UPVC Double Glazing - any recommendations or warnings?

Few days back I replaced my all the steel windows and doors with the timber windows and doors.

What I learned, seeing as this has been revived was:
Get at least 3 quotes.
Try to track the company via Companies House. It costs pennies. Are they trading under various names and who will you actually be forming a contract with?
We ended up going to the local company that had their showroom and were in control of their own manufacture. They had lots of testimonials from customers. And they were not the cheapest. But the workmen were fantastic and the difference in warmth compared to the wooden double glazed french windows was amazing.

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Last summer we ordered double glazing windows from Southampton company, the quality is great and prices - fair. To look full range of their services & prices visit website

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For anyone living in the area - we had all our windows done about 7 years ago by Thames Valley Windows. Reasonably priced and very quick and efficient installation. A couple of years ago we got them to replace the cladding on our porch and put up new gutters and fascia boards and again we were very happy with what they did. In the early 70's we did have a VERY brief spell selling double glazing so we had been pretty sceptical to start with, but we were pleasantly surprised.

Check them out. Some firms have been going since Ted Moult, and look like being here for a while. Whatever, ensure they are members of the Glass and Glazing federation,British plastics federation,Federation of master builders,Consumer protection association,Guild of master craftsmen,European builders federation, or as many of the above as possible.That the quality standard is BS570 and that they have public liability insurance. A certificate should be issued after completion,ie FENSA,CERTASS or British Standards Institution,to show that the work complies with the regulations.
Ask will they achieve a "u" value below2.0W/m2K, (the lower the "u" the better,Low"E" (glass, like Pilkington"K") a between glass gap size of 20mm. Are all seams fully welded? Will guarantees be in writing? ie glass type, making good soffits etc? Will they have equal site lines,gasket colours ,locks.
All uPVC frames are,not as mentioned, the same, the cross sectional areas vary some have more metal, and are stronger,and are better at supporting a wide window gap.
what are the guarantees Are you insurance backed,,how long are the units guaranteed for?( nothing worse than misted up units). You may well not get all the above, but many are essential and are a must.See if you have any local work that has been carried out by the firm you are considering.
Hope this is of some help.
ps, How long will it take?

Number please,They might be the same thing in builder talk.

The wooden surrounds are, I think, the fascia which Safestyle want me to replace with PVC but I have told them when to go. Soffits are the horizontal bit under the overhang of the eaves. Sometimes in the past they were made of asbestos.

Fascias even!

Shows how thick I am, we`ve always called those the facia boards, so what are the facias then? Can`t you tell how little work we`ve had done on our house, lol!!

Soffits are the overhang from the roof.Usually wooden.Here we usually have rain gutters on them.

Snap, Flicketyb

Soffits are those vertical wooden planks at the eaves of the roof.

enviousamerican Originally all glass was made was made by blowing a big bubble and then flattening it. The end bit was impossible to flatten completely.

Then the technique of making plate glass and rolling it out without blowing was invented, and shop window panes could be larger and cheaper. The bull's eyes became old-fashioned and "olde-worldy" and it is now mostly found either in genuinely old buildings or in ones want to give the impression of age, ot make a decorative statement.

Here is a link - Architectural glass

Please excuse my ignorance, but what the heck are soffits?

Thanks Flick .

Got it .

My georgian house has not got that , mind you some of the panes are original and looking extremely thin.

EV, it goes back to a time when it was not possible to make flat glass. Glass was blown and then cut and flattened in small sheets while still warm and pliable. When glass is blown there is a circular area at the end of the blown glass that is thicker and less clear than the other glass (think of the end of a balloon opposite the bit you blow in to). This was a waste product that people who couldn't afford decent glass put in their windows, or sometimes would reduce the price of glazing by using a mix of flat glass and 'bullseyes', as they were called.

Because of its cheapness it was usually used in cottages and small houses. In the first half of the 19th century there was a nostalgia among the urban upper and middle classes for some mythical country idyll they wanted to return to, cottages with thatched roofs and tiny windows and, of course, those bullseye windows. The majority of those suffering from this nostalgia couldn't afford a second home in the country but speculative builders, particularly in the 1930s, responded to it by incorporating cottage features into their new designs, timber framed semis, with a bit of bullseye glass installed into a window here and there.

What is bull nose glass ?

Please excuse me for going off topic.It seems to be becoming a problem with me but I'm so full of questions.I was wondering about the bull nose glass I see in your homes.Its is just a decorative and privacy thing or is it a artisan thing? It's not something you see here but I like them.Is it usually just on pane in a window? Or door?

I used Safestyle as well and the door and windows are excellent. A good price too, but I have had to tell them (or their associated company) very forcefully to stop ringing me up to ask me if I want new soffits. My house doesn't even have soffits, as I have told them dozens of times.

In France our window installer gave us a detailed item by item cost for every window we had installed.

He started with the cost of a fixed window, based on size of the window, then everything else we wanted was added on; cost of hinges and catches, internal window bars, obscured glass etc etc. When the survey and specification was complete we had an itemised price for each window and a total for the whole. All done from a price list and non negotiable.

After 5 years we have no problems and no complaints.

I think you can only go by local recommendations.
Oddly enough my parents used a smaller local company and they gave a 10 year guarantee.
The company got took over 3 times during the 10 years but in all fairness they did tell us who to contact in the event of a problem.
About 3 months before the guarantee ended Anglian took the company over so a small company went to a big national company.

Frank

I had all of the doors and windows replaced when I moved into this house in 1996. I vowed never again to have to bargain to get the price dropped, starting at eg £10,000 and they could do it for eg £6,000 but I would have to sign up that day. They went out of business shortly after but restarted again with just a minimal name change. I would not touch them with a barge pole. I went locally last year to get one window replaced and it was a very reasonable price, they did not accept negotiations, I agreed the price and the work was excellent. They were recommended by a friend. I think that small and local is best.

I used them too, feetlebaum. I thought I was using a local firm, but although it was a local phone number, it turned out to be SafeStyle. I got a lovely new door and then they kept phoning me. I agreed to talk to them about windows and when I expressed reservations they continually lowered the price; I ended up with half the price they started with and wished I had played harder to get for the door too. I continued to get phone calls for ages but they seem to have realised that I really do not want any more home improvements.

I recently had a window replaced by SafeStyle UK - an excellent job, carried out quickly and cleanly. I'm very satisfied.