Sash Windows - Replace or refurbish

[Leons]

I have a bay window and windows are old and draughty. Has anyone experience with refurbishing sash windows and were happy with results, (so draughtproofing, new sashs etc, new glass). Or would you go for new sash windows? Again if anyone has experience with putting in new sash windows and were happy with result, your advice, recommendations greatly appreciated.

thanks all

draughtproofing worked really with ours. would be hard for us to replace as house is listed but the difference in price was enough to make us stick to draughtproofing!

Oh my next door neighbour has just refurbished their front bay window and it looks fantastic and now mine looks like shit

Also, i don't know how old your property is, but our window guy said that in most cases it is best to keep the originals as it can be very hard to get new to fit the frame after years of movement. Also, the quality used to be very high

having said that, if i could get the new thin double glazing I would go for it!

Refurb. The fact is that a good sash window specialist will charge you an amount for draftproofing, re weighting, re cording etc. that is equal to the cost of putting in a replacement double glazed window but it won't have the soul of a sash window. We paid around £2k to have 5 windows done last year and it was worth every penny. Before that they were draughty, some panes were cracked and several were jammed shut. They looked shit inside and out.

They will always be colder than a double glazed sealed window as the glass is thinner but they are a lot nicer. Just buy thick curtains. Also, if you live in a period property it just seems wrong to rip out the windows and future buyers will want original features.

I agree with all the posters above who recommend refurbishment, unless the frames are totally rotted.

If your property is listed or in a conservation area you need to talk to your council's conservation officer before taking any decisions.

Just to add a third option - you can have the panes themselves taken out and replaced with double-glazed panes in the existing boxes, then rehung/reweighted etc.

We had dry rot in our house and had to do a combination of complete replacement and replacement of just the sashes themselves. Very happy with the result which is quiet, draftproof and much warmer. They also look identical to the originals.

It was slightly more expensive than UPVC-ing the whole house but not massively more, and UPVC may harm the value of your property if people round you want original features.

Oh just to clarify - when I say complete replacement, I mean complete replacement with wooden doubleglazed sashes, but the whole window is new, including new boxes and sills.

Refurbish. We used a company called sliding sash solutions in case you are in the South East. The guy had a real passion for old windows and making them work again.

Refurb. We couldn't afford to double-glaze them all though so have secondary glazing in most which is really unobtrusive and I love it - along with reweighting, re-cording, and putting in draft excluder, it's now cosy.

We replaced some windows last year with double glazed sash and case.
I had several quotes, most of the bigger firms are keen on upvc, which we are not allowed due to being listed building ( Victorian Edinburgh )
But I got got a quote from a firm in the area that had been used by people I know, 4 sash and case double glazed, brass fittings. Quote was just over £4k
( we also got permisiion from planning dept )

They were nearly half the price of one big double glazing firm ( who wanted to use upvc )
They made the windows to order, fitted the 4 in a day, finishing up the next day. Quick and tidy
The windows are lovely, no draughts, we certainly notice a diffrence when its windy and more important I dont have to bring out towels everytime it rains.

www.albaglassandglazing.co.uk/

Refurbish, unless you absolutely can't.

If you're in the NW I know a brilliant company who do it. They even did it for one of the conservation officers I know and he was very pleased with the results - and believe me, we'd have known about if he wasn't.

Please don't put UPVC in. It saddens me how few original windows are left in this country.

We replaced ours in our last house... They hadn't been looked after for decades so were rotten and just looked awful! We paid a lot for sash double glazed ones and they looked amazing afterwards! Agree if they can be repaired look into that as the old ones are gorgeous and can prob be done for less than new.

Not quite the same thing - but we live in a victorian property that had the sash windows taken out and replace with hideous 1970s ones...we eventually had new, wooden sashed put back in - whole house cost £17k...so def not cheap

Thanks for everyones comments. Im in agreement to refurb if possible. I love old features, and want to retain as much history as possible. Even if means I also have to pay for heavy curtains, its worth it. Thanks again