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Sash windows operate on a pulley system. The sash windows we build and install consist of various parts that all go towards the one of a kind design of these…
Draught Proofing Your Sash Windows – We Can Add the Style While Keeping the Charm
If you live in a home in Brighton with traditional sash windows, you will likely benefit from our sash window draught proofing service. Our draught proofing for sash windows will help you enjoy the extra comfort and energy savings. There are lots of issues solved by draught proofing sash windows which can include dust build up, draughts, and rattling.
Draught proofing your sash windows will also keep your house quieter, reducing noise pollution. You will also benefit from an increase in sash window security. You will find opening and closing your windows is easier, and your lower energy bills will not only help you keep more change in your pocket, but it will also lower your carbon footprint.
One method we use to draught proof sash windows is by utilising our knowledge of plastic/timber beading or weather-stripping. If you want to keep the traditional and charming look of your sash windowed home, then we recommend the heritage timber beads. These will effectively draught proof your home, whilst keeping that aesthetic that you’ve fallen in love with.
How Do I Know If My Sash Windows Need to Be Draught Proofed?
It’s true that not every window will need to be draught-proofed. Since 2002, if your windows are double or triple glazed, you probably won’t need draught proofing. This is due to the durability and effectiveness of glazing, as well as the amount of time the windows have been up.
However, if your windows are older double glazing, or in fact single glazed, you should consider draught proofing. You can find out the age of your double-glazed windows by checking a FENSA certificate, which will be handed to you with any window that have been installed since 2002, or even in a stamp in the window’s metal seal.
Looking for Draughts
So, where should you look for draughts if you are wondering whether or not to draught proof your windows
- Gaps between the frame and the window itself.
- Any caulk that has been used to install your windows; this is found on the outside of the frame.
- Areas around any locks, latches, or catches.
Windows may seem like less the risk for draughts when comparing them to doors, however, the draught gathered from each and every one of your windows can create a massive loss of energy. If you draught-proof all of these problem areas, you will lose less energy. You must find specifically where the gaps in your windows that are causing draughts are, so that we can quickly, efficiently, and cheaply fix this for you.
Smart Sash Windows can help. We are from Brighton, and if you’re feeling chilly or are worried about the energy loss a draught can cause, contact us and we will send our specialists to assess your property to find out if your sash windows are in need of draught proofing.
If you choose to draught-proof your windows, we can then give you a project quote.
Double Glazing vs. Draught Proofing
If you’re trying to improve the energy efficiency of your property, you may be left scratching your head about what the best ways of insulating your windows are. There are two main options, draught proofing and adding a glazing, but which one is right for you?
Draught Proofing
Draught proofing is a quick, simple, and incredibly cost-effective way of reducing the amount of energy your home loses. Draught proofing can lessen gaps in which draughts and cold air enter, meaning that your house will not only be warmer, it will also be more energy efficient. This will insulate your home so that heat is not wasted during those cold winter months.
Adding a Glazing
You could also choose to add a glazing to your single glazed windows. There are benefits to this, such as the fact that double glazed timber windows are sought after by homeowners and buyers.
Yet, you will need to attain planning commission in order to double-glaze windows if your home is a listed building.
If the choice is leaving you stuck, you can always call us on PHONEXXX. Our specialists can help you right away to help with your decision.
Ventilation or Draught Proofing
Draught proofing offers a more energy-efficient, warmer, and cosier home by identifying and sealing draughts. Ventilation and draughts are similar, as they both allow air from outside to come into your home. However, if your ventilation is good, condensation and damp will be reduced, and a hot house will be cooled down. Draughts cannot be controlled, however – too much heat will be wasted and too much air from outside will be let in.
Bad ventilation and no draught proofing can possibly cause illness, but will certainly cause discomfort and higher bills due to heat loss. Therefore, to keep money in your wallet, it’s quick, cheap, and easy to fix draught proofing and allow for better ventilation. You will also instantly feel the effects.
We have everything we need, from experience, expertise, and necessary resources at Smart Sash Windows in Brighton, to improve your home. We can draught-proof your sash windows and your home will be better ventilated, leaving you more comfortable.
The Sash Windows Draught Proofing Services We Offer
Sealing Draughts
Smart Sash Windows can give you cheap and efficient draught sealing. This will instantly improve your home’s energy efficiency. Our experts are skilled and can find draughts in and around your home. With the best resources and materials at hand, we can quickly fix leaks to keep you more comfortable and losing less energy.
Repairing Damaged Glazing or Timber
It’s possible that you’ll still find draughts in your home even if your sash windows have no leaks. This can be due to your timber window frames or glazing being damaged. Worry not, however. Smart Sash Windows specialists can find and repair any damage with no fuss, whether it’s your timber window frame or your glazing. They can replace any glass or glazing that has been damaged, which will make your house more efficient.
Fitting New Locks and Ironmongery Services
If the locks or extras on your sash windows are damaged, if they are worn down, or if they simply don’t work, then this may cause a draught. Luckily for you, our specialists at Smart Sash Windows can easily fit new locks and extras. This will make your sash windows as efficient as they were when they were installed.
Weather Strips, Beads and Draught Excluders for Your Sash Windows
Hundreds and hundreds of weather strips, beads and draught excluders are available for you today. They are customisable, and come in a variety of different designs, aesthetics, and materials. This can include applications such as compression strips, which is a foam that can seal your draughts.
Our brush strip method, however, is traditional and it works. It is also known as bristle strip, and will improve your windows. Only the highest quality brush strip is right for us, because we believe our customers deserve the best draught proofing and installation possible.
What to Consider When Draught Proofing My Sash Windows
Types of Seals
In general, brush seals, such as fine, nylon fibres, are used.
Where Your Seals Are Located
Seals must be found in order to be properly cared for and maintained. This means that they will be visible, and to maintain their effectiveness, you must not paint over them, as this can cause clogging.
Using Parting Beads with Seals
No uPVC is used in our parting bead, as it comes in fresh timber. Plastic has a serious drawback in that it is usually only white. This means if it is painted, the paint will be affected by the friction of the sash rubbing against it, which will ultimately lead to white streaks. This is particularly visible if it is painted with a dark colour.
What about Gas Fires and Ventilation?
A large, and efficient air supply is needed for safe gas heating appliances to work properly. If your draught proofing is too effective, it will affect the level of ventilation, meaning larger gas heating appliances could malfunction – you can find out more information about this with the manufacturer of your gas heating appliances, and they will help get you the information you need.
‘Trickle Vents’ and Your Building Regulations
Building regulations need a room that is lived in to have a trickle vent (specifically 800 mm² in area of ‘background ventilation’). This is to help reduce the chance of condensation, and therefore mould. 800 mm² is, in fact, the same as the average gap found around the average sash window.
Luckily, however, these regulations also permit you to achieve this gap by opening the top sash of your window when it is fully whether-stripped.
How draughty sash windows gaps are filled
- We install with no mess
- We are able to fill different size gaps
- They look natural and seamless
- You will find amazing energy savings
So, What Are the Benefits of Draught Proofing My Sash Window?
Draught proofing traditional sliding sash windows and overhauling them is our specialty. This service was specifically designed to breathe new life into windows that either rattle in the breeze or shake when they are opened.
Our service is guaranteed to eradicate draughts, and you will instantly see the effects of how much better your energy efficiency is. As well as this, your windows will keep their specific look and character!
The draught proofing service we provide is simple, straightforward, and easy to implement. We offer you these amazing benefits as well:
- Draught, rattling and wobbling will be eliminated
- Your energy efficiency in your home and will greatly increase
- Noise pollution is greatly reduced
- Dust ingress is greatly reduced
- Top and bottom sashes will smoothly open
Why Should You Choose Smart Sash Windows for Your Draught Proofing Needs?
It’s Our Specialty
This is what we do, we are Smart Sash Windows, we can help anyone in the Brighton area. We have the credentials, the specialties, and the experience, as well as the tools and resources to draught proof your sash windows with ease. Our team of specialists all have years of experience. The specialists are dedicated to their craft, you can rely on them, and they are absolutely committed to customer service.
Our Skills
Our specialists are highly skilled and well trained. They are experts in their field, and will be able to provide a service that will make your windows and doors not only work perfectly, but also be more energy-efficient. We rely on an extremely high standard of excellence and attention to the most minute of details, and this is in everything we do.
Caring for Our Customers
We hold our customer service to the highest of standards. It is an integral part to what we believe in and we value and utilise customer comments and recommendations to improve our service. This means that we take pride in the fact that we offer every customer friendly, but professional advice on how to replace or restore their timber windows and doors.
Our Guarantee
As we hold ourselves to such high values, we base our reputation on this. This means that we will employee the most experienced specialists for your job, and use the best resources and materials out there. This is why it’s easy to make our guarantee because with every job if you’re not happy, we’ll just do it again.
Costs and Savings of Draught Proofing
What Will It Cost to Draught Proof My Sash Windows?
As no two draught proofing contracts are the same, working out cost is difficult. There are multiple factors that affect the price, which will include your property’s location, the number of windows you need draught-proofed, and how damaged your windows are. However, you can rest easy, because at Smart Sash Windows, our prices are the most competitive in East Sussex.
We also provide a free no-obligation quote, so that you have a better idea of how much it will cost to draught proof your windows.
So, How Much Will I Save?
If you draught-proof your windows and doors, you could save around £20 per year. If your home has an open chimney, draught proofing this when it’s not in use can save you around £15 per year.
Homes without draughts are much more comfortable when the temperature drops – so keeping the thermostat down will also save you more on your energy bills.
Draught Proofing and Building Regulations
There are many wide-ranging standards for airtightness for new buildings. This is because the standards apply to the entirety of the building and not just the windows and doors. Currently, there are no specific prerequisites for draught proofing existing buildings, however, building regulations will apply in these circumstances:
- Doors or windows are written off and there is no alternative as a replacement
- If the building is affected by a ‘change of use’
If building regulations do apply to your building, you will need to contact your counsel. This means that you will talk to your local authority building control officer or approved inspector, and to the conservation officer. They will help you find out what would be acceptable and what would require planning permissions.
If you are upgrading your existing windows by draught proofing them, if new windows are required, you may need to create a compromise in which historically or architecturally important single glazed windows are replicated. This means the energy efficiency will be approved in a traditional building but its significance to history will be maintained.
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Draught Proofing Sash Windows FAQ’s
What Is A Draught?
A draught is cold air that enters from outside your home through gaps. This can increase your heating bill, and will also mean moisture and bugs can get into your house.
If there are gaps in and around your window and the opening is not sealed, anything outside can get in. You can find draughts around windows, doors, hatches to your attic, pipes that lead outside, and where your ceiling joins to your wall.
How Can I Discover A Window Draught?
First, have a look at your window. You can usually see where caulk has broken, which will show a crack or gap. Inside, you can check the sealing around your windows to look for any cracks or breaks in the putty that joins your single-pane windows to your window frames.
Lightweight curtains will also show a draught. If you shut everything that leads to your room and switch off anything that might move air, lightweight curtains may move. If they start swaying, this is probably due to air getting through the windows.
How Long Will Draught Proofing Measures Last?
Draught proofing measures have a life expectancy of between five and 10 years. This is provided that they are installed with the proper materials and in accordance with manufacturers’ instructions.
How Will Draught Excluders Reduce Heat Loss?
If there is a draught between your rooms, you will feel colder. This is because the air is moving, not necessarily because the air itself is colder. If one room is warmer than the rest of your property, draught proofing under doors that connect to this room will stop the flow of colder air.
How Can I Prevent Cold Draughts?
Draught proofing your windows and doors can reduce cold draughts. This is because if they are not sealed properly, they’re the largest sources of draught in winter. This means that indoor heating will leave your home more easily, and your energy costs will go up.
How Does Draught Proofing Save Heat Energy?
Heat energy will be saved because draught proofing prevents warm air from leaving your home in winter, and prevents hot air from entering your home in summer. This will make you more comfortable and save you more money. Draughts constitute up to 25% of heat loss in winter from existing houses.
How Can Conduction Be Prevented?
Conduction will transfer heat energy from room to room through walls, your floor, your roof and even your windows.
The easiest method to prevent this is to fit carpets, draught excluders, and curtains. You can even have reflective foil in the walls to reduce lost heat energy.
The easiest method to prevent this is to fit carpets, draught excluders, and curtains. You can even have reflective foil in the walls to reduce lost heat energy.
Double glazing can also reduce heat loss. This is as there is a vacuum between the two panes of glass in your window. The vacuum prevents both convection and conduction. Convection is minimised in this case because there is little space for it to move. Air is not a good conductor so less heat energy will be lost.
Can You Keep Single Glazed Windows From Draught?
Yes, you can by following these steps:
· You can use thicker curtains to prevent heat loss
· Make sure these curtains are open, however, when it is sunny
· Double glazing can be more heat efficient but can also be more costly
· Draught seal your chimney so that less heat is being lost up there
· Look out for mini-draughts.
· You can use thicker curtains to prevent heat loss
· Make sure these curtains are open, however, when it is sunny
· Double glazing can be more heat efficient but can also be more costly
· Draught seal your chimney so that less heat is being lost up there
· Look out for mini-draughts.
How Long Will It Take To Draught Proof The Average Sized Sash Window?
One and two windows, on average, can be done a day by one carpenter if repairs are not needed.
Will There Be Disruption And Dust?
There will be a small amount of disruption when your box sash windows are being draught-proofed and upgraded, however, we endeavour to keep this to the bare minimum. We cover all furniture and floor in plastic and dust sheets, and we also vacuum to reduce dust and to leave the room neat and tidy.
Will Scaffolding Be Needed To Draught Proof My Windows?
Generally, there is not a need for scaffolding as sash windows are maintained from the inside of a property. Most refurbishment can generally be done from the inside of a building, but we will let you know if we require to use scaffolding.
What Is Draught Proofing?
Draught proofing, or exclusion, is a cheap and simple way to slash energy costs. Whether or not you live in a house or flat, draught proofing can help. The aim is simple: keep the warm air in and keep the cold air out. You can achieve this by using draught excluders.
Adam Scozzi
At Smart Sash Windows in Brighton, our window manufacturing, installation and replacement services are guaranteed to exceed your expectations.