45
PRO INSTALLER OCTOBER 2013
PRO PRODUCTS
@proinstaller1
THE HISTORY AND FUTURE
OF SASH WINDOWS
Alan Burgess, MD at Masterframe Windows Ltd
discusses 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?
“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 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.
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
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