When a frontage is looking tired, the question is whether to repair it or replace it, and the honest answer is not always the larger job. There is a reasonably clear way to decide, and it is worth setting out rather than leaving it to whoever is quoting.
What can be dealt with without replacing anything
A frontage that looks tired is often only three things: worn gaskets, a door that has dropped, and glass that has never been properly cleaned.
All three are inexpensive, and together they transform how a unit looks for a fraction of a new frontage.
So we would always price that first. Where a shop has been trading for fifteen years without any of those being touched, the improvement from doing them is considerably larger than anybody expects.
When the frame is genuinely finished
A frontage needs replacing when the frame itself has gone: corrosion through the section, joints that have opened, or a sill that no longer holds the glass squarely.
Those cannot be repaired in any lasting way, and glazing into a failed frame wastes the glass.
We will say plainly which of the two yours is, and we would rather do the small job honestly than the large one unnecessarily. In this market the frames are often sound and the hardware is not, which is the cheaper of the two outcomes.
The middle answer: keep the frame, change the glass
Where the frame is sound but the glass is wrong — too small a pane division, obscured where it should be clear, ordinary where it should be toughened — the glass alone can be changed.
That is a much smaller job than a new frontage and it achieves most of the visible difference.
It is the option least often offered, because it is the least profitable to quote. We raise it where it applies, and it applies more often than people are told.
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.
