A large plot means a lot of external metalwork and glazing: boundary and staircase railings, balcony grilles, terrace balustrades and a long run of windows. That is mostly maintenance rather than repair, and doing it in the right order saves repeating it. We cover all of it in steel, aluminium, uPVC and wood.
Doing a long railing run in the right order
On a run of railing, the failures are never evenly spread. Two or three sections have gone and the rest are sound.
The temptation is to repaint the whole run to make it look right, but painting over a joint that has already rusted through simply hides it for a season.
So the order is: check every joint by hand, cut out and re-weld what has failed, then take the whole run back and repaint it as one. Repainting first and repairing later means doing the paint twice.
Terrace balustrades take the most weather
A terrace balustrade is fully exposed on every face and gets more sun and rain than anything else on the house.
In steel that means the top rail holds water at every weld. In glass it means the base fixings sit in standing water for weeks at a time.
Either way the failure is at the base and inside the fitting, not where you can see it. We take a fixing apart to check rather than judging by eye, because a balustrade is the one piece of metalwork on the house that people lean on without thinking.
A long run of windows, done as a survey rather than a call-out
On a house this size there can be twenty windows, and calling us out for each as it fails is expensive and never-ending.
It is usually better to have the whole house looked at once. We go round every window and door, list what is failing now, what will fail within a year or two, and what is fine.
Then it can be done in one or two visits, in a sensible order, with the parts brought once. On a large house that is a materially cheaper way to do the same work.
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.
