Arrgh - Double Glazed Sealed Units

[Tim S]

Is it impossible to order these online for a sensible price?

I can get an instant quite for new uPVC windows, any size almost any type with ease.

I just want a reasonably priced supplier for DG units to fix some existing frames.

Been round the local glaziers - all coming up with what seem fairly high prices of around 130 quid per square meter for 12mm gap 4+4mm toughened glass, low-e.

Anyone got a web address of a DG sealed unit supplier?

Cheers

Tim

[A.Lee]

That sounds about right to me - plain 'normal' glass units would be a third of the price, toughening and low-e add a lot to the cost.

The last one I bought cost me £26 for a 4mm/4mm plain glass unit of around 1200 x 500mm. Thats roughly £50/metre by a quick reckoning. I know a plain sheet of glass, toughened, is double the price, so your prices do not seem too excessive. Alan.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Think the problem is you want toughened to a custom size. A 'standard' double glazed custom unit is nothing like that cost - and toughened ones made in bulk for uPVC windows should also be much cheaper as replacements.

To explain, toughened glass must be cut to size as ordinary glass then toughened.

Might be cheaper to use laminated - if that is allowed for your application.

[Tim S]

A.Lee coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hi Alan,

Thanks for that - nice to know I'm not being boned ;->

Cheers

Tim

[Tim S]

Dave Plowman (News) coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hi Dave,

It's a good point. I don't have a building regs need for toughened - all the windows are sufficiently high off the floor.

But I do have a small lad and a lot of ground floor windows, so I was considering that something a bit stronger than regular annealed glass would be a good idea, to be more football and pikey resistant (resistant, not unbreakable).

I wouldn't mind laminated, but I didn't know it could be done for 4+12+4mm units?

The scenario is: I have lots of perfectly good ali framed DG windows, but some of the larger panels are misted. If I have to replace those, might as well be low-e (most of the windows are quite large) and I might as well re-do all of the panels in at least the larger bay windows. They're going to get stripped down, removed, the hardwood frames checked and re-treated and refitted, so it's not much extra work. I can even reuse some of the OK panels in a shed/workshop later.

Thoughts would be welcome.

Cheers

Tim

[Pete C ukdiy]

Anyone know of a list or table somewhere on the web that lists the standard sizes?

I read somewhere double glazing may be a little more football proof than expected as the airgap forms a cushion. Maybe put lots of tape on an old one and do some testing? :)

For break ins you want something that breaks into great big shards not safe little bits.

cheers, Pete.

[Dave Liquorice]

Aye and makes a lot of noise doing it. Toughened will almost silently disintegrate if attacked with an automatic center punch...

Not sure if you can get low-e(*) laminated glass, can't think why not the low-e is only a coating on the glass so only the outer pane needs to be of that. The inner can be ordinary glass as you say building regs for toughened don't apply.

It might be worth looking at real figures for low-e v ordinary glass, the energy savings might not be justified against the additional cost. Low-e also has to be installed the right way round, AIUI get it wrong and the units can explode or at least fail in a dramatic manner.

[Tony Bryer]

Laminated is mon 6mm isn't it? IIRC although toughened glass ultimately shatters it takes a much higher impact before this happens as compared to cracking a laminated pane.

[Tim S]

Dave Liquorice coughed up some electrons that declared:

These are all good points of course. For the bays being 1.5m wide x 0.7m deep and about 1.2m high, intuition suggests it's worth at least bothering to do the calculation[1].

But it's nice to have some prices in mind as I go.

[1] I have been working on the assumption that the cavities are insulated. However recent incursions into the upper parts of the wall have not indicated any insulation present. So either there isn't any, or it's slumped. Find that out in due course when I stick some holes in low down, but in that case, I'd put the money to topping up the cavity insulation - I *know* that'll be far more cost efficient.

Cheers

Tim