This post is in reply to all preceeding posters WRT my suggestions.
I'm not getting into a willy-waving competition with you over this - the OP asked whether £700 to repair a window was too much and I told him he could get replacement ones for that...regardless of what anyone thinks about uPVC, the *question* was 'is this worth the money?' - the answer is obviously 'no' if new ones can be fitted for the same or less, I specifically mentioned uPVC ones because the cost of wooden ones would be prohibitive.
And FWIW, I'm working on a house which has just had 4 uPVC frames fitted, 3 of them in an upstairs bay and looking from outside they are virtually identical to the timber ones below.
As others have indicated, the figures look a bit silly, esp. the painting one.
But I'm not surprised for a big nationally advertising company. I would suggest looking for a local joiner experienced in this sort of thing to either do the whole job, or to do the repairs and the get a local decorator to do the painting.
You don't mention if it's listed, so it probably isn't, but when I talked to ours about repairs to our conservatory the local conservation section of the LA provided me with a list of companies experienced with working on old building etc. Maybe you could ring yours and ask.
Why should I prove it? - I don't need to prove it and in any case they are obviously not going to look the same from inside because they are plastic and you are closer to them, hence my phrase, 'from outside' - the idea is to create the 'look' of sash windows and they do this perfectly IMV. And what do you mean, you bet I don't spend time looking out of the window? - it's probably because I'm at work all day.
New double glazed wooden sash windows with weights, ropes and locks? - highly unlikely considering 'standard' windows are dearer in timber than plastic nowadays.
It was a pun but I didn't expect you to understand it - and I wasn't disappointed.
The frames look fine, they are neither revolting, ugly or a mess, they look like sash windows, which is good because that's what they are....you seem to be having a bit of trouble believing that I've even seen any so I'll take the photos, and this time tomorrow will upload them to tinypic and you can make your own mind up, but given that you've already made your mind up, is it worth bothering?
I've seen them close up and from outside they look much the same as wooden sash windows. From inside they look like plastic sash windows, but the only reason anyone would want pvc sash windows in the first place would (usually) to keep some sort of a match to the surrounding houses or remaining windows, this only really matters looking from outside....I've no idea what you mean by 'fat'
I agree that in many contexts they are acceptable looking from the outside. For our application, on the back wall of the dormer extension, on the 2nd floor (i.e. top of three), the external appearance would have be acceptable and we did not reject them for this reason. I'm not sure that this would have been the case for our ground floor bay, which is only 2 metres from the road.
Perhaps they like the elegance that they bring to a room setting. It is largely this reason that we paid so much more to have 2 decent wooden sashes in our loft conversion (which will be the master bedroom), rather than the cheap larger uPVC casement that is normally specified. The uPVC sashes, although an improvement on the casements, still look manky close up. You can see where the individual profiles join, and it looks like it will be a mould trap in the future. In our room, we want the windows to be a feature. It would have been very difficult to merge in the plastic window and any wooden architrave.
I mean, the sashes themselves are very deep. The entire assembly, which was advertised as being as shallow as they could be made was a full 2cm thicker than the wall it was to be installed into, which would have presented great difficulties in installation. There was no prospect of jutting out on the external side, as reclaimed slate was being used to overlap the boxes. On the inside, it would have involved the window frame jutting into the room by
Thanks for your replies, well the on topic ones anyway :) I have taken your advice and a local joiner is coming in at waaaay under the prices I had to begin with. So I may get him to look at my oak flooring as well. :) In case its relevant the building is listed, so I have to be a bit careful with the exterior.
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