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At Appletree, we can offer windows for new builds
or traditional replacement box sash or casement windows to closely match your
existing ones.
Our services include single or double glazed. We
can provide our windows stained, painted, or unfinished and with most any
furniture you require. Our windows can be made from soft or hard woods and can
be fitted with standard, low-E, diffused, horticultural sheet glass or other
types of glazing.
We can also offer advice on whether or not your
current windows can be repaired. Our repair services include:
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Replacement sash boxes
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Sliding Sashes (with or
without draught seals)
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Replacement of beads,
weights, cords, and pulleys
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Replacement Casement Opening
Lights
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We can also install draught
seals to your existing sash windows
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The appearance of
replacement windows often clashes with the original proportions and style of
traditionally built houses, something which many people will put up with as an
inevitable consequence of making their homes cosier and more energy efficient.
If you ignore the carbon footprint of the manufacturing of uPVC windows the
claims of energy efficient design and low maintenance are indisputable. However,
while it takes decades to recover the energy costs of uPVC manufacture, timber
windows are actually locking up carbon for the lifetime of the windows and
possibly beyond, depending on method of disposal. If old timber frames are burnt
to produce heat, then that will save an equivalent amount of other fuel being
used - timber windows are a bio-fuel!
The advantages claimed by the manufacturers are not exclusive to uPVC, or even
modern wooden windows; you can have both the style of your old windows and most
of the advantages of the new developments, by upgrading your existing windows
and avoid using more of the world's increasingly scarce resources than
necessary.
It is quite common to come across original
sash windows still going strong in houses built in the last century. Some firms
installing uPVC windows offer ten, twenty or thirty year guarantees, but uPVC
itself has not been around long enough to be really sure of its resistance to
the combined effects of years of changes in temperature, humidity and solar
radiation and certainly can't be expected to last long enough to recover the
energy cost of manufacture. They may keep you warmer, but they actually add to
global carbon dioxide emissions, rather than reducing them.
Among windows the sliding-sash is uniquely
repairable, most of the common problems can be sorted out with the window in
situ, and replacement of the whole frame is rarely necessary. With uPVC it may
be that, as time passes, its "no maintenance necessary" advantage turns out to
be "no maintenance possible", and the only alternative is replacement.
Upgrading the window to include
draught-proofing and double glazing is a straightforward job, and unless the
outer frame is seriously beyond hope, only the sashes themselves need to be
replaced, a job which can be carried out with a minimum of disruption.
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Last Updated 28th April
2009
© Copyright Appletree Property Services
2009
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