Hi
I am starting a new build and have had my frame made a while ago! Like a lot of people the credit crunch has stopped me building for the past few years and I would like to try and put the frame up and watertight this year.
I have read a few discussions on people buying there windows direct from Lithuania!
If anybody has done this and are pleased with the result I would be grateful to know the company they used.
Thanks for your time
Danno

Nothing magic about Lithuania - they're sourced from wherever - China soon, no doubt!

That's right, let's all go abroad and buy our products, no wonder British firms are struggling

There are several uk manifacturers of quality high spec wooden windows , unfortunately they still seem a rare item. ( And still a few years behind on the spec. )
How comes 5 years ago i could by High spec modern oak windows made in Germany for a little above average UK upvc ??
Perhaps UK firms need to raise the bar a little if they want to keep customers , rather than relying on a steady stream of sucker to sell their shoddy tat to. Consumer are wiser than they were 30 years ago , and the worlds a lot smaller.

I'm hoping the above is not always the case, so what's am i missing ??

(WMS this isn't directed at you by the way, but as you're in the window (uPVC) business, you might know why there seems to be a gulf of quality and price in the UK wooden window market relative to the rest of the Northern EU )

On another rant , Why the hell do builders merchants etc. still think they can charge twice what you pay through other outlets and then expect you to thank them for the 20% discount they offer

For 3G timber windows incl alu-clad, Russell (Europe import + Glasgow factory) and Munster Joinery (Irish factory) are unbeatable on price - and Munster insists on including fitting! However Munster extremely difficult to get tech info out of, and Russell's weak point is lengthy estimating/spec finalisation, and slippy delivery dates. Their two ranges aren't fully comparable - e.g. Russell's open-in is only 2G, and Munster can't do alu-clad in flush-faced, only 'stormproof'.

I bought windows from Adpol (Poland) and doors from Russel (Glasgow) about three years back. Quality of both was good, and At the time, buying from Adpol was more or less the same as importing oneself, with numerous calls to the factory to pin things down.

All the windows were were softwood.

The UK agent himself eventually delivered them from Adpol in a bashed up white van. I have no problem with quailty though. I bought some 3g and some 2g. One thing I can say is that much of the "scrap" softwood used for the packing crates was like oak! - Amazingly hard and really heavy - nothing at all like UK softwood.

I bought 3g glazed doorset and a laminated/insulated doorset from Russel. Both are performing well. Took them ages to make them mind you, and the engineered timber is not well colour matched between the various panels, - doesn't really bother me and they seem very good quality otherwise. (They even gave me a hefty discount when they dropped my door in the factory and took several minor chunks out of it :)

Posted By: GaryBbased on the number of queries from GBF members!

That'll include me - they lost a recent order when I twigged that their quote, the best received, was only 2G, contrary to spec. So we went to PVC - NEVER AGAIN!
Similarly, Munster lost another order when I twigged that their quote for Alu-clad, the best received, was stormproof type, contrary to spec, not flush-fronted. They only do flush-fronted unclad.

Quote:There are several uk manifacturers of quality high spec wooden windows , unfortunately they still seem a rare item. ( And still a few years behind on the spec. )
How comes 5 years ago i could by High spec modern oak windows made in Germany for a little above average UK upvc ??
Perhaps UK firms need to raise the bar a little if they want to keep customers , rather than relying on a steady stream of sucker to sell their shoddy tat to. Consumer are wiser than they were 30 years ago , and the worlds a lot smaller.

I'm hoping the above is not always the case, so what's am i missing ??

(WMS this isn't directed at you by the way, but as you're in the window (uPVC) business, you might know why there seems to be a gulf of quality and price in the UK wooden window market relative to the rest of the Northern EU )

On another rant , Why the hell do builders merchants etc. still think they can charge twice what you pay through other outlets and then expect you to thank them for the 20% discount they offer


James I think your find the main reason why UK Joiners supply "shoddy tat" as you so kindly put it, is because Joe Bloggs and most builders in the Uk want to: A pay the cheapest rate for their joinery and: B only just about comply with the current regs regarding U value to keep costs down......it's money.

This has nothing to do with the Building trade being dodgy or wanting to scrape by but more so the mind set of the end user who wants a cheap job!!!!

I had a conversation with the MD of one of the Countries leading tooling manufactures this week about improving some of our tooling to make our high performance window section quicker to manufacture and to make it easily changable from 2g to 3g.
He said they had done market research recently and in their opinion 3g will be a waste of time and me wanting to produce passive/high performance windows or anything with a U value under 1 would in his opinion be a waste of time as most people want 2g or buy passive/3g in from abroad.

I personally have and can manufacture 3g and 2g to a very high standard and although no calcs have been done to give you a U value, I can as can many many other joinery firms in the UK produce these products with a quality factory paint finish with a maintenance cycle of 10years!!!
All from a shoddy little workshop in Gloucestershire!!

Fact is.....until 2016 becomes a reality or people in the UK become more interested in conserving energy in the UK then traditional sections and standard 2g will continue to be manufactured.



The well informed members of this forum unfortunatly make up a small percentage of builders/self builders constructing low energy structures in the UK!!!!

Rant over!

Posted By: Henry SearsDon't think I've seen this company mentioned on here before: http://www.optiwin.net/alu2wood-window.html

Someone I met recently at a party had used some of their sliding doors and reported excellent quality and very reasonable pricing, though I haven't investigated further.

Their products look excellent on the web site though.

Yes, "OPTIWIN is an international cooperation of medium-sized window manufacturers" as it says on their site, so you can find various manufacturers that produce products to the designs, and various distributors. GBS sells some, so does JPW and Touchwood; there are probably others.

Products are good, as far as I know. Prices are not as outrageous as some, but neither are they the cheapest. The GBS offering is significantly more expensive than the late, lamented Ecopassive, for example.