To find replacing Victorian stained glass windows with PVC double glazing a terrible shame?

[Nancery]

Near me is a house with beautiful leaded and stained glass windows. In perfect condition (the previous owners used them as a major selling point.)

These windows are now smashed and in a skip and a plastic double glazed ones are being put in their place. I asked if I could have the remaining two when they took them out but was told no as 'they could end up on EBay.' (I wasn't planning on this at all, I just didn't want them broken and discarded like the others.)

AIBU to think this is such a shame?

I think it's appalling. I loathe UPvC windows. I'm gradually trying to replace the horrible plastic windows in my house with wooden sash windows.

YANBU.

I can't say that I blame them too much for replacing them, double glazed would be far warmer in cold weather.

It's a real shame they were broken up though, surely they could have removed them intact? Put them on eBay themselves if they were so bothered...

YANBU. Your new neighbours sound charming btw. They also have no taste.

My neighbours are always telling me how dreadful it is that the people I bought my house from ripped out the lovely white double glazing and replaced it with wooden framed windows. Some people have no heart.

I think I'd cry if I were you

They are renting the house out when it's done is maybe that's why, might make it more rentable?

Bloody awful things though (windows, not the neighbours.)

It's ridiculous, but I find it almost upsetting. Something with such history, and beautiful, chucked out and replaced with plastic crap!

Yabu in one way..., modern day living requires warmth/security etc. it's not Victorian times any more, we have moved on

They wbu throwing them in a skip causing them to break tho. No need

That makes me really sad. If I had the guts to be an interfering busy-body I would probably investigate whether the building was listed and, if there were time to save the last two, contact the local planning agency (I assume they'd have authority r.e. listed buildings?) and see if they could intervene. Of course, that would not endear you to your neighbours...

PVC windows are mass-produced by machines. Those windows were almost certainly painted by hand and completely unique.

It is a shame but I can understand why they felt the need to do it as heating is so expensive!

But what I don't understand is why:

1. they couldn't secondary glaze them - we have a 1930 house with art-deco stained glass in the front door and on the landing - the previous owners had the landing glass incorporated into double-glazed units so it's now totally stable and insulated.

1. Got them taken out by a reputable reclamation company who would have paid for them!

It makes me sad too. I have beautiful 1930s leaded lights and I am going to have to replace them with double glazing. If they can't be encapsulated at a reasonable cost, I'm going to have the pattern replicated and keep the originals for posterity.

secondary glazing is NOWHERE near as good as primary double glazing for one.
and they didn't want the maintainence, i hate painting windows so love my souless pvc windows.
but they are criminal for not preserving them.

Agree re secondary glazing; we did that with the sash windows in our old house and it worked brilliantly

I rescued one of my neighbour's ones last summer and freecycled the rest for them so at least they weren't destroyed. I need to take a stained glass course in order to make a new glazed panel for the original door (which the previous owners removed and thankfully stored in the garage!)

Your neighbours sound like utter vandals. And a bit thick, if they're just thinking of dumping the original stained glass windows rather than selling them on.

I didn't know you could secondary glaze stained glass. That's very interesting.

I do agree though with people saying they can understand why people want to modernise their windows. SIL has wooden sash windows which are historic in her listed building. All very nice, but you can feel the cold air whistling through them, and in the intervening years, a rowdy pub has opened across the, now traffic-heavy road, so you can hear EVERYTHING all night long.

Secondary glazing would probably sort they out Iffy, and it's not too expensive either

I shall tell her next time I see her, thank you. She's got two small children, and she's irritated that she can keep the house neither warm or quiet at night without some difficulty.

I hate UPVC windows. We're currently looking to buy a house and any one we see with UPVC windows has to be cheap enough that we have money left over to replace them all with wooden sash ones.

The most unreasonable thing is their reply to you! How mad is that? Go and get them out of the skip. Let them report you, the twerps.

There's a road near me of beautiful period terraces, all with stained glass windows and matching front doors/fanlights except for one upvc monstrosity bang in the middle. It spoils the look of the whole road and THAT would annoy me.

Not sure if this is the same situation or whether the house you're talking about doesn't impact on any other houses aesthetically? If not then they're not being unreasonable as they can expect to heat/secure their own house as they see fit maybe they should have bought another house though Personally, I'd rather freeze and have the original windows so YANBU to think it's a shame.

Yabu! I can't bear upvc windows, especially on older properties they are ugly, soulless things. I always tell salespeople that I hate them and they look at me like I'm crazy.

I mean yanbu, obviously!

This looks similar to what was done to ours.

I don't understand the "could end up on ebay" remark. Why would they care?

I'm wondering when applying for LL insurance if this was a requirement?

Not the whole replacement, but it was the cheapest option.

If they have bought on a buy-to-let, they aren't going to be bothered by keeping the house in it's original state, they have bought to make money.

My SIL bought a listed cottage, to let out temporarily, she had to make many adjustments to get insurance, but spent out, because the plan was for it to be her home, which it is now.

Her shit of a husband tried to remove the stone carved fire surround (to sell behind her back, now ex), he broke it in the process.

She found out that these had been carved by someone very famous, commissioned as part of Lord Derbys estate, given by Henry 8th and would be worth more than the cottage.

Some people have no appreciation of craftsmenship or history.

Film companies will pay to use original houses, even just the outside.

We have a beautiful front door, with 5 stained glass windows around th edges. I have resisted replacing, because it's one of my favourite features of the house, but it really, really needs fixing. We need to replace the door as it's warped. It's very draughty, and I've patched one with with sticky tape!

I hadn't heard of encapsulating before, but I think it might just be the answer I'm looking for. So in a way, those poor lost windows have helped save ours.