Practical guidance on the questions homeowners ask us most, written plainly and kept up to date for homes across Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Berkshire.
Replacing windows, doors or a conservatory roof raises the same questions again and again: what needs permission, what the regulations require, which product suits the property, and what actually happens on installation day. These guides answer them in the order they usually come up.
For most houses, replacing your windows is permitted development and needs no planning application. The rules change for flats, listed buildings and properties under an Article 4 direction — and Building Regulations apply either way.
Read guideSwapping an existing set of doors for bifolds is normally permitted development. The answer changes once you start widening the opening, adding an extension, or living in a flat, a listed building or an Article 4 area.
Read guideConservation area status does not automatically stop you replacing your windows, but an Article 4 direction usually does change the rules. Here is what councils in this region tend to accept, and where the standards pull against each other.
Read guideA composite door is a genuinely strong door. The weak point in almost every real break-in is the lock cylinder, and that is the specification detail worth arguing about.
Read guideAluminium costs more and delivers slimmer frames, a longer life and a better finish. Whether that is worth it depends almost entirely on the size of your windows and the character of your house.
Read guideA composite door involves more decisions than most people expect. Take them in the right order — construction first, appearance second — and you end up with a door that suits the house rather than the brochure.
Read guideBoth materials make excellent modern windows. The real differences are frame slimness, price and how each one suits a particular house — not a simple question of which is better.
Read guideThe real choice is between maximum opening and maximum view. Bifolds fold almost the whole wall away; sliding doors give you bigger panes and slimmer frames the rest of the year.
Read guideThe big jump in performance is from single to double. Going from double to triple is a much smaller step, costs meaningfully more, and for noise problems is often the wrong solution entirely.
Read guideA Window Energy Rating is a single letter summarising how a window balances heat lost against heat gained. It is a useful shorthand, but it is calculated on a standard reference window and it quietly rewards sunshine.
Read guideNoise is not reduced by adding panes. It is reduced by mass, by making the two panes different thicknesses, and by using a laminated acoustic interlayer — and by closing the gaps that let sound straight past the glass.
Read guideThe frame usually outlives everything attached to it. Sealed units and hardware are the parts that fail first — and both can be replaced on their own, without a new window.
Read guideCotswold houses are unusually unforgiving of the wrong window. Flush casements in a heritage colour suit most of the stock, sashes suit the Georgian frontages, and the detailing matters more than the material.
Read guideArrange a complimentary home survey at a time that suits you. We listen carefully, measure precisely and recommend the products best suited to your property.