Original 1930s windows are rotten - worth repairing?

[BigFishFace]

A house we may offer on has the original 1930s stained glass windows in the upstairs and downstairs bay windows and at the side of the house. The glass is fine ( no cracks) but the wooden frame seems in poor condition and possibly rotten.

The stained glass is beautiful and it seems a shame to replace with modern double glazing...although I don’t fancy being cold all winter, or the entire window frame falling out!

What are our options here?

There are a few houses round our way which have had the original panes inserted into new double glazed windows - I have no idea how they do it, but it looks great. The originals would be very cold and draughty I think.

Actually i think it might be called 'secondary glazing'

We have the same issue! The leadlight windows look lovely but are cold, and everyone else on our street has replaced them with pvc - so I'm not sure there is value in keeping original features in a 1930s terrace house. Or maybe it will be like the Victorian features that people ripped out in the 60s and in 10 years time buyers will value our old windows (and pebbledash )
You can get the original glass fitted into new frames, which helps with the draught. Because the original glass isn't airtight you can't do proper double glazing though.
The secondary glazing option is installing a totally separate frame behind the original glass - keeps the original look but is a bit more work to clean and open.

I'm still ob the fence and interested to see what others say here!

Oh... I like the secondary glazing idea. Sounds expensive though. One to investigate...

You can either put in new frames and encapsulated the old glass within the double glazed window. The added cost isn’t much roughly £50 a window on top of standard glazing.

Or you can secondary glaze which is about 1k for a bay and £200/£300 for a single window DIY install. Window companies want to charge you about double to install themselves...

But you will still have to refurbish the old windows at some point in the future - about £200/£ 300 per window for full refurbishment if you have sashes or £200 if they’re casements.

So either option work out about the same cost wise if comparing upvc to secondary glazing. The cost savings are only there if you need to replace with metal or wood windows.

Performance wise new good quality glazing should be slightly better than secondary heat wise. But less effective sound reduction wise.

Right, got it. I prefer the sound of encapsulating the original glass. Is there a name for this? What do I search for on google when looking for companies that do this?

Encapsulation is the word.

Most glaziers offer this service, It’s pretty common. If you have detail around the edge of the stained glass You’ll probably lose this . They have to cut the glass into a frame to sit between the two new pieces of glass. You may lose a cm or 2 as upvc windows are generally thicker than old wood or metal units.

a joiner will be able to renovate the windows for you if you want to keep them by repairing/replacing sections of the wooden frames and draughtstripping them. I would do this rather than put in UPVC as original windows make such a big difference to the character of a house. If you want, you can also have slim double glazed timber replacement sashes or casement openers put into the frames and the stained glass encapsulated.

I have renovated original windows in a Victorian property and it was significantly cheaper than getting timber replacements and they look absolutely fantastic.

UPVC would have been cheaper, yes, but the house would have been much less attractive if I'd gone down that route and would have lost value too.

Why can’t you get new wooden windows with the glass put into them? Then you don’t lose anything and you can add a second layer of glass for the double glazing.
It would be dreadful to lose the glass and would devalue the house.

Rotten windows are not continually repairable. They can have rotten bits cut out and new inserted and then another bit goes rotten. If there isn’t much rot, new wood can work for quite a few years though.

Don’t have upvc or similar and spoil the special feature of the house! Keep the glass intact.

All very well to say don't get uPVC but if other houses on the street have it, it's less of an issue and less maintenance. Our old house was a 30s semi and the stained glass was encapsulated in the top panes.