Clearview South September 2013 - Issue 142 | Page 32
industrynews
THE BEST MATERIAL FOR SASH WINDOWS
Last month Alan Burgess, MD at Masterframe Windows Ltd, wrote how expectations of conservation officers had changed since the early days of UPVC in the 1970’s. This month he explores materials in a little more detail as they relate to sash windows and the progress the industry has made towards protecting our heritage assets…
“Wood has been used to make sash windows for centuries. Solid oak timbers for ship building and house construction have endured for years, however being a natural product, the wood itself slowly decays so paint, varnish or oils are used to slow this process. Ultra slender bars from the Georgian period cannot be replicated in anything other than timber. Today, because well-seasoned timbers are expensive and hard to come by, engineered timbers or laminated wood is very popular. As the name suggests, the profile is made up from a mixture of woods, the expensive timbers used on the external surfaces and cheaper infills are used in the centre. Whilst these wooden windows normally required site glazing with putty or beads, priming and then painting, mass production of metal framed windows meant they soon became popular during the early part of the last century. Steel windows via family companies like Crittalls from Braintree and Hopes from Smethwick, dominated the window production through the inter war years, each making millions of standard metal windows (SMW’s) for social house building projects, factories and public buildings. Galvanising was an optional extra as was weather stripping right up to the early 1970’s. Whilst Crittall used aluminium for sash windows they also dabbled a little with Trocal and Mipolam fo ? H??[Y\??X[ ?X?????\?[Y[? ?[????] ?\?[??X[?[?]?\?\? ?? ?\?H HX\? HY? \???[ [Z[?][H?? H?Y\?X? ?X?????Y ?[?\?[ [Z[?][H ?X?[?? ?\?HYX[?? ?X??\?H?^?[??
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