Rebuild removed bay window

[sonaldo]

The property I live in had its bay window replaced at some point. Almost every other house in the street has a bay window (my house is in the middle):



Older iterations of Google Street View show what look like foundations of the original bay (which have since been paved over):



I would like to replace my window with a bay window similar to that of my neighbours'. The problem is I haven't the first clue how to go about it and how much it would cost.

Should I be contacting stonemasons / builders / architects? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Stevers]

Just a few thoughts of the top of my head. The roof of your left neighbours bay, on your right neighbours bay would be what they could all have looked like - a very classy bay window! This will make any attempt at a full reproduction a set of highly specialist tasks, so best to break it down into components. Below the cill should be a cinch - just standard building. For the cills and lintels you could do worse than talk to your local supplier of reproduction stone ballustrading and planters. The pillasters (for want of a better name) are very slender and it would be interesting to know if they are masonry, cast iron or timber. Given their slenderness I think we can discount them being structural (unless cast iron), and I would have thought getting them turned up in a hardwood would be the way forward. Box sashes are just box sashes fitted around whatever structure could be hidden within to keep the lintels and cills apart - could be a local joiner for that or one of the sash window specialists. The roof is just a roof, but a metal one (zinc or lead) would probably be what it had originally. The current window lintel looks narrower than the beam required for a proper bay window, so you will need to think about that too, as a failure of the original beam could well have been what did for the original bay. Someone would need to co-ordinate all those trades and you could do worse than a Chartered Building Surveyor for that kind of work, who would also see you safely through current building regs. You definitely wouldn't want your house to be open to the pavement for very long, so you'd need to gather together everything unique to the build before you started.

My sister in Surrey had a huge arts and crafts style bay window reproduced, and you'd need the calibre of builder that could do that. PM me if you are interested in his contact details.

Hope this helps get you started, but this would be an ambitious project in this day and age, and it could well be easier to move to a house that retains an original bay window!

 

[mardinor]

I have huge, huge admiration for your intent and recognition of the beauty of the original detailing.
But, honestly, it would be cheaper to buy your neighbour's house.
If you are going to do it, it needs to be done properly as Stevers describes above - a poor quality copy will look as bad as the current one. You will also need to replace the upstairs windows and the door and remove the solar panels, in my view.

 

[sonaldo]

Thanks both. I have plans in the short term to replace the door (with something like this) and, in the long term, the upstairs windows with wooden sashes. The problem is finding the money and convincing my partner!

On that note, do you have any idea how much it would cost to replace my current downstairs window with a bay window (e.g. are we talking more than 10k?). If the costs were too prohibitive, is there anything I could do with my current window opening to make it more sympathetic to the original design (e.g. three wooden sashes? I'm struggling to find examples online)?

 

[Stevers]

There are a lot of variables, but my gut feeling is that £10k won't come close at crazy London prices.

My sister's bay window was added on as a mirror image of the big bay window that she already had, so that their living room now has two almost identical bay windows. This included creating the opening in a previously blank wall, copying all the joinery for the casement windows, putting a roof on it, and sorting out the internal plastering and joinery. Whilst larger than the one you've got in mind, some idea of the cost may inform, and I will make enquiries.

The 'pilasters' would add complication and cost. Without them the corners could be NHL rendered masonry, and with or without them you could probably reproduce the look of the cills and lintels in situ with NHL render/plastic stone. This approach would create something much more sympathetic without being an exact copy. With masonry corners you'd just need standard box sashes. This is where a really good Building Surveyor with knowledge of traditional building methods would help you to wriggle your way through what's technically possible whilst still complying with Building Regs. There's the likely cost of restoring the original bessemer beam too. Keeping it simple would reduce the number of trades and costs. You will also reduce the cost if you can do some of the work yourself, even if it's only engaging the necessary trades as required. Everyone involved will need really good drawings to work from, and close supervision, or there will be some nasty surprises. At one point my sister's bay window was one brick course too high, and I believe they reworked it to the correct height!