Almost every house has a window that stopped opening at some point and has been left ever since. People assume it is broken or swollen shut for good. In our experience most of them are recoverable, and it is one of the cheapest useful things that can be done to a house.
Painted shut, which is the commonest cause
A window painted while closed is glued shut by the paint film across the joint, and it will not move however hard it is pushed.\n\nForcing it tears the paint off the frame and sometimes splits the timber.\n\nThe right method is to cut the paint line along the whole joint with a knife first, then ease the sash free gradually. It takes a few minutes per window and it recovers windows that households have written off years earlier.
Seized hinges and stays
On a window that has not moved for years, the hinge and the stay have usually seized rather than failed.\n\nRust and hardened old grease lock the pivot, and the first movement is the hardest.\n\nFreeing it properly means penetrating oil, time, and working the pivot gradually rather than levering it. Levering a seized hinge is what breaks it, and a broken hinge on an old window is far harder to replace than to free. It is worth being patient rather than quick.
Knowing when a window is genuinely finished
Some are. A timber sash that has rotted at the bottom rail, a steel frame corroded through at the hinge, or an aluminium sash racked out of square by years of forcing will not come back.\n\nWe will say so plainly rather than charging to free something that will not stay free.\n\nBut in these houses the recoverable ones outnumber the finished ones considerably, and the only way to know is to look. It is worth adding any long-dead window to a visit that is happening anyway.
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.
