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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
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General: Life expectancy of timber-only vs. PVC windows

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      CommentAuthorjoe90
    • CommentTimeJul 19th 2012
     
    If the only parts of UPVC windows that wear out are seals.hinges,locks, isnt this the same with wooden windows i.e replaceable ?
  2.  
    that's my thoughts also Joe.
    the only other problem is damage to the bead or profile and warped sashs , which could be fixed if profile was still in production
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeJul 19th 2012
     
    Trouble is, too many upvc profiles become redundant in a very short space of time. In an industry that is constantly introducing "improvements" a profile is lucky to survive ten years. I've heard the argument that a upvc window is so cheap anyway that the cost of replacing it whole is hardly worth bothering about. Hmmm.
  4.  
    Probably true , so is damage to the bead or profile and warped sashs the cause for the 25-35 year life expectancy
    claim of upvc ?
    • CommentAuthorchuckey
    • CommentTimeJul 19th 2012
     
    in my last house 38 windows in UPVC, all sashes perfect after 26 years, however 11 glazing units failed. In cottage, just replaced 2 glazed units in 17 year old UPVC frames. The frames have lost their shine but are entirely satisfactory.
    The real problem is the short life of the double glazing units, changing them will lead to a rapid deterioration of wood frames compared to the UPVC.
    Frank
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeJul 19th 2012 edited
     
    Not quite true. Modern manufacturing methods make unit failure surprisingly rare nowadays. The days of the back-street or low-tech operation are long gone. Several of the smaller unit manufacturers that I knew of six years ago (when I was last involved in the upvc side) have gone to the wall due to direct competition from the big boys.

    Small fitting companies, and even sole-trader operations, have access to the higher quality units from the big manufacturers via companies like 'Window Fitters Mate'. At one time, those large manufacturer wouldn't want to know the small guy and his one-house order, now the 'WFM'-type company place the orders of ten such small guys and get a good price for the resultant order of a hundred units, delivered to the local branch and collected from there.

    It's no longer the unit failures that determine the service life but the profiles and the fittings.

    The single biggest argument against upvc, for me, is the style of some of the monstrosities fitted to "comply with building regs, missus. It's fire escape, see. Innit.'
    • CommentAuthorchuckey
    • CommentTimeJul 19th 2012
     
    You can't say that yet, tell me about it in 20 years time. the 11 that failed were supplied from a major supplier on the outskirts of Winchester who are still very much trading - I went back there for the replacements. The two that failed were from A*****n windows who are still advertising on the TV.
    frank
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeJul 19th 2012
     
    :bigsmile:

    Not saying a word! :wink:
    • CommentAuthordhutch
    • CommentTimeAug 17th 2012
     
    My parents had 'decent but nothing special' softwood windows fitted to there new house around 23 years ago and mained fairly good paint on them and have ad to replace the front four windows last year. Replaced again with wood, but thats well short of the suggested 40 years.

    The rest of the house is not so bad as the front windows where south facing causing the paint to fail more rapidly, but several of those have also got soft areas which have had to be filled/treated before repainting.

    Interestingly (?) the new windows have far more detail, mouldings, etc (not asked for, just how they came) where the origanals where just plain with the glass retained by putty alone. Looks like more areas for damp to get in, but we shall see in 20 years.

    Daniel
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeAug 17th 2012 edited
     
    Putty can fail. It's why I now prefer to make hardwood bead, chamfered into a plain triangular fillet and then bedded into place with sealant. Eliminates the possibility of hairline cracks along the edges of the putty/wood interface, the place where moisture usually finds its way in.

    This pic is of the recently refurbed bathroom window, the glazed area has still to be cleaned up around the edges. The bead has a decorative profile for no other reason than I wanted to see if I could use the router to apply the moulding to such a narrow section without wrecking it and liking the look I decided to apply it all round. The bottom sash is also sealed all round because, as it's a ground floor window, it will never be opened anyway and will extend its life for a further 50-odd years.

    [IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/n6ba13.jpg[/IMG]%

    (The other two of the three windows that will stay single-glazed are puttied because the putty was 75% sound and so just needed repairing - and I wanted to retain the original float glass that had been in them since sometime between 1905 and 1935.)

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