Matching original crittall windows

[LimitingFactor]

Hi all - long time lurker here, first time poster.

I'm trying to find some windows that would be suitable for the front of an arts and crafts cottage that I am purchasing within a conservation area. It currently has PVC windows that don't match the original street style. Planning would like me to match to small pane steel Critall style windows, I've attached an example of another house on the street that still has its original windows.

Ideally I would like aluclad windows for the reduced maintenance and because it would be more likely to get through planning, but I would also be open to just timber if the glazing bars could be made to be thin enough. I don't really want pure aluminum/steel as I've lived with windows that have a 'thermal break' and they don't appear to be broken enough and still give me plenty of condensation problems. Does anyone have any experience of doing something similar and might have some recommendations for a product that looks the part?

Many thanks.

 

[malcolm]

The obvious would be one of the metal window manufacturers. But you could get close using wood. Custom made wooden windows will probably be cheaper than the metal ones.

Wooden window manufacturers don't like to make thin glazing bars these days. Window makers can achieve the effect with wood mouldings stuck on the inside and outside. For double glazing there are spacer strips between the two pieces of glass where the mouldings are. You need to be quite close up to notice the fraud.



Opening wood frames with double glazing tend to have frames at least 40mm thick. My front windows have wooden frames with Critall openers that sit inside the wooden frame so the opening part seen from the outside is very thin.

 

[paulc]

well.... Crittall are still in business producing windows. You could try giving them a call. Just make sure you are sitting down though as I'm lead to believe they are not particularly cheap.

 

[LadyArowana]

I'm lead to believe they are not particularly cheap.

If you are using that phrase in the same way I use it when explaining something to His Lordship then I imagine they are truly outrageously expensive!