Our house has a leaky and old conservatory on it that we are planning to replace with a bigger orangery-esque item. Our house is an older country cottage type item with wood frame windows. The Mrs wants a painted finish to the new orangery and I was initially going for wood (painted idigbo) but a mate has suggested posh UPVC – the Residence 9 / Evolution wood effect type things. Does anyone have any experience of these. Wire wool-ing and re finishing the wood frames every 3 years is a bit of a ball ache so the idea of wipe clean seems great although I work that even wood-effect will look a bit out of place…..??? Also I have no idea as to the durability of the UPVC?

Thanks!

I have wooden widows that are 13 years old and only got repainting once recently – mostly as a caution rather than being necessary.

Saying that, we lived here for 6 years before I even registered that they were wooden. The gloss finish is so smooth that I never noticed. On that basis, I don’t think I’d pay any extra for wood over uPVC. The sun room is uPVC and looks fine after 13 years also.

AFAIA the wood effect upvc windows are just white upvc Windows with a foil applied over the top – this can get damaged and come off in place showing the base colour through.
That said they are cheaper.
If you want to do the low maintenance thing properly go for aluminium composite (aluminium clad wood), no good for your wood effect though.

Painted wooden windows and conservatories, etc, IME don’t tend to have a woodgrain finish; for me wood is more about period profile narrow frame parts, especially the muntins
Have a look at some National Trust properties before you decide

Woodgrain plastic looks awful and plastic windows don’t last well and look rubbish anyway. Yes wood needs maintenance but if maintained lasts almost indefinitely. My building still has many window frames that are 150 years old.

Nice unbiased review there, Teej.

Its just an opinion

AFAIA the wood effect upvc windows are just white upvc Windows with a foil applied over the top

There might be some truth in that but it’s certainly not a thin foil if so. My wood effect UPVC garage door has a fairly substantial nick taken out of it and white plastic is only visible at the deepest part of the cut/damage.

We are getting wood effect upvc windows fitted today! They are called evolution windows from a local company near us. Went to the show room and they do look really good, you’d have to really inspect them to notice the difference. They are wooden sash windows that are being replaced with upvc sash. The price was the big difference for us, we were able to replace 5 windows with our budget, where if we went for wood, we woukd have only been able to afford 1 or two.

Once fitted today, I’ll take a pic so you can see the difference.

Yes please mrwhyte! Evolution is exactly who I am considering.

Once fitted today, I’ll take a pic so you can see the difference.

Don’t forget to ask one of the fitters to jam a knife into the underside of the frame, just to see how deep the wood bit goes 8)

My wood effect UPVC garage door has a fairly substantial nick taken out of it and white plastic is only visible at the deepest part of the cut/damage.

I’d put money on the fact that garage doors are done differently as they are more liable to being knocked about. We’ve just refurbed a house and the replacement windows had a grey foil over them which looks lovely but they come with a touch up stick to fill in scratches as and when they occur (and they did scratch during installation).

If you want zero maintenance you go for aluminium.

If you want zero maintenance you go for aluminium.

Err no, they still come with a touch up stick. If you want zero scratches you fit them carefully.

You can fit various foils to upvc, sometimes it pays to have the frame colour extruded in a similar colour as the foil, so cream foil on cream which was a big seller a few years back. Grey is heavily envogue at the minute but going grey foil on grey extrusion means you have Grey frames on the inside as well which some folk don’t want as they want nice clean white reveals.
You can spec how you want them as the foiling division will do pretty much anything if its available, but it all depends on how much you want to pay…

Dont forget Osmo oil, yes it might need doing more often but its a shedload easier with minimum prep, and they do a uv protection version.
However you need to ask about compatibility with the residence 9 stuff

Woodgrain plastic looks awful and plastic windows don’t last well and look rubbish anyway.

Not a fan of woodgrain plastic, but I am a fan of uPVC. Our uPVC sash windows are coming up on 20 years old and look as good as the day they went in. Other than washing them down every other month, they are zero maintenance, which is a lot more than you can say for wooden sash windows, which are a PITA to maintain.