Hi. we have recently bought a 30 year old house which has its original dark wooden double glazed windows. They do not have locks on them, several of the handles are very difficult to operate, and in many places the wood is in need of repair - but we are assured it can be sorted. One small unit is blown so will need replacing. We have been looking into having the outsides repaired and repainted - white, because they make the house look so dark and dingy at the moment, and I will do the insides.
We obviously need to sort locks too. I have bought some swing locks for upstairs operated by a sort of allen key key, and am looking for something with a proper key for downstairs (any advice on that gratefully received) which will be more expensive.
But - I wonder whether with windows of that age it would just be better to just get them replaced rather than going to the time and effort and expense of sorting them? Or should I be expecting many more years out of them? I presume that modern double glazing will be more efficient? I keep going round in circles on this and would really value some other (more knowledgeable) opinions. I don't want to be wasteful of the units but don't want to spend loads of time and money on them if replacing them would be more sensible.
Many thanks for any advice/opinions.