What a good idea

Hi Val

I thought that some of your readers might be interested in a project we have undertaken to fit double glazing to the existing window frames in our house. The window frames were in good condition, and one, a solid oak item, is over 50 years old but has no rot. It would be a shame and waste to replace these frames and we looked at various ways of fitting double glazing without having to rip out the old friends and install new ones. We certainly didn’t want to go the PVC route in view of the character of the property.

Various people were recommended to us but they were said to be expensive and/or very busy and/or perfectionists who would want to take the frames away for weeks on end. In the end, we opted to use James Wink, a guy who had built our garage doors and oak staircase. James was able to do the work on site. He removed the old glass and external beading and then used a guided router to cut away part of the timber to take the double glazed units that he obtained for us. New oak beading was fitted internally and externally to fit the particular sizes and shapes, and I followed up by sanding and varnishing. We have had 10 windows done at a cost which is less than that of replacing the frames, and less than the cost of fitting some of the specialist “stepped units” available from some glass suppliers in Montauban.  I’ve attached some pictures which show the before, during and after on one particular window. We are pleased with the results, although in the hot weather, with the windows closed, the house is now like a sauna!

We are now going to make sure that we have other windows that take the weather double glazed in the same way so that our efforts in insulating the house are not wasted and we are not mopping up condensation next winter!

Best wishes

Gareth
The guy we used was James Wink, and as I said, he did our staircase. His phone number is 05 65 31 76 17, mobile 06 12 94 07 04, email james.wink@sfr.fr.