Wooden windows

[Manks]

After much nagging by some of the posters here :wink: I am considering replacing the lovely high-gloss plastic windows in my house with wooden ones.

I cannot afford oak windows and I am not sure that the job justifies it. But does anyone know of a company that will do a softwood or alternative hardwood alternative?

The windows are casement and need a Georgian bar. They are common to this area but not, I think, a common design. But they should not be hard to make.

Manks

 

[skier-hughes]

As I said before, a good quality wood is going to cost, so be it Oak or douglas fir or whatever, a good piece is expensive, a cheap piece is bad value for money.

We are gradually changing ours, using good wood Douglas Fir, Clear, Close Vertical Grain, grade 1, 95% free of Knots/shakes/splits, so it says on their listing!!

It's totally different to what you normally buy, you can tell just by picking it up, the weight is amazing adn the grains is so very close.

We are only doing the windows one room at a time. This means it doesn't seem like we are spending £30k on windows.... which is very frigthening.

SPAB recommended this type of timber, or Pitch Pine/Siberian Larch - "Baltic Redwood Unsrted Grade"

Graham

 

[Manks]

How many windows are you getting for 30k?

 

[skier-hughes]

20.

The figure includes the wood, which worked out more than if I'd had my way and we'd gone for Oak, linseed oil etc, Holkham paint, all new hand made metal work and then making them and fitting.

Graham

 

[Penners]

"Baltic Redwood Unsorted Grade"

This is just a smart way of saying "good quality pine". You should find that any respectable joinery company will make windows out of this timber as a matter of course.

 

[Manks]

What do we think I should be able to get 6ft width casement windows for? The windows can be seen in this thread here:
http://periodpropertyshop.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7464

A double glazed one would cost me £400 max. I am happy to spend money replacing the windows but I am not prepared to spend a grand a window. It just isn't worth it.

Manks

 

[Nemesis]

It's a difficult one really - ripping out the placcy and putting it in landfill maybe isn't a great idea ecologically either! It would just look more sympathetic to the building and its materials and design.

But I can't think that you can get a handmade product, in decent wood, fitted, and with DG, as cheaply as you can get what are after all really mass produced windows (uPVC) with off the shelf components fiddled about a bit to get the right size.

However, take some measurements and call around various manfacturers to get some idea?

I have to say I had a handmade oak quality window fitted to replace a nasty rotten one last year - and every time I look at it it brings me pleasure. Priceless really.

 

[Penners]

What do we think I should be able to get 6ft width casement windows for?

Assuming three sashes, central fixed sash, outer hinged sashes, no glazing bars, in softwood - wild guess £450 plus VAT.

 

[Nemesis]

I did a google

wood window manufacture


and there are a large number who will quote.

Here's one:

http://www.georgebarnsdale.co.uk/


of which I have no personal knowledge whatsoever but it's somewhere to start searching!


Here's another:

http://www.mumfordwood.com/compdetails.asp?id=2151&from=&sec_id=417


which does wonderful stuff but I think quite expensive.

Try a local joinery firm?

 

[Penners]

Try a local joinery firm?

Yes - best plan. Try your Yellow Pages - you should find no shortage of them.

 

[Jane Smith]

When we first moved in here the windows were horrible aluminium-framed double-glazing that had been put in 20 years before, gone mouldy, misted up, and partly fallen out. We had a builder put in wooden windows to replace them: we told him what we wanted and left it to him. What a mistake! He put in softwood pseudo-sash windows with thick double-glazing which are flimsy, draughty and simply not nice. We now have to either live with them or replace them as we can afford it. It seems wrong to replace windows which do their job, pretty much, jsut because they're not right but I can entirely understand Evelyn's comment about how good her replacement window makes her feel.

We have found a local supplier of proper sash windows, but the cost is high. Don't know how they compare, but each window will be between £850 and £1250, depending on the size.

The big problem for us is, as always, the amount of work that we have here. We have (sit down) 52 windows in the main house. Which, at £1,000 or so per window, are going to be a little bit costly to replace.

We're transferring our attention to the stables now, and are determined to get it right with those. So at least I'll be able to look out at them and have some of Evelyn's satisfaction!

 

[Penners]

We have (sit down) 52 windows in the main house.

One to look out of every week for a whole year.

How very like the life of our own dear Queen.

 

[Jane Smith]

I didn't know that Evelyn had as many windows as me, Penners... live and learn, eh?

 

[Nemesis]

Oooooh!!! Bitchy now!!!! Just you wait!!!! Hope that we have the calmest spring ever and that would serve you right.


Actually we have about half that number - thankfully some are over a century old and doing fine, apart from some repair required.

But some were modern replacements - nasty, and rotting.

 

[Penners]

I think that's quite enough window-upmanship please, ladies*.


*Or delete and insert your own nomenclature if preferred.

 

[Jane Smith]

God, you know how to wound, Evelyn.

The few remaining original windows are almost doing fine, and were certainly better than the aluminium ones. The problem is that they'd been patched up with concrete fillets, and heavily nailed into, and there are only three of them (I think). There's one really pretty one hidden away in the stables that I hope to be able to keep, it has little pointed arches in the frame and everything.

We did have one window made for the hallway on the spot, by a joiner who has since died. It is gorgeous, just very plain and exactly like the rotten original one which it replaced. If only we could have found a doctor who could cure old age we'd have kept the joiner here and made him replace all our windows for us.

 

[Nemesis]

Penners, Penners - I've never claimed to be a lady, in fact I think I wouldn't really care for it at all. It sounds very dull.

I bet when the alu windows were put in they were claimed to require no maintenance and last a zillion years! Just like all these placcy ones now.

Getting decent sashes made costs as they are a craft skill... it's awful to daily see them being ripped out and junked.

(Which is of course why and how the Brooking Collection started...)

 

[Jane Smith]

When we put in new drains here, we dug out great big chunks of the old windows: the boxy bits at the sides, lots of sash weights all rusted up, and even odd lengths of rotten cord fixed to them. It was very sad.

We've found bits of the old gas system here, too, which used to provide the lights. There was a gas plant, apparently. Long gone now, thank goodness, or I'm sure David would have a go. We'd end up blown half-way to Barnsley.

 

[Nemesis]

Actually it's interesting that people did have their own gas plants - not something I think many people know about!

Tyntesfield was one such.


http://www.nelmes.fsnet.co.uk/paxman/paxspark.htm

 

[Jane Smith]

We have a few letters written by the housekeeper and gamekeeper who lived here about120 years ago, sent to their employer, which talk about maintaining the gas plant. Can't remember what they say, just that they ask for more of the stuff they need, and talk about how bad the weather had been (no change there, then). And then there are The Bits of the plant: a few burners, a couple of pipes, a light fitting. All bent and part-rotten, but identifiable. And I thought that livng with a solid fuel stove was difficult.