Replacing rotten windows - Upvc?

[noarguments]

House was renovated and extended 10 years ago, and new windows put in with rubbish wood - its all rotting, and paint does not last, its poorly fitting and insulating. Do we replace with better quality wood and a decent paint job? Its a village location, house not ultra modern, but not hugely cottagey. I much prefer the look of wooden windows. However they need a lot of maintenance.

Or do we replace with UPVC - I’m a bit of a snob about plastic windows, but are there any that actually look nice and stay looking nice? I’d probably go for cream - how do a I find a high spec UPVC - how do I know what to look for? How long do they last?
We have a LOT of windows - how would replacing with UPVC compare financially with replacing with decent wood, painting and then ongoing paint jobs.
So many questions - I don’t know where to go for unbiased advice from someone who doesn’t want to sell me something.

Any help much appreciated.

We moved into our current house 9 years ago and we hadn't noticed the wooden windows were rotting in places. House built 2000. We had them painted first year we were here costing £700 - 19 windows in total and the job took two weeks by a professional painter due to weather conditions. 3 years later they all needed painting again. We decided to go for upvc and replace them all as maintenance of wooden windows so expensive. Pleased with what we have now they are cream outside, white inside and it took some searching for the exact cream we wanted but so much better than wood, less noise inside and warmer also easier to clean plastic on the inside as we had dark wood inside and cream outside before. Flush slash is the style.

We got a 60k quote for wooden windows 😱 so ended up getting timberlook windows - we have the colour inside and out. Really pleased with them…

I have steel framed windows as many do around our village. They look nice against the stone. Some have wooden frames around but none rotted as yet - put in about 15 years ago. I had to replace my wooden door with a steel and glass door as it rotted straight through despite being hard wood 🤨

Oh no, I’m counting the (many, many) days until I can afford to replace my pvc windows with wood, but these stories of painting and rotting are worrying me. My last house had original sashes which we paid to get refurbished, but overall they were in good nick. I hope I look that good when I’m 105 years old
We also paid to put in new casement windows in the back, European redwood (pine, basically). They looked great after ten years, no maintenance.

We are in a similar place. Have just bought a 1850s extended terrace. Intially thought wooden double glazing windows were fine, on closer inspection - they all need repair, they were badly fitted, poor quality and not up to modern standards. In short spending time and money repairing and painting it would trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!😁

So we have decided to replace all the windows and doors - none original and all letting in massive drafts. Loft is getting another layer of insulation too.
Don't know how far to go with it, does having solid stone walls mean that getting a very low u value in the windows is a bit pointless with the walls having a higher u value. Is it worth spending the extra? We'll have to go for (fake) sash at the front at least. I think some PVC windows look good, aluminum looks better but more expensive and don't know if they do sash - no way will we consider wood, the maintenance and the initial cost is too off-putting. Although I would consider a wood front door, we are more likely to go for composite for both the front door and the french door at the back.

Look up IdealCombi

Just bought them for an extension. They are recommended by architects and really beautiful. Powder coated aluminium: the classic colour is anthracite but there are lots to choose from. The inside is timber in whatever colour you choose.

Much much nicer than upvc. No upselling and the sales department are lovely. Which is not the norm 😀 for window sales as they are so lucrative.

10 large windows, 2 french doors, a massive sliding door and a stunning front door came to 23k. Reasonable I think

Don’t do upvc

We have Georgian-style sash windows (lots of little panes) in a 60s house. They were an absolute bugger to paint and needed doing too often, inside and out, which either took ages to do,properly, or else cost a fortune if we got anyone else to do it.

So most have been replaced with ‘original’ style UPVC - features and brass fittings resembling the traditional, and a ‘woodgrain’ type of UPVC. Until you get up really close you honestly can’t tell the difference.

They were from a co. called Bygone Windows - don’t know whether they’re still going but I’m sure there will be similar if not. Obviously rather more expensive than bog standard UPVC but well worth it, to us, anyway.
They also have very good security features (can easily be locked either closed completely or open a few inches) and can tilt inwards for cleaning the outside - not that I’ve ever done that.

And is it best to choose the windows and then choose the installer separately?

Just looked up bygone, look lovely but they seem rather shy on divulging their u-values.