Crittall replacement - any experiences?

[cheradenine]

Hi

We have a house built 1938, which has single-glazed crittall windows - with all the problems that entails. I am intending to replace them with alu double-glazed units which I will be fitting myself (as a part of a larger project which will involve the BCO anyway) - and was wondering if anyone has experiences / recommendations to share as I have a number of queries

- sizing - my windows seem to match the historic "standard sizes" - widths of 1'8" and 3'3 1/4", heights of 2' 11/14", 3' 0 1/2", 4'. Crittall's own Homelight catalogue lists products that are metric - 508, 997 wide and 628, 923 and 1218 heights - which are very close. I'm assuming these are the right sizes to specify since that's the sizes specified for "genuine" replacements?

- products. I've looked at duration's two options, one of which is actually Smart's Alitherm 47 heritage, and I'm not sure of the other profile - possibly even their own - but it has a slightly slimmer profile, but the double glazing is also narrower (16/18mm) vs 24mm for the smart system. Should I be bothered by that? Any other manufacturers I should consider?

 

[God]

I have just taken delivery of 3 hertiage windows which will be replacing old crittalls in London. They are probably the best out there for this kind of job but aluk do one as well http://www.alukhome.co.uk/heritage-windows.php

 

[cheradenine]

Ok - I might search on those too to get a comparison quote too; currently minded towards the duration royales as they have slightly nicer handles and are slightly slimmer so the other half prefers them.

The windows that we currently have, some have a small openers at the top (see pic

windows

• cheradenine
• 22 Mar 2016

windows

). I've just noticed that on the quote that I have, they've set that height to be 350mm, which isn't right at all, it ought to be something around 314 (depending on frame and window size), otherwise it's going to look silly as the astragal bars won't line up properly. Is that some fundamental limitation of modern windows, or because they've assumed multipoint locks?

The other ache is I can see no evidence of an external lintel - I'm guessing they assumed the steel frames were enough to hold the bricks up. Why do jobs always seem to get bigger. .

 

[LittleWren]

Hello,

I'm just found your comment on the Duration Royal product to replace old steel Crittall windows.

We are trying to decide what to go for and I was wondering if you went ahead with this and what you thought of the result.