Advice please - do I change wooden sash Windows for plastic in the bathroom?

[Bleats]

Hello

I am a bit stuck and need to make a decision. We have a very lovely sash window in our bathroom right next to where the bath will be. Annoyingly the sash does get condensation. We have had the sash repaired by window people before now to stop drafts etc which has helped somewhat.

We are refurbishing the bathroom and this is our chance to replace it with a warmer sash plastic window. We will also be getting a extractor fan (that we currently do not have) and splashing out on underfloor heating.

My concern is on the aesthetic - wood will probably look best against warmth where plastic will win out. I also have a feeling that taking out a wooden window to replace it with plastic is ultimately a negative for the house which so far we have refurbished to its original Victorian glory.

What would you advise / do?

Thanks in advance

[HarrietSchulenberg]

Plastic windows will still get condensation, as will the rest of your room. In fact every wall in my house has mold on it since replacing our (admittedly decrepit) wooden sashes with UPVC.

[Bleats]

Ooh I didn't know that, hmm if they don't keep the place warmer / out the condensation then that is a real prob for me. Do I just need to get over that?

[WordGetsAround]

There's a french doors vs bifolds thread around at t minute - a couple of posts down says some top quality UPVC sash windows her friend has looks exactly like wood. Might be worth looking into so you get t best of both worlds. UPVC of course can also have condensation but wooden frames will always need maintaining.

[Toomuchtea]

There is something called acoya which is a high performance wood for "challenging situations" which might be the solution. I have no idea how much it costs (I'm guessing a lot). We are waiting for a local carpenter to come round and give us an estimate for acoya windows on our top floor, which is a scaffolding job to decorate.

Here's a link to the acoya website.

[dotty2]

Re the condensation, we have timber windows and have recently bought a Karcher Window Vac, which is a thing of wonder and deals with condensation in seconds.

[bilbodog]

I wouldn't replace wood with upvc. You could put some easily removable secondary glazing on it which you could just use in the winter months only? Why not leave it until you have the under floor heating installed to see if you feel the room is warm enough first?

[Bleats]

Thanks all for your ideas, and sorry for the slow reply. Just as bilbodog suggests we have stuck with the wood and we are going to see how warm it is. Ultimately nothing stops us from changing it at a later date, bar that it would be a little lot messy.