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Original poster

Windows. UPVC or wood?

193 replies

Swedes · 18/03/2008 10:59

Our windows are all currently UPVC - which I don't really like. Our rear windows need replacing and I want to change to wood. I know UPVC is maintenance free. What would you do?

OP posts:
Original poster
Swedes · 19/03/2008 14:41

Iota - How does your uPVC look?

OP posts:
Iota · 19/03/2008 14:44

still white actually

my house is only 12 yrs old and many others on the estate have replaced their windows as well.

The wooden ones were awful -we kept having to get panes replaced as the seals went and condensation formed in them. Loads of other houses had this problem as well.

Iota · 19/03/2008 14:45

we kept teh wooden front door though - I don't like uPVC doors

Original poster
Swedes · 19/03/2008 14:49

Yes, we don't plan to change any of our doors - they are all thick painted timber. Although I might be tempted by a uPVC white one with a porthole window depicting a yacht in fake leaded glass. Just to appease Onebat.

OP posts:
Iota · 19/03/2008 14:51

anyway paint is made from oil and that's running out, so you soon won't be able to paint them every 2 years anyway

Anna8888 · 19/03/2008 14:52

We have brand new (three years old) wooden windows. They require NO maintenance apart from washing off black Parisian soot every six months or so (and I pay the window cleaner to do this).

My parents have UPVC and stuff seems to stick to them much more than to my wooden ones.

chocolatemummy · 19/03/2008 14:53

lmao, exactly, we have a lovely rose and leading on our white UPVC front door!
Its going...... in three weeks!!!!
wooden windows are a pain to maintain, its a difficult decision but we put them in our last house nad it made such a difference, so much quieter and warmer and you can lock them and just wipe them down

Original poster
Swedes · 19/03/2008 14:57

Anna - they will presumably need painting at some point - probably very soon?

OP posts:
hotcrossMonkeybun · 19/03/2008 14:57

UPVC front doors too? Argh!

Have I mentioned this before?

Read my blog

Original poster
Swedes · 19/03/2008 14:58

chocolatemummy - well roses are different, a design classic not like those nasty yacht monstrosities

OP posts:
chocolatemummy · 19/03/2008 14:59

a yacht is a bit much I agree.
well are you any closer to deciding?

Anna8888 · 19/03/2008 14:59

Swedes - nope, they are like new still.

Do you want me to ask the management company what the brand is?

Original poster
Swedes · 19/03/2008 15:04

Which way do your windows face Anna?

OP posts:
Quattrocento · 19/03/2008 15:05

Swedes

You need support, not ridicule.

You know UPVC looks vile.

You prefer wood slate and stone to fake plastic anything. You're a gal of taste and discrimination.

Just imagine sitting in your living room in an idle moment (I know there aren't many) and looking at your yellowing UPVC and thinking "If only I hadn't been so cheap".

The cost of UPVC is much much higher than its mere monetary cost. It's not just about environmental degradation. It's what it does to your taste and discernment.

Anna8888 · 19/03/2008 15:05

North East and West

mellowma · 19/03/2008 15:12

Message withdrawn

chocolatemummy · 19/03/2008 15:13

I am not saying naymore, I havent got a period house its 1930's and just want to e warm and secure and have just ordered £4,500 of windows we were wondering whether to have light oak UPVC as house opposite has and it looks nice on these bays but have til end of week to decide

Original poster
Swedes · 19/03/2008 15:25

chocolatemummy - thanks for your advice. Good luck with your new windows.

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onebatmother · 19/03/2008 15:28

it's not just the material, it's the hideously clunky proportions though swedes (can you tell this is from the heart - no jokes). They're so thick, for a start, and then the bit that opens is always of a different guage than the non-opening bit. They're just so ugly and mediocre and ...everything that is shit about B ritain.

onebatmother · 19/03/2008 15:29

well not everything obv - not child poverty etc. Might have been a leetle over-emphatic, there.

Joash · 19/03/2008 15:45

WOOD!!!

chocolatemummy · 19/03/2008 16:05

swede, I think you know you want wood really, and it will obviously fit your house better, if you dont mind a bit of maintenance then go for it. ANd if you are not planning on moving for a while then have the windows you really want

Original poster
Swedes · 19/03/2008 17:17

I've got 4 children and the commodity I'm most short of is time. It's really nothing to do with the money - although I can think of lots of things I'd rather do with the £10,000 saving. But I want the work on the house done and finished by the time the weather changes so we can all get out in the garden and enjoy family life. I don't want a summer with scaffolding and workment crawling all over the house, inside and out. I want to be out in the garden with a large glass of NZ sauvignon and lots of lovely food on the table and happy children dashing about playing cricket. I'm 44 - too old to worry about the guauge of glazing bars!
Clunky shmunky.

OP posts:
pointedegg · 19/03/2008 18:14

Talk money. What's the cost, you aesthetes.

hairtwiddler · 19/03/2008 18:20

Ok, so I'm going to confess (although wondering why I feel a sudden shame and need to justify myself on mn ... we just got UPVC done in half of our house, and our front door (coloured wood grain UPVC). We live in a 1930s semi, most of the rest of the street have it, and half of our house was already UPVC. The bit that was already done was two huge bays. It just didn't make sense to have the whole place done in wood. Plus we would have been absolutely crippled by the cost.
If I'd bought an older house and windows needed updating, I would have gone with wood.
As it is, here in the NE, I think it would not deter buyers. Quite the opposite in fact.