Acland House

Low maintenance costs and no corrosion.

I was in the profession for forty years and I have heard all the arguments, which are all severely flawed. It is still no excuse for poor design on the part of the manufacturers. I spent many years working with manufacturers with skills and traditions that far exceeded current specifications and have lasted longer than these substitutes.

Perhaps they would look better in dark mahogany.

The major point is the loss of horizontality and fineness, and especially the fact of the angular corner, as opposed to the original pure curves to the frames and glazing bars. Those windows look worse than the standard EJMA designs of the 1950s. I get rather uptight about architectural abuse.

I will have to admit that the hexagonal effect is not the same as the custom made originals, but I would choose the easiest option with regard to maintenace etc.

Dealing with historic houses, I soon realised that materials which were being repaired were hundreds of years old, and required very little maintenance, as such. The reason is that they were made from the finest materials selected for purpose and maintained properly having been made with skill and installed properly; the materials for repairs were always available using skills that had been learned for hundreds of years, and not some crash bang wallop company that would disappear overnight, along with its component parts (as so often did happen); we had paint stripped from windows of 200 years old, and the timber was found to have been a re-used window from a church, the timber was perfect.

On that comment, I totally agree.

As a part of some of the estates we were working with, we were approached by replacement window companies. We tried their products; in the space of time (in one case one year) companies died off like flies; a guarantee is not worth the paper it is written on if the company is not there, or the parts which ensure that the windows work are not available. From that time on we stuck to craftsmen and selected components and materials. In this world you get what is paid for, in the end economies cost dearly. If it is worth anything it is worth the price and the care.