So we’ve moved into our new house and the windows are a bit shagged.

They are double glazed aluminium framed jobbies. It looks like the seals have gone on most of them and dirt and moisture has got inbetween the panes.

A number of questions:

Are they fixable by removing and resealing the panes? Is this cost effective?

How much should I look to budget for replacements? Ideally after double glazed, wooden frames (2 x 3 metre bays, 2 sets of double opening doors to the rear and 5 further 2 metre standard windows)

We had everest round at the weekend and their quote was utterly ridiculous, made me laugh though so not a total waste of time.

Any recommendations for companies or othe rpointers would be good!

Based in the south east

ta Yoss

We had our blown units replaced recently, had 3 windows done for about £250 IIRC, so I’d say pretty cost effective. You don’t have to replace the frames, just the sealed units themselves.

Just had some new windows. 4x double windows and a set of french doors came to £2700 (£1000 of which was the doors).

We just rang 2 local companies and one national and got them to quote. The local ones were within a few quid of each other. The national one was nearly twice as much.

Everest prices always high, but the life time guarantee may mean a bit more than a smaller company that goes out of business in a few years.
Never had to claim so don’t know if this is true but lots of smaller double glazing companies seem to come and go.

I think that the large companies price high so that they can ‘call their manager to offer you a better deal’ when you laugh at them. I had a summer job at Anglian (for shame) many years ago, and they did the same thing: start with a rip-off high price for those that would pay it and be able to offer ‘40% off if you buy today sir’ for those who wouldn’t.

I had my house done by Anglian about 12 years ago and not had a single problem with any of the windows – all in perfect working order.

Bt different for us, we had sash windows replaced. 14 of them. We ended up getting a builder (who was doing other work as well) to supply them. We specified the glass from Pilkinton, went to see a couple of joiners to look at the work. Very pleased with the result.

We originally looked at Everest. The price was £54,000, we laughed them out the door. They came back and gave us something like 40% off. We probed them about various details and they were lacking in info. I asked them about the British standards they claimed to have for wooden sash windows. They actually had none, they were for uPVC which made me more than a little cross. They sent round the local sales manager and he started to tell me how I could save money by not doing some of the building work so I could afford the windows. I showed him the door.

The building company came in at around £1000 per window, exactly to our spec.

It’s worth looking into smaller outfits and see if they can take you to see what you’ll be getting or get references of people they’ve done work for. A good job will last and will often be much more competitively priced. ALso look into what you are buying. We upped the spec on the glass from very basic to get a bit better energy efficiency and windows that looked nicer.

Word of mouth is the way to go. There will be plenty of local firms that have been on the go for 30 years. They will do a better job for considerably less money. Most will tell you pretty factually if you can just replace the units also.

I’m having great difficulty getting a decent quote for a storm door and main door for my house. You’d think it was simple: get three quotes and choose. I’m expecting to pay about £2,500; I’m not expecting miracles in price.

Nope. They (double-glazing salesmen) are all lying gits. They all quote something three or four times the price then magically pull out a phone to ‘talk to head office’. They all have some gaps in their build schedule that could give me a discount if I sign immediately. Not doing it. Then they phone back and another magical discount appears. By this time I don’t trust them and wouldn’t have them if they offered them for free.

They’ve all been shown the door, sharpish.

Then they (usually ‘Amber Windows’) phone me *incessantly* until I’m shouting down the phone at them to leave me alone (and I’m quite a mild-mannered chap).

That Mary Portas woman should do one of her programmes on these bunch of shysters.
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