Sash Windows

[SashWS]

Hello members of Period Property UK, I wanted to introduce myself and let everyone know of my knowledge and expertise in the sash window market. My father and I run a small business in Berkshire made up of 10 employees, we have enjoyed steady growth over the last 14 years.

If anyone has any question relating to sash windows or traditional glazing I would be very pleased to help.

I have some interesting facts about sash windows too (you never know, they may just come up in a pub quiz). Can anyone have a go at the below question.

1) Why do early Georgian sash windows sit flush with the outside brickwork of a house but later Victorian windows are set one course of bricks back?

All the best

Martin (SashWS)
www.sashwindowservices.co.uk

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hello Martin and welcome to the forum. It's wonderful to read of somebody making a living from sash windows, and it would be great to have your expertise on the forum. But we consider it a real no no to advertise our businesses here and give help largely altruistically, though some people do put a discreet link to their websites in their profile details.

Can't answer your quiz question, wish I could!

Is it because they realised the bad effects of damp and set them back to protect them? :?

Talking of that, I've got a joiner coming on Thursday to fix 7 of mine. They've got bad rot - he has to replace 2 staff beads and splice in sections up to 6 inches in length on sills, stiles and jambs. He said it will take a day's work, and be around £200. ( I've gouged out the rot, used Wet Rot Wood Hardener, and will paint) I'm absolutely thrilled with that, we've been worrying about it for years and thought it would be a much more massive job.

Still have to do all the draught proofing though.

 

[worms]

Apart from echoing Joce's point about advertising, I would answer that the pubquiz question is entirely parochial - the London Building Act 1709 may have influenced design elsewhere but only dictated design in London. Elsewhere early window designs were probably more influenced by practicalities of weather, but so few examples survive it is difficult to be dogmatic on the point.

 

[Baron de Gynes]

Could it be perhaps that the canny Victorians realised that if the windows were recessed then they didn't get dirty from rainfall etc so quickly...?

 

[Feltwell]

He said it will take a day's work

Which nicely illustrates the difference sometimes between DIY and getting someone in. Hard to say without seeing it, but it would probably be at least a day a window if I did it myself - being less practised and also being an obsessive perfectionist (which doesn't actually mean that I can do the job any better than anyone else - just means I'm not happy with the results if they're not completely perfect )

 

[Johnboy]

also being an obsessive perfectionist (which doesn't actually mean that I can do the job any better than anyone else - just means I'm not happy with the results if they're not completely perfect )

Amen to that... sadly!

 

[SashWS]

Hello everyone and thanks for all your posts.

It was in fact a building regulation introduced just after the great fire of London.
The reason for it was the timber framed windows set to the front of houses and buildings in fact fueled the fireball during the great fire. Interesting ay!

Remember when the government introduced a tax for the number of windows you had, this saw lots of homeowners brick up existing windows. This is where tr phrase 'daylight robbery' comes from.

I'm full of useful information relating to sash windows.

 

[MatthewC]

It was in fact a building regulation introduced just after the great fire of London.
The reason for it was the timber framed windows set to the front of houses and buildings in fact fueled the fireball during the great fire.

Sounds like sash window makers' folk-lore! The Great Fire of London was 1666 and the Georgian period started in 1714. Did it really take 48 years to introduce that law? Hardly "just after" the Great Fire.

 

[worms]

It was in fact a building regulation introduced just after the great fire of London.

Like I said:

the London Building Act 1709

Sounds like sash window makers' folk-lore! The Great Fire of London was 1666 and the Georgian period started in 1714. Did it really take 48 years to introduce that law? Hardly "just after" the Great Fire.