Choice of windows and doors

Timber or timber / composite?

Do your customers prefer windows and doors where there is wood throughout or low-maintenance timber windows and doors with external aluminium cladding?

With timber windows and doors you get natural wood both inside and out. The products are less expensive than timber / composite products, but require a bit more maintenance.

With windows and doors in timber / composite you still have the natural and warm wooden interior surface, but with the low-maintenance external aluminium surface.

Think of both aesthetics and outlook

Windows with many divisions from mullions and bars may help to provide an attractive facade, but beware that the view is not hindered unnecessarily when you look out. Try to avoid bars and lines at eye level.

Large glazed areas and sun

It is lovely to have large glass areas that provide plenty of indoor daylight. It affects your mood and makes a positive contribution to the heating bill from autumn to spring, when the low sun sends its life-giving rays into the building.

But during summer the building can be exposed to overheating, especially if it is built without eaves, which allows the sun direct access to the building and can make life indoors very hot. Consider solar shading or if necessary solar glazing on the south and west-facing facades, or place the large glass facades to the north or east, where feasible.

Small windows are a relic from the old days

The tradition of small windows has to a certain extent been continued, without any objective justification for it. On the contrary small windows have several disadvantages.

First you achieve a noticeable improvement of daylight conditions indoors when small windows are replaced with windows of 'normal' size. Secondly, you create a more harmonious facade proportioning if multiple windows are the same size and shape.

So be sure to let the light in! Only limited space can justify very small windows.