does anyone ever pick wooden windows over upvc?

[stickeywicket]

I know you have to if you're in a conservation area but we're not in a conservation area more 1930s semis and everyone has upvc. Would I be mad to consider putting in wood frame windows and wooden porch? It looks so much nicer.

i've got wooden windows which do indeed look lovely but only because they are fairly new (house is 11 years old) and have been looked after, which is time consuming and expensive.

upvc used to be crap, but there are now some amazing ones if you don't mind paying for them. a friend recently put upvc sash windows in her victorian house and they look fantastic.

i would def get them over wood.

We did on our extension, to match the rest of the house. They are a lot more high maintenance than uPVC. Make sure you get pre-painted ones though, we didn't and it took forever to get all the coats on them.

They are high maintenance but look so much better

I have ripped out the upvc and put wooden ones in purely due to how they look and not regretted it.

Virgil: agree. Notmostpeople:this is what I'd like to do but I wonder why 90 per cent go with upvc. do they know something I don't. I love the look of wooden but maybe the upvc mrsravelstein mentions might look as good as wood? Do you have a link?

We're just replacing our windows with wood ones. Definitely worth the money and extra maintenance for the look they give your property IMO.

Wood is so much nicer. I've turned down several otherwise lovely houses whilst househunting because they had horrid plastic windows.

Wood does look so much nicer but only change to it because you like it. It will split potential buyers, definitely, so don't do it thinking you're adding value if most around you have already changed to wood. In a 30s semi, I wouldn't bother.

I would definitely find wood a plus point if buying. We are currently saving to replace our UPVC with wood.

My house is a vision of uPVC and I dream of ripping it all out and replacing it with wood. Tbh, round here wood rules (painted in tasteful F&B colours, naturally) and my 30s semi is definitely the naffest in the street!

We have wood and wooden have pvc; for a start I think pvc is very un-green iyswim - they were supposed to be banning it I think but the lobby is too strong - I think it's because it can't be recyced.

Also we prefer the look of wood and if you get hard wood (exotic or oak) they should last - we have to endlessly maintain the cheap ones the previous owners put in, but have done nothing for 3 years to the two new teak ones we put in.

I thought teak wasn't very green?

In the end it all depends where you live. If the trend is to reinstate wood, it may be worth saving for. But painting it must be a complete bugger and unpainted wood doesn't look right in a 30s semi surely?

No, but painted wood does. [sighs wistfully]

Yes, agree painted wood is lovely as long as someone else is paining it. For free

Aha, I'm a bit of a convert to UPVC to be honest. Moved from drafty Victorian terrace in conservation area (where we spent ££ on replacement wooden sash windows) to 10 year old house with UPVC. I now love my UPVC for their lack of maintenance & fantastic insulation.

i would never install uPvc. Mainly because they are bad from an environmental view but also because they are unsightly (in my opinion) I wouldn't buy a house with them in unless i had enough savings to replace them.
We've had new wooden windows fitted in our house and they offer exactly the same level of insulation as the uPvc do.
Yes you need to maintain them, and it's time and money consuming but I had Upvc on a previous property and after three years they had become marked and discoloured and there was nothing we could do to restore them, so we had to live with rubbish looking frames.
At least with wooden frames if you sand and re-paint every couple of years they continue to look fresh.

I'd pick wooden over upvc every day of the week!

Me too - upvc is ghastly.

I see new houses built with lovely wooden windows every week (in my job).

I used to be quite sneery about placky windows. I lived in a Georgian Grade II listed house and spent all my time and money maintaining my house. It was a beautiful house but the windows and doors rattled in winter, in spite of having been overhauled by a conservation window specialist. And the house was freezing. Then I grew up. Moved. I now live in a 20s house with placky windows and I am completely converted. They are no longer clunking great chunks of yellowing plastic that look as though they've been stuck on the outside of your house. They are beautifully engineered and they work like a dream.

Lots of windows, of all materials, are shit and wrong-looking. A wrong wood window can look just as hideous as a wrong placky one. But the new plastic ones can look great, really.

Besides, there's nothing green or sensible about having to have your house scaffolded so the wooden windows can be painted.

I love the way the same people who declare plastic windows to be ghastly slavishly buy other reproductions in plastic - a copy of an Eames chair for example. There is nothing wrong with plastic, but there was a lot wrong with what plastic window manufacturers did with it in past decades. Those days are over.

MrsJAlfredPrufrock - what a fabulously sensible post. I have decided to switch allegiance and agree with you

As I said I'm with MrsJAPfrock - having moved from period to UPVC I'm a convert.

Anyone got any links for nice upvc then?

I can understand why people go for upvc, it's a lot cheaper than wood for starters.

But a shockingly high proportion of upvc fails within a few years. They are nowhere near as maintenance free as the manufacturers make out and they discolour! Not to mention the fact that they are environmentally hazardous.

I grew up in a lovely old house where my Dad spent a good proportion of the little free time he had up a ladder maintaining windows. I thought PVC was tacky and hated that we had to spend money replacing windows here for PVC. Would could have got wood but the house isn't period and didn't really warrant it. I too am a convert. I love that it is warm and quiet. It feel safer too and they are strongly built and I suspect are a lot harder to break through.

renegadeconservatoryguy.co.uk/pvc-u-or-timber-sash-windows-can-you-tell-the-difference/

smartypants - that's not true. My windows have been in now for several years. No yellowing at all. No failing of any of the seals or doubel glazed units. It's nonsense.