look around the inside of the frames to see if they’d left a manufacturers sticker on there but no such luck. So I can’t tell you who made ours.

I do remember that there weren’t many companies that made uPVC sash at the time and once we got a good look at the samples it was pretty easy to see the ones that looked like they’d be solid and those that wouldn’t.