Clearview North October 2013 - Issue 143 | Page 48

CLEARVIEW EXCLUSIVE

DOORS&WINDOWS

THE HISTORY AND FUTURE
OF SASH WINDOWS
In the previous two issues of Clearview,
Alan Burgess, MD at Masterframe Windows
Ltd has explored the materials used for sash
windows and the change in perceptions of
products since the early days of the 1970’s.
This month, in his final contribution, he
focuses on the history and future of sash
windows…
“I am always saddened with the “casement
mentality” this country seems to promote.
When price is the only factor, products will
be reduced, inferior components replace
quality ones, corners cut to provide MTC, the
minimum technical compliance and nothing
more.
I do understand selling is a tough business
and there’s always been a temptation (amongst
weak sales people) to cut prices. This however
simply creates the criticism that the industry
has been saddled with since it started, a total
disregard for the way cheap windows affect
a buildings appearance. Properties with sash
windows seem to have been affected more

than most, mainly because original frames
could be left in-situ and just the sashes
themselves replaced with inserts.
Conservation officers have not prevented
this carnage but are now slapping Article 4
directives onto properties so that they get to
say what and how replacement windows will
look. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure casement
windows are made to current standards and
perfectly good windows, it’s just they change
the appearance so dramatically that the end
result is abysmal.
Unfortunately this cost element has entered
the replacement sash window market.
Only last week, I walked the streets of
Westminster where a housing association (and
the window contractor) are being pursued
by the local council for installing PVCu sash
windows without planning permission. As
flats and rented accommodation, the housing
association should have had planning approval
but didn’t bother. Instead they instructed
a window company to install PVCu sash
windows.
Shiny white plastic, Georgian bars inside the
units, face drainage and missing drainage caps,
unnecessary trickle vents, ugly plant on horns
and no appreciation for profile depths mean
the streets are littered with poor examples of
double glazed sash windows, each one a real
eyesore.
Whilst the planners probably don’t know just
how authentic PVCu sash windows can be,
their immediate reaction is to ban PVCu and
take retrospective action, against those guilty
of breaching the planning laws!”
So what does the future hold
for replacement sash windows?

A good example of the bad

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OCT 2013

“Well despite the frightening scenario above,
the opportunities for sash windows have never
been greater! PVCu seems to have turned a
“credibility corner”, its recycling attributes
have improved its life span and its acceptance
will be assured if the industry designs and
manufactures products that are sympathetic to
the originals and the buildings in question.
This means specifying wood foiled finishes,
plant on bars, run through horns, deep
bottom rails and slim transoms, with tradition
jointing methods that provide authentic
detailing. Yes, these all add costs onto the
finished project, but the planners then accept

Good sash windows go unnoticed… The
property on the right is a PVC sash.

them as ideal solutions, the home owner gets
plastic windows they won’t have to paint ever
again, and the property value is maintained
not diminished.
With an estimated 44 million timber box
sash windows installed and the vast majority
being replaced with inappropriate casement or
tilt turn designs or poor quality vertical sliders,
the opportunity for this market remains huge,
either for first generation replacements or
replacing these earlier installations. And with
sash window installation figures of circa 400k
pa, we are still replacing less than 1% per
annum.

‘Welcomed for its
green credentials’
Timber has a “natural advantage”. The
material is welcomed for its green credentials
but exterior coatings can have issues.
Aluminium has strength, slender sight lines
and coloured finishes on its side and is ideal
for commercial buildings, but lacks the
chunkiness of timber sections. PVCu, as
I’ve said, has found new favour, is generally
identical in size to its timber counterparts
and good examples can deceive even the most
critical eye.
Other materials will no doubt provide
competition for these established materials,
especially wood composites, pre reinforced
PVC systems and GRP or fibre glass, but one
thing is for certain, these new materials all
bring extra costs but given the right education,
the sash window market not only appreciate
good design but are willing to pay for it too.”

To read more, visit www.clearview-uk.com