Recently moved house and looking to replace the windows from a mixture of single glazed and ancient double glazed to modern, energy efficient windows. So far so good.

Initial thoughts of grey anthracite looking the business are quickly rejected by the good lady wife who thinks they’re suitable on a rendered house but not brick. I think she has a point… Anyway, next option is an Irish Oak finish which could work but then wouldn’t look good with a composite door of any other colour except Irish Oak. We’ve eventually come to the conclusion that most people have white Windows because it looks alright but it just feels like a compromise considering I wanted something completely different to begin with.

And the biggest thing doing my head in at the minute is the style of window upstairs – currently a 1500 wide by 1200 high window with three vertical panes of glass (two openers) and I want to do a simple replacement with a new unit. But no, latest regs and escape stuff means narrowing one of the panes considerably which would look stupid and completely different to the rest of the street.
Why can’t anything be simple?!

And yes, I expect this thread to disappear due to inactivity!

Top work subtly baiting the IT lot on here with the capital W.

You can replace them like for like ,you don’t have to comply with escape regs unless its a new build

Top work subtly baiting the IT lot on here with the capital W.

Have you tried closing the curtains then opening them again?

I’ve heard that having 10 windows is better than 8. Or 8 and a bit.

The capitalisation of the W is down to autocorrect on iOS believe it or not.

Anyway… Is that right daznal? I’ve been reading up on the regs and I thought that was the case but the two people we’ve had round to quote so far have advised a minimum of 650mm on the escape opener.

Easy fixed.

We’ve just ordered new windows (the opening type, not 10). We briefly thought about going for grey frames but decided against it. The guy who is doing our windows owns the building next to his shop which he has converted into flats and he has fitted grey frames to that and it’s bare brick, looks pretty good to be honest but I suppose it would depend on the age and style of the house. Our house is rendered, they would look cack due to the shape and size of them.

Cream foil on white. Have you got mains wired smoke alarms?

Would narrowing one of the panes spoil the Vista?

@aracer It wouldn’t spoil the vista, it might look a bit odd having three panes with one considerably narrower.

@wrightyson I take it you’re referring to not having to add wired smoke alarms if they’re not already present? I take your point.

I spoke to local building control this morning and they advised as per Part B that the regs apply to replacement as well as new build now. So the minimum opening width is 450mm (assuming the height is no less than 750mm).

Here are the offending windows for reference. The left is 1000mm and the right is 1500mm wide.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/EivEEw]Untitled[/url] by IngwerFuchs, on Flickr

Triple glazing in well-insulated 75mm deep frames. I think the white looks fine. How about two asymmetric panes with French opening?

We recently had some windows fitted – we’d chosen a really beautiful casement style window with black frames (all the houses on our development have original windows stained almost black or have replaced with rosewood or brown frames – we opted for black as we felt it more closely matched the houses with original windows and the colour is preferable to us).

Anyway, the numpties at the DG installers ordered the wrong frames from the manufacturers and ended up with standard frames. As we were in the middle of some other development work and had widened some openings I asked them to install two of them as a temporary measure (for security). They did this and we decided they actually looked okay so instead of waiting for the original order to be made and fitted we negotiated a *very* hefty discount and to be honest, now they are fitted and I am used to them, I barely notice the particular style/colour etc.

So what I am saying is don’t fret unnecessarily as whatever you decide to do, you’ll soon grow used to it and won’t even notice.

Why would you not want to make the windows safer in terms of escape? Yes might spoil the look but if my kids were asleep in those rooms I know which would make me happier….

My understanding of the regs was that you can’t make things worse but there is no need to make them better on a replacement. If you your current window opening is less than 450mm then there is no requirement for the new opening to be any bigger. That said getting into an argument with building control could be a pain and a wider opening might just come in handy one day. I’d go for two wider panes. It’ll still match the other windows well enough. IMO white is fine. Inoffensive and matches most buildings. Once fitted you’ll soon forget about it.

PS I believe aracer was making a joke but it’ll lose funniness if I XPlain it