They are for traditional sliding sash wooden windows, which usually cost several times that of standard casement (hinged) windows. I don't doubt, though, that if you could get them in the US, they would be cheaper. Most things are.
Christian.
You are also posting from Google Groups. I can tell!
I wouldn't bother with DG or low emission glass the benefits are very marginal to negative in cost terms. And spoil the look of the windows - you can't make a trad sash window with DG basically. You can buy 3mm 'dutch light' horticultural glass which is cheap and also looks like old glass - and you might not have to change the weights. If you are replacing existing old windows you can pass it off as repair if you are making a fair attempt at conservation. 4k sounds cheap - does he know what he's doing? Can he point you to some similar earlier work he's done?
cheers
Jacob
Yes, but that does require you to break the law, given that double glazing and low emissivity glass are (with some loopholes) a legal requirement.
I disagree. I have seen plenty of new double glazed sashes, including my own pine ones and my parent's hardwood ones. The sash frames are no thicker than the originals in the house. They look very nice. I would specify them as double glazed, even if single glazing was legal. In fact, when my parents installed theirs, single glazing was, indeed, legal.
Not if you are replacing the boxes at the same time. There is no conceivable method of replacing the frames and sashes at different times in order to get the repair loophole invoked. Basically, you would have to just simply flout the law to install them and take the consequences in the unlikely event of discovery.
Christian.
If there's a "loophole", it's not "breaking the law".
If you repair the box frame, it's just a repair, not a replacement.
Why?
Indeed. My understanding is that no such box exists, and therefore, we are not able to use this loophole.
Christian.
Because fitting the boxes would mean you couldn't fit the uPVC casements and you couldn't fit the wooden sashes to the uPVC frame. Hence, you have to replace both the boxes and the sashes at the same time, so it can't be a repair.
Christian.
Christian is correct - the boxes have to be replaced too, there is no way that this could be construed as repair.
Just to clarify, DG without the low-emmissivity/Pilkington K bits is legal? Is low-e a requirement?
You don't have to be too timid. It's like the perpetual brush - head replaced 3 times and handle twice. You set off just to repair and find that in the process guess what you have replaced every bit of it! Anyway you just do the job and don't tell the BCO or anybody. Sod em!
cheers Jacob
That's not what my council says. Replace the part that meets the masonry and you're into the Fensa nonsense. I wonder if the OP is having those spiral balance contraptions. I imagine the weights would have to be massive, and probably downright dangerous if a rope broke. There are just so many silly rules now that in reality no one will take any more notice than they do about the law saying you can't drive with a mobile in your hand. Considering the penalties (and the modest cost of hands free) people obviously like living dangerously.
Yes.
(As always with various loopholes which usually don't apply).
Christian.
I hope not! Although at least I wouldn't have had the problem recently when the muppet builder decided to attach the architrave to the boxes using nails!
Nah. They're just fine. Mine are all weighted. No problems at all. A double glazed sash is much less than twice the weight of a single glazed one. There's less wood for a start and the glass panes themselves often thinner.
Christian.
That does sound like nonsense... pen-pushers and job security? Jumped up jobsworths?
Spiral balances don't use weights.
There are lots and lots of silly rules. Perhaps we should be more like the Europeans, even if our jack-booted officials aren't.
Possibly not, anyway. It depends to an extent on the state of the rest of the house.
Maybe.
Were they plastic ones (boxes, not nails!)?
No. Pine.
Worse thing is that they did it just before a storm, with the window in the open position. I had to wrench off the beading and remove the sash cord (with no slack available to help) to get the window shut in a howling gale!
Christian.
Architrave is normally nailed on, the builder must have been pretty daft. Do you mean he nailed on the staff bead? That is often nailed, sometimes it looks OK with screws and screw cups.
And for those of us whose first language is English?
No, he nailed the decorative architrave onto the box, with long nails going right into the weight cavity. The bead is "interference" fit at present (i.e. not screwed/nailed at all).
Christian.
I meant the weights if he didn't have spiral balances
He could use chains, which are better for heavy weights.
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