Buildings here are old enough to have the previous two generations of window in them - wooden frames, and steel sections from before aluminium was common. Both are repairable, and both get quoted for replacement more often than they need to be. We also do the shopfront side: doors, glass, shutterside panels and mirrors.
Steel windows are usually worth saving
Steel window sections from this period are heavier than anything sold now, and the frame is often sound long after the window stops working.
What fails is the hinge, the stay and the putty holding the glass. All three are replaceable without touching the frame.
De-rusting, new hinges, re-puttying and repainting costs a fraction of a new window and keeps a section you cannot buy any more. We will tell you honestly when a frame has gone past it, but on these houses it usually has not.
A wooden frame that sticks in one season
A wooden door or window that binds in the monsoon and frees up in winter has swollen, not warped.
Planing it down while it is swollen is the common mistake. Come January the same door has a finger-wide gap and rattles.
The right fix is to seal the timber so it stops taking up water, and to adjust the hinge or stop rather than the leaf. We will plane only where the frame has genuinely moved for good, and we say which of the two it is before doing anything irreversible.
Shopfront glass on a trading street
A broken shopfront pane cannot wait, because the shop is open to the street until it is fixed.
So the first visit is boarding and making safe, and that we do the same day wherever we can. The replacement pane is made to the measured opening and fitted after.
Toughened glass is what belongs in a shopfront at street level. It costs more than ordinary float and it breaks into blunt granules instead of shards, which on a pavement with people on it is the entire point.
How the job works
- Tell us about the jobSend a few photos, rough sizes and what you need. Use WhatsApp or the form. For a repair, a short video of the door moving helps a lot.
- We call you back in about 2 minutesWe confirm what you need and a time to visit. Where we can, we give you a rough price on the call.
- We come and measureWe measure the opening and check the walls, floor and ceiling around it. Anything made to size is made to these measurements, so they must be right.
- You get a written priceIt lists each item, with GST as its own line. If anything about the job changes, we tell you before we go ahead.
- We fit itYou approve the price and pay the advance. Our own team fits the work, checks that every door and window opens and closes properly, and clears up. Most jobs are done in 3 to 4 days.
