The acceptable face of UPVC?

[SchnitzelVonKrumm]

Hoping someone has an elegant solution! We are refurbishing a Victorian house on a tight budget. The previous owners replaced the original sash windows with minging aluminium sometime in the 1980s.
We had been hoping to patch them up and replace them when we could (possibly one at a time) but in fact the front bays are in a very poor state and need to be replaced ASAP. Quotes to reinstate the box sashes in hardwood are 15 grand plus VAT which we simply can't afford.
Builder has recommended A rated UPVC but it's just so ugly! Without wanting to sound too pretentious, I feel that if we put in a modern window we should be honest about it rather than going for Ye Olde Plastic Sash Horns. Is there a restrained and elegant solution that will suit the house but not bankrupt us?

I saw an advert the other day for wood-grain effect uPVC. It looked quite good in the ad but then it would. I'd be interested to know what it looks like in RL.

We have Masterframe Heritage upvc woodgrain sash windows after seeing them on 2 other houses. But they could bankrupt you - we had 2 rooms done (7 windows altogether) and are saving for the next 4 windows...

We're going for white wood grain effect. Have seen samples & I like it - not shiney. It's slightly dearer that the White plastic (roughly 10%) but I am NI do things are slightly cheaper here.

No we didn't - we had Masterframe Bygone 'Melody'

www.bygonecollection.co.uk

We saved up for the real deal. Each bay (living room and bedroom), consisting of 3 windows in each cost well over £10k. They do look lovely though.

We had (in our old house) an expensive, wood effect uPVC sash window. We no longer live there, so I could be sniffy, but honestly, it looked fab - even our next door neighbour who is a joiner , and did his own sash windows from scratch, was impressed. Cheaper, easy to maintain, MUCH easier to clean - and honestly, not obvious except to window loons (imvho).

And I speak as someone who has previously done the 'right' thing and had wooden sashes put in at the cost of £3k for two (BIG) windows ( and that was about 15 years ago...)

I've now moved into another house with (wood) sash windows and I like 'em, but I secretly, quietly wish they were less well maintained so I could replace them with upvc

We've got someone coming to quote for Bygone/Masterframe but I've heard it's no cheaper than timber
Was wondering if a flush casement style might work - very clean lines, possibly in a dark colour?

The difference will only be a few hundred £s from my experience. Not a lot if you're looking at a several thousand £ budget.

But the windows we have replaced and the next batch are SW facing on a hill 1 mile from the coast in Cornwall so the maintenance of upvc over wooden (we would need scaffolding to paint upstairs windows exterior) is a no brainer for us.

I can see the virtues of posh UPVC, especially as the original sashes have gone anyway. Depends on the cost I guess. What do the frames look like inside - do they keep/replace the boxes? Our boxes are still there but rotten in parts.

What do you mean by the boxes? Ours isn't a Victorain house.

With ours, the entire window went - frame and sliders - so it went back to the stone wall.

The frames then go in and the sliders fit into the frames if that makes sense? Our guys then added painted matching wooden trim to make it good.

The insides are still in the woodgrain finish.

Would you consider softwood (with a hardwood sill maybe)? We shopped around and went with separate firms for joinery, glazing and fitting, and did the whole (small) house for under 5k.

My current house has upvc (not by me) and it doesn't look too bad, the dividing lines are in the right places which I think makes a big difference.

I've seen sage green upvc which also looks more tasteful than white

apologies if you already know this - but the big thing with UPVC or indeed any glazing is equal sightline, i.e that the the frames of the opening windows are the same thickness of the non-openers. We made very sure that this was done in our previous house. Our current house has UPVC without it and it looks bloody awful, (but not so bad that we want to spend thousands on replacing it with a proper job). Iffy install too but we are gradually sorting that.

I think 'wood-look' UPVC with equal sightlines can in fact look perfectly respectable and in keeping. And sage green is a lovely colour on period properties.

I did not know that, thank you.

Let the UVPC frames get a bit dirty. Looks almost the same with a layer of dust on it... Cheap, effortless and practical!

Having a real problem finding UPVC 'acceptable'... for me it would depend on the value of the house bit like choosing a new kitchen or bathroom ie wouldnt put £20k of windows in a £150k house, but would in say +£400k

but could find capsium's reasoning acceptable!!