double vs single glazing

[Odsox]

Just to stop condensation I would always go with double glazing.
You could always get the windows joiner made, my dad in the 60's was a joiner and I grew up in a double glazed house. He made the units himself and we were always snuggly warm.

Yes, I agree, and if you can still get aluminium frames I would steer well clear of those too.
It's amazing how much condensation you get on the ally frames versus none at all with PVC.
We have been slowly replacing all the old ally frames here, as and when, but we still have 2 to go ... bathroom and kitchen (I know, they should have been done first) and they are always sopping wet in the winter.

[Annpan]

Oh No! not PVC!!! Not Aluminium either.

Lovely warm, durable, secure wood.... the only frames for me

[Millymollymandy]

I second that, although in France unfortunately they warp in no time and you find you can't open or close them and ditto doors - our back door hardly locks in winter as it swells so much and moves up and down and sideways on its hinges, and our front door wood splits open every summer with the dry atmosphere. Why did these things never happen in England?

[pureportugal]

yes, we're going for wood despite the problems of hot, dry summers and wet winters making it shrink, crack, swell and warp. plus there are a gazillion critters here that just love to feast on wood
portuguese builders think we are mad!

[Odsox]

Mmmh, the only wood frames you can get here are teak, and I'm not sure where that comes from or how sustainable it is.
I realise that PVC is totally non-green but when it comes to economics I can be persuaded to the dark side
PVC frames can be bought ready assembled for reasonable money, teak frames would have to be made by a carpenter, the glass measured and made by the glass company and then fitted by someone cleverer than me.
Add to that wood needs constant applications of teak oil and even then has a limited lifetime in this wet, humid and salty location, whereas PVC lasts literally for ever.

[Green Aura]

I'm afraid we had to go for upvc too.

Purely economic decision, we had so much that we needed to do fairly quickly, on a limited budget. And we seem to have loads of windows!

[lsm1066]

We get condensation in every room in the house (to the extent that our tumble dryer - yes I know! - recently blew the house trip switches because it was full of condensation), and we have UPVC and wood framed double glazing. The wood is marginally worse mind you.

Lynne

[MuddyWitch]

Now I'm confuzzled! (but then it doesn't take much... )

At our last house the wooden d/g was lovely, never caused us any problems & just needed repainting every couple of years or so. The uPVC patio doors, in the same room and just two feet to the side, were an other story! If I opened them on a sunny day, the warped, so wouldn't shut. My parents had the same problem with their patio doors. Both houses (in different parts of the county) faced due South. In the Winter they shrank and were draughty as hell. I swore we'd never have the stuff again.

As we only had single glazing here & were expecting to sell I relented & we had the whole house done last Spring. It colder now, cos several of them are so bl**dy draughty. We've had the fitters back (twice!) and they say it's because our house is so exposed! Next doors is six feet away & there is a five foot fence between us!

I'd have wood every time! Though I'd go for an eco-friendly yatch varnish rather than paint next time.

MW

[Annpan]

I just hate the plasticy stuff... I just find in cheap looking, with no real substance.

UPVC doors are famously crap, most are just a block of poystyrene between two plastic sheets - they can be cut through in just a few seconds using a stanley knife. I know someone who used to break doors down for the police (drug dealers and gun runners mainly) ... he said it was always so easy when it was a UPVC door - the whole thing just gives in. And ... don't you just love the sound of a wooden door slamming shut behind you when you come home not like a click, push, click of a PVC door.

When we get out windows replaced we'll get wood - currently they are UPVC... ick..... and our upstairs dormers are a funny shape so there are just big scabby bits of plastic stuck in everywhere to fill the holes... looks really ugly... and we have plastic window-ledges.... it's just not right.





Sorry if I have offended anyone..... just my opinion

[Millymollymandy]

I ... don't you just love the sound of a wooden door slamming shut behind you when you come home not like a click, push, click of a PVC door.

No! Our front door handle is stiff so my husband always slams the front door which is unnecessary, and it drives me nuts that no visitors from England can 'get' the concept of lifting up the door handle to shut the door properly (no matter how many times I tell them) therefore the doors are either left swinging in the breeze or they're slammed shut.

[Odsox]

How very strange, it's almost like there are many different sorts of uPVC window frames.
We have had almost all of our windows replaced with uPVC most of wich have been in for 12 years.
Now, houses don't come much more exposed than this one .... I'm on a peninsula sticking out into the Atlantic and getting the full force of the winter storms, my weather station recorded a gust of 105 mph and many more around the 100 mph mark. The windows are still as perfect as the day they were fitted, as is the uPVC double glazed door.
In our last house in relatively sheltered Kent we had to have wooden windows (wretched area of outstanding beauty!) and they were nothing but trouble, needed painting every couple of years, birds eating the putty and draughty.
So, if I had to do it all over again I would do exactly the same again.

[Annpan]

Different strokes for different folks

[harrisonn]

Hi All

I work for Bereco a timber window company and have a bit of experience in this area, have you considered double glazed units with low 'e' coating (pilkington K) with the anti sun or optifloat tinted as it is now referred to (available in laminted for large screen areas), we use this in our windows where customer have the same requirements as yourselves.