Hi folks,
This might be the first of various posts over the coming months/years. We recently bought an old house in a small village in Veszprem county. It's (at least in that area) a typical stone farmhouse with some old stalls and sheds on a narrow but quite long plot. It's habitable but needs a few upgrades.
One of the things I want to start next spring is replacing the old wooden windows and shutters with modern ones. I have tried reaching out to a few companies via email in the Veszprem area, in Hungarian with the help of Google Translate, but none of them have replied. Are they more reliant on phone calls for business? We don't speak Hungarian so that would be a problem. If you have any advice or even some recommendations, do let me know!

Thanks

From what I gather, Hungarians don't really do e.mails so calling them is the preferred option ... a problem if you don't speak Hungarian ... which is where neighbours that speak both English and Hungarian are essential !

If you have an idea of what you want (wood, plastic,double or triple glazed) a photo or 2 and some sizes of the existing you could try dropping into the office of your chosen firm(s)
Any thoughts of DIY or will everything be supply and fit?
Which village? we are near Tapolca.

Supply and fit was the plan with plastic double glazed windows and new shutters. Potentially we could do it ourselves if that's what it comes to, it would just be a lot slower and a bit of a learning curve. The preference would certainly be to have it done professionally.

Our place is in the Somlo area, so about halfway between Papa and Ajka.

On a side note, I'm also open to hearing people's experiences and tips on what to replace the old gas convector heaters with, that's another item on the to-do list!

I absolutely agree with hobgoblin on this. As both my Hungarian wife and myself are Deaf we cannot use the telephone. We had an email this morning from our lawyer and despite explaining to him we cannot use the telephone he still asks for our telephone number. We are a very independent deaf couple and do not like depending on others helping with the telephone if there's a way round it, I.e. email, SMS, FB Messenger Video Chat.

Luckily for myself my hungarian deaf wife is quadlingual so it helps. Sometimes the son or daughter of whoever has been working on our house can speak English so that makes it easier for me although I find most Hungarians speak too quietly.

In the UK we used an Online Sign Language Interpreting Service for work and home. There's hundreds of companies, including Banks, whonI can call via this service for free. There's something similar in Hungary but my wife has never used it. I'm quite sure here the deaf person has to pay for the service.

You're not the first to move here without any Hungarian. I've been learning on and off for over 20 years. I've only just sussed the sign on a door 'Tolni' means 'Push' and 'Húzni' means 'Pull'. 🤣🤣🤣

I'm aware there's an older American couple who live just outside north east Budapest and they use Google Translate for Conversations. They manage using this. It's probably better to have a face to face conversation. Some places I frequent, i.e. Praktiker, have a sign saying they have someone who can speak English or German, but the English speaker isn't always there.

Usually with supply and fit from window companies they window fitters only fit the windows. For making good of the reveals afterwards you might have to get another trades person for that part of the work. If you want a complete job done then a local builder might be a better option.

If you have shutters now I wonder if they are the traditional type that are above the usual double windows. If so these are a thermal disaster. What I have done with these is to remove the shutter (done from the inside) sealed the outboard slot, filled the shutter box with insulation then closed up access board and decorated so that you couldn't see it.

Be careful if you request shutters with the windows to understand what you will get. I have seen some that were just added on almost as an after thought with the operating tape just drilled through the window frame to the inside - not nice at all.

IMO the 'no brainer solution' would be gas central heating and I would suggest a combi boiler to do the hot water as well..
Of the various types of heating available here gas CH is the cleanest and cheapest to install and run. (exception perhaps being individual wood stoves in each room, cheaper to install but dirty and cost more to run)
A heat pump installation would be 5 to 7 times more expensive to install and probably cost more to run.

Yes, that's exactly what we have. What you have done sounds like a good way to deal with the box so will keep that in mind.


Thanks, we did get a quote out of curiosity for the gas central heating and combi boiler a few months ago which worked out at around 2m HUF (removal, materials and installation). I have heard about the heat pump option, I didn't find out anything in relation to costs yet though. It would be nice to have the AC during the summer, but then again with better windows and shutters it shouldn't feel as bad and we could get a portable unit if needed.