The arts and crafts of secondary glazing in beautiful family home

Selectaglaze has helped to upgrade the noise and thermal insulation at a picturesque family home in the South Downs Conservation Area.

The building is quite prominent with a large sweeping catslide roof to the rear, hanging pin tiles to the front and square leaded iron casements, set in dark oak frames. 

The property was initially built in 1650-1660 as two farm cottages and has since been used as the studio for architect William Frederick Unsworth (1851-1912), and more recently extended and given a new look and feel. A couple purchased the property at the beginning of the year with the aim of bringing it up to 21st century standards.

The last seven months have seen a painstaking refurbishment to many areas of the house; the façade, upgrades to the windows and the addition of a rear extension – which exposed a well.

The owners researched window improvements, as they wished to retain the characterful original primary glazing. They contacted a local company who said they could only supply secondary glazing in white, which was unsatisfactory as that would have ruined the look and feel of the originals.

The owner of the house commented: “We were most impressed with the service and quite overwhelmed by the choice in colours we could have the secondary glazing produced in. With the dark oak window cills and reveals, along with the leaded light openings, we were keen to try and chose a colour to complement, rather than exactly match, as some areas had a faded a little over the years.” 

A total of 13 Series 10 – 2 and 3 pane horizontal sliders were specified and installed across the front elevation openings in 8014 matt sepia. Noise ingress was reduced due to installation with a 100mm cavity and 6.8 laminated glass. Draughts have massively reduced with the high-performance seals and close-fitting of the secondary glazing.

One window in the master bedroom posed a tricky task with regards to the best way of treating it; a multi-pane angular projected bay window. Generally, Selectaglaze would try and follow the original sightlines with the secondary glazing, however, after much debate, it was felt that adding bay posts etc to fit the secondary, would detract too much from the original window, so a large Series 10 horizontal slider was faceted across the front framing the unusual window.

“We are extremely happy with the final result. The process was faultless and the workmanship of the installers was incredible, given there are no flat surfaces and the window reveals were far from square. We can now enjoy the views out of the windows peacefully and without draughts. It will be interesting to see the difference secondary glazing makes to the heating bills in the winter months”.

Contact:

Selectaglaze,
Alban Park,
Hatfield Road,
St. Albans,
Hertfordshire,
AL4 0JJ

Phone: 01727 837271

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