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Property/DIY

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Original poster

Plastic or Wooden window frames?

22 replies

SuperBunny · 22/07/2009 23:37

House is about 15 years old. The ones on my side of the estate have wood but the other houses have plastic.

I like my wooden frames but they need painting and my dad is insisting that i should replace them with plastic so that when I put the house on the market (in a couple of months), it will sell better. Will it make a huge difference?
.

OP posts:

Mins · 22/07/2009 23:46

I'd go for wood everytime - even though it's usually more expensive - so much nicer. Plastic is horrible - but that's just my personal opinion - it's something I have a real bee in my bonnet about!

gaelicsheep · 23/07/2009 00:01

Plastic windows would be a big turn off for me. Just paint the windows for goodness sake. Wood lasts much longer than plastic when it's maintained - and it looks so much nicer, plus you can change the colour if you get bored!

woodenchair · 23/07/2009 00:01

Wooden ones look much better imo
They will be cheaper tp paint than getting new plastic ones.

Littlefish · 23/07/2009 00:01

I agree with Mins. Wood, everytime as far as I'm concerned. We are just about to renovate an old house and will be replacing all the windows with wood.

UPVC would put me off buying a house.

Carrotfly · 23/07/2009 00:03

Wouldnt sell better to me

Plastic windows are just naff. Stop listening to your father and just paint them !

Ponders · 23/07/2009 00:04

If it's a modern house I'd go for plastic every time - yes, wood is nicer, but so much more expensive & time-consuming to maintain & the quality of the plastic seems to have improved a lot in the last few years.

Also, we have some hardwood & some plastic; the double-glazed units in the plastic windows are still going strong after 25 years, & those in the wooden windows have all failed & are full of condensation after 20

Ponders · 23/07/2009 00:06

(And a lot of people do prefer plastic, so they probably would be swayed towards buying if those were installed...)

gaelicsheep · 23/07/2009 00:11

Plastic windows smack of today's throwaway society. We can't be bothered to maintain anything in all our oodles of free time, so we just wait til they fail and replace them. Not very sustainable is it?

bellabelly · 23/07/2009 00:13

Plastic would really put me off.

Ponders · 23/07/2009 00:14

There were softwood windows in our house when we moved in & most of them were rotten - they had been properly maintained & had been in place for less than 20 years.

gaelicsheep · 23/07/2009 00:17

Crikey. When you think that some houses have their original windows from 200+ years ago - it makes you wonder. Although, I must admit I do wonder about wooden windows with double glazing. We've never had the luxury of dg in any of our houses.

Monty100 · 23/07/2009 00:20

Wooden deffo. Look much nicer. I've not had to do anything to mine in 15 years. Mine are hardwood I think they were painted with clear yacht varnish.

HerHonesty · 23/07/2009 07:29

wood everytime BUT it really depends what sort of house you are in and how bad your windows are and if they are single our double glazed at the mo.

Littlefish · 23/07/2009 10:36

The windows in our new house are 200 years old. They are just about to be replaced for the first time!

TheProfiteroleThief · 23/07/2009 10:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MumLil · 23/07/2009 10:40

Ordinarily i would think it was worth it to pay for wooden before going on the market but possibly not now. Perhaps your estate agent could advise?

jemart · 23/07/2009 10:47

If you were staying put then I'd say go for the nicest double glazed replacement windows you can afford.
However if you are going to sell it makes no sense to spend £££'s on new windows, you will not make the money back in the current market. Just fix up and paint the old ones.

mumblechum · 23/07/2009 10:54

Definitely wooden. I've turned down otherwise attractive houses before because they had plastic windows which would cost a bomb to replace.

Ponders · 23/07/2009 12:13

We have very early UPVC windows (1983) & although I would love to replace them for cosmetic reasons - the latest ones are far more attractive IMO - they still function perfectly (and are in better nick than our newer hardwood ones).

I think some people are unnecessarily snobbish about this, esp when it comes to very modern houses (I also think you might all feel less gung-ho about maintenance when you're older & less nimble on ladders )

Original poster

SuperBunny · 23/07/2009 20:12

Oh, this is great, thank you! I want to leave the windows - I've been happy with wood and it's not a huge problem to pain them every now and then. I will ignore my dad!

OP posts:

oneopinionatedmother · 23/07/2009 20:17

do a good careful job and people may even assume they are UPVC.

though i am very pro-plastic windows i agree you won't get your money back by replacing either way. Best just make them look nice and no-one will ask questions about whats underneath.

Tinker · 23/07/2009 20:20

What are the problems with wood double glazing? Ordinarily I'd say wood over plastic at any time but it does depend on the street/house. An awful lot of people really do like plastic windows and see them as an "improvement"

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