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Oh dear, not another plastic window. Why don't you replace your metal windows in timber frames with something similar. Yous grandchildren will be able to appreciate your investment. You can get double glazed ones now. There are a number of companies that make excellent steel windows but The...

Try Window Cares Systems Anglia They have a very informative website. The last thing you should do is replace your wooden sill with upvc. Please don't do it. Talk to the good people on Period Property UK forum first.

Maybe you are using the wrong sort of wood. Douglas Fir or Alaska Yellow Cypress will last much, much longer.

In England most of the low-e glass is Pilkington K, which is hard coated, but I believe that in France you are more likely to find soft coat made by St Gobain. Better U-value but more tricky to handle during sealed unit manufacture. Let us know what you find.

Argon fill reduces the U-value by a little, maybe 0.2, so is worth having if it doesn't cost any more. There are doubts as to whether the argon will diffuse out over the years. A bigger advantage is gained by using low-emisivity glass. This can reduce U-value by between 0.5 and 1.0 depending...

It's not quite so simple. With a large gap convection takes place within the space, the circulating gas tranferring heat from the warm side to the cold. This doesn't happen much in a 16mm space but at 20mm or more the insulation value actually goes down. If warmth is your priorit then 16mm is...

...though I've not seen that spelling before. :)

Steel clad in plastic - Sounds dreadful. Why not have an oak frame? It will look better, be stronger, last longer and not mess up the planet. It might be cheaper especially if you DIY. If your conservatory has a tiled roof it is not a conservatory and may need planning permission.

Oak. Strong, beautiful, can last a thousand years. There is no contest. Please don't use tropical hardwood. It just messes up the planet.

An alternative apporach to doors: Oak and Stained Glass

Lauan covers a group of timber species mostly belonging to the Shorea genus. Rater reddish in colour. Most of it gets turned into plywood but it is a durable timber. They come from South East Asia, Malaya, Phillipines, Sarawak, Indonesia. It is very difficult to establish that it has been...

What sort of 'hardwood' is it. Something grown locally and sustainably like oak or something that involves destruction of the rainforest? Are the dg units such that the window will conform to Part L of the Building regs? Probably have to be 4mm low-e glass with 16mm argon filled gap, and...

Oh well, enjoy the pleasure of cheap oil while it lasts. Apparently the age of a door in Westminster Abbey has been determined to be about 1000 years. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4743899.stm If you divide the price of the door by the number of years it lasts you find that oak is much...

Use wood. Paint it white. If you want it to last longer than PVC use oak and linseed oil paint.

Here's one I made recently: Internal or external, any shape, size, colour as long as it's oak. MOD please see 12 & 14a

That picture didn't seem to appear.

Depends on design and materials. I notice the JeldWen catalogue has a pair of hardwood French doors and frame 4 foot wide for £1003. That's a tropical hardwood, not oak. You could pay quite a bit more but not a lot less.

Double glazing is more sensible in terms of saving the planet. The fuel saved by better insulation outweighs the extra embodied energy in more glass. Or, more selfishly, you are more likely to make use of the room in all seasons. Hardwood is preferable to PVC for about a zillion reasons...

I know more about 200 year old bricks that didn't have frogs than about modern ones but here's a quote from the Penguin Dictionary of Building: "...at least for V-shaped frogs, walls built frog down(frog empty) are stronger than wall built frog up." Is this nonsence?

Why is a wall built frog down (frog empty) said to be stronger than a wall built with the bricks frog up? _________________ moderator 17 & 20