PVCu Double glazing
 

I know that this subject came up a few years back and I'm looking for updates and recommendations on how you have fared with it. Trying to decide who to use, what we should be looking for and approximate costs per unit, windows and doors.

Not even considering aluminium and wood options as we want the best option as far as noise pollution is concerned as well as reducing the heat loss to the house. I know a lot of nonsense has been espoused about PVCu not being suitable for NZ conditions but it's used in other countries with more sunlight than here.

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

We paid for uPVC double glazing to be installed three years ago. It cost $33,000 dollars. Our house has a lot of windows and five doors. A front door, a back door and three French doors ! (I drew the line at having a double glazed cat flap ! So, it's plastic.) The company is Auckland based, 'Warm Windows'. Never mind the people who think uPVC isn't for the NZ climate. That's a bit 'there may be dragons' thinking.

They will measure and quote and are very good IMO.

We have colonial windows. The cross bars that make up the colonial style windows are inside the two glass window panes that make up the double glazing. Therefore making cleaning the glass panes easier.

They took away the old windows that they removed. I was able to sell the doors to a local renovator's centre.

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Our major consideration was road noise, so we ended up with double glazed wood frames with laminated glass. UPVC and aluminum would not have worked very well as the house is too warped. Pricey, but I can sleep properly now.

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Yikes, that's expensive! We have lots of windows and 6 doors. Your windows sound similar to what we had fitted in the UK with the cross bars between the two panes of glass.

Did you notice a big difference with things like condensation, noise pollution etc.?

Thanks for the info. I was looking at 'Warm Windows", were you happy with their work and service?

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Useful, thanks :-)

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Our house is only about 10 years old, so shouldn't be an issue....I hope :blink:

Getting a good night's sleep is worth every cent spent :nod:

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Yeah, it was expensive, we're still paying for it now.

It's hard to see the difference because we moved in on 2nd September 2011 and the double glazing was installed by June 2012 so we didn't have a full winter here before it was installed. The installation took a few days.

Next to no condensation. We still have the dehumidifier working in the winter in an unheated room that is next to the kitchen.

The double glazing muffles sound, just to reduce it rather than total silence.

Warm Windows workmen are excellent. They work cleanly and efficiently. They took away the waste materials from site. I made it clear which old windows and doors they were to leave behind as I wanted to sell it to a reclamation yard.

The windows and doors were old and needed replacing anyway. They had got warped and tatty over the years and the locks and bolts weren't satisfactory. The old front door was all wood panels - think No. 10 Downing Street but painted blue !

The new front door has glass panels in it. It looks much more modern and lets light in.

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Muffled sound is good for me rather than thinking that a lorry is actually on our driveway when infact it's on the road!

Not sure this would totally help our condensation problem as our downstairs is unheated. Wondering whether to go with a HRV/DVS/Smartvent solution first :confused:

Thinking of our lovely warm, dry house in the UK makes me wish we had never come here. Plus I had a job I loved there....ho hum :unsure:

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

We had PVCu windows installed a couple of years ago and it has made a big difference. We just had the windows done (12K) and hope to do all the doors soon which will be around the same amount. Noise is reduced and we noticed the temperature on the baby monitor only went down a few degrees overnight so we no longer needed to keep a heater on in the babies bedroom overnight. We do get a bit of condensation on one very large window we have but otherwise it's all good. (Even in the cold depths of the south!)
Only down side was as we have a weatherboard house most of the window surrounds had to be replaced.

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Cheers for the info kiwi white. We have weatherboard upstairs and plaster over brick downstairs. Which company did you use please?

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

[QUOTE=Vitalstatistix;11607878]:blink: We have freight trains here, no passenger trains. Sometimes it feels like a fully loaded freight train with a driver that's fond of the air horns is coming through our back garden !

Can't help you with that, sorry. We paid to have 2 heat pumps installed. One upstairs vented to all bedrooms and one downstairs. The downstairs one really only heats the lounge diner. That's enough for the morning & evening as it's on a timer, until we switch the t.v. on and have the gas fire (flame effect) on and the downstairs heat pump off. We can close the kitchen door. There's still small areas of contact mildew on the wall where the warm air exits the plasterboard :( usually near the skirting board. Wiping that off with 'Exit Mould' usually does the trick.

I missed our lovely warm, dry, double glazed, centrally heated via radiators house in Britain until we moved in to our house here and made it ours. My head and my heart are in this house. Just like it was in Britain. Hey, maybe they've got similar houses like we had before for sale in Britain should we go back. That's something to think about, eh ?

I didn't love my job in Britain, in fact, it had gone very stale. I hung on for the final year of it whilst we completed our arrangements for relocating to NZ. At least I had a job though which is more than I've got here in NZ :thumbdown:. OK, I do voluntary work so I've got an up to date reference on my cv but we never meant to live like this i.e. one income. We didn't live like this in Britain. OK, we won't starve but come on ! It's not the, 'both get jobs and live mortgage free' that my returning New Zealander husband wanted our lives to be. We've got reasons to leave NZ, not reasons to stay. (I got yet another turn down for a job that I applied for yesterday. It should be like water off a ducks back by now.....)

:focus:

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

We are doing a full renovation at the moment. Completion due in 4 weeks. Had PVCu windows installed and radiators! Windows and doors came to $28k. Lots of windows, normal doors and 3 sets of bi folds. If you want details I can look them up

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

UPVC Windows & Doors. It's a local Dunedin company run by a couple of English guys. They import the frames from Germany from memory.

Re: PVCu Double glazing
 

Yes please.