Placcy windows --No escape

[jocelyn plummer]

Well, after a successfully completed sale and move from our Medieval property into temporary rented placcy accommodation , we start house hunting in earnest.

Agents falling over themselves to offer me properties from 'character' to 'period' . So far, and presumably because of HIP stuff most of the houses seem to 'sport the benefits of UPVC glazing'!

No No No No.

I saw a really nice 1930's house in good location ticking many of our required tick boxes .It had every wooden window replaced just before going on the market the Vendors were chuffed to bits with them. Such a shame.

Anyway I have seen one early Victorian without placcy, but every window is rotten so they will have to be replaced-------------!!!!!

I have also seen a couple of gorgeous Georgian Town houses, still retaining the mouldings, and the iron fireplaces, very tastefully restored, but reflecting a lifestyle rather than a home to live in---- oh what it is to be young and free of clutter!!

 

[Ian Bond]

Sills can be replaced, and new timber can be spliced into sashes.

Failing that, you can replace the sashes - Very rare that a sash window is so rotten that the whole lot has to be chucked away.

The benefit of timber over plastic is that it's supposed to be repairable.

 

[Flyfisher]

Anyway I have seen one early Victorian without placcy, but every window is rotten so they will have to be replaced-------------!!!!!

Oh dear. In the current slow market I can just imagine the house not selling and the agent telling the owners that if only they replaced those rotton old windows with some nice new uPVC ones then it might sell much quicker . . . .

oh what it is to be young and free of clutter!!

Absolutely! All property programmes seem to feature 'show home' or minimalist furnishings - where do these people keep all their 'stuff' ?

 

[Nemesis]

Went for a walk yesterday to a favourite spot where there was a lovely red Cumbria sandstone house in the most beautiful setting, mill race running past and waterside garden.

I say was because although the house is still there, the small paned sashes have recently been replaced, all except one, (that's possibly still to do) with the most ugly of uPVC windows. They are stark white and have thick frames and bars and look simply dreadful.

They are everywhere.

 

[Penners]

All property programmes seem to feature 'show home' or minimalist furnishings - where do these people keep all their 'stuff' ?

It's all shoved in the garage until the TV cameras have gone!

 

[Feltwell]

A very minor win against plastic today.....

My Victorian semi has a dormer window on the rear roof, as does my neighbours. Most of the windows on both houses are original, none are plastic, despite no listing or conservation area.

Neighbour wanted to replace the dormer with a UPVC item as "I fitted them in my last house and they were so good" - even though she readily admits that my dormer, rotten original replaced with a wooden item by myself a couple of years ago, looks good, is totally draught free and costs no more!

However, window company tells her that she can't have UPVC as the window frame is structural and takes the weight of the dormer roof! So she has to have wood. :lol:

At least the window company was honest and competent - I remember something in the news a while back about a 1930's house with the double bay on the front - lounge below, bedroom above - where the whole bay structure collapsed because a UPVC company replaced the original windows, the bottom one previously carrying the weight of the top one.

 

[Nemesis]

A small mercy but a mercy!

Seems the house in question isn't listed, but came across this one while checking:

http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?pid=1&id=78279


I wonder if those windows were in place in 1957?

 

[Penners]

she can't have UPVC as the window frame is structural and takes the weight of the dormer roof.

That's not a very creative approach to the problem. Surely the solution would be to have a UPVC dormer roof. :x