If your double glazing has misted over, stopped closing properly or the handle has gone, you almost certainly do not need new windows. You need somebody to repair the double glazing you already have.
That is the whole of what we do. We are two people, family run, more than thirty years of it in North Lanarkshire, and we carry out double glazing repairs across Wishaw and the surrounding towns rather than sell you replacements you do not need.
What double glazing repairs usually turn out to be
Almost every call we get comes down to one of a handful of things, and none of them require a new window.
A misted or blown unit. The two panes of glass in a double glazed window are sealed together with a gap between them. When that seal fails, moisture gets into the gap and you get fog, condensation or streaks that you cannot wipe off because they are inside the glass. The frame is usually perfectly fine. The sealed unit comes out and a new one goes in, which is a glass unit replacement.
A window that will not close or lock. Usually a hinge that has dropped, a worn gearbox or a locking mechanism that has stopped engaging. The window itself is sound.
A handle that spins, snaps or sticks. One of the most common calls and one of the smallest jobs.
Hinges that have worn or seized. A window that catches on the frame, drops at one corner or takes a shove to shut has generally gone on its hinges.
Draughts, rattles and whistling. Nearly always the rubber gaskets and seals around the opener rather than anything structural, and one of the cheapest things on the list.
Cracked or broken glass. Made to measure, and again the frame stays exactly where it is.
Can blown double glazing be resealed?
This is asked a lot, so here is the straight answer: no, not in any way that lasts.
A sealed unit is exactly that, a factory sealed assembly with a desiccant strip inside the spacer bar that absorbs the small amount of moisture present when it is made. Once that desiccant is saturated and the perimeter seal has failed, the unit has reached the end of its working life. There are people who will drill the glass, blow it out and fit a vent, and it will look clearer for a while, but you have then got a deliberately ventilated unit that is no longer a sealed one, and the misting usually comes back.
Replacing the unit is the honest fix, and because the frame, the hinges and the handles all stay where they are, it is a fraction of the cost of a new window. There is more on this in our guide to why double glazing mists up.
Does the whole window need replaced?
Very rarely, and we will tell you plainly when it does.
The frame, the glass and the hardware are separate things. A failed unit does not mean a failed frame. Worn hinges do not mean a failed window. In the large majority of the double glazing we look at, one component has reached the end of its life and everything else has years left in it.
The cases where replacement genuinely is the answer are frames that have distorted or gone brittle with age, and windows old enough that nearly every part on them is failing at once. That is a small minority. If yours is one of them we will say so, and we also fit new and replacement windows, so you are not being sent elsewhere. Our article on whether to repair or replace goes through it properly.
Most of the people who call us have already had somebody out who told them the whole window needed done. A large part of our work is proving that it does not.
What double glazing repairs cost
There is one figure we can give you up front, and we would rather be honest about the rest than publish a list that falls apart the moment we see the job.
Replacing a failed sealed unit in an existing uPVC frame starts from £75. That is a starting figure and it is for a small pane, the sort of hopper vent that sits above or below a main window. A larger pane, toughened glass, obscure glass for a bathroom, Low E energy glass, a shaped or leaded unit will all cost more, and how much more depends on the window in front of us.
Everything else is quoted on its own. Two jobs that sound identical on the phone can need completely different parts. “My window will not lock” might be ten minutes of adjustment or it might be a full mechanism. Glass is made to measure every single time. Publishing one number for that would mean either overcharging you on the easy version or undercutting ourselves on the hard one.
If it turns out the frames have had their day rather than just the glass, our page on new windows in Wishaw covers what replacement actually involves and what separates the styles.
There is no call out fee. You do not pay us to turn up, you do not pay us to look and you do not pay for the quote. If you decide not to go ahead, you owe us nothing. You pay for the work done and nothing else.
There is a fuller explanation of what moves a price on our window repair prices page, and a worked example in what it costs to fix a misted window.
How to get a real number quickly
Send us a photo. It is by a distance the fastest route to an actual figure.
A picture of the window on WhatsApp, a rough idea of how big the pane is and a line about what it is doing is usually enough for us to come back with a real price the same day. Most misted unit jobs and most handle and hinge jobs can be priced from a photo without anybody coming out at all.
If you would rather talk it through, ring us. If it is easier to type it, use the contact form. All three land with the same two people, and we are open eight until five, Monday to Friday.
Working out what has actually failed
Double glazing is really three separate systems sharing a frame, and almost every repair comes down to identifying which one has gone. You can usually do that yourself in about a minute, standing at the window.
The glass. Look between the panes. If there is cloudiness, a milky film or actual droplets sitting inside the sealed unit that no amount of cleaning touches, the unit has failed. Nothing else produces that. The frame, hinges and handle are irrelevant to it and stay exactly where they are.
The hardware. Open and close the window. If it is stiff, if the handle needs forcing, if the sash catches on the frame or drops when you let go, that is friction stays or the locking mechanism. Nothing to do with the glass at all, and covered on our uPVC window repair page.
The seal round the outside. Close the window and run the back of your hand round the joint on a cold day. A draught, a whistle in wind, or damp in the bottom corner after heavy rain is the weather gasket rather than the glass. Cheap to put right and quick.
The one that catches everybody out is water on the room side of the glass that wipes away with a cloth. That is not a failure of anything. It is condensation, it is about humidity and ventilation in the house, and replacing the window will not fix it. Our window condensation page goes through it properly, and it has saved a fair few people the price of a job they did not need.
Repairs on different frame types
Most of what we see is uPVC, but the sealed unit inside is a standard product and it can be replaced in almost anything.
uPVC frames. The straightforward case. Glazing beads clip out from the inside, the old unit comes out, the new one goes in on fresh packers and the beads clip back. No mess, no making good, and the frame is untouched.
Aluminium frames. Perfectly doable, and common in older commercial and seventies domestic work. The gaskets are different and the units are often a non standard thickness, so it usually means measuring on one visit and fitting on another rather than doing it there and then.
Timber frames. Also doable, and often the best outcome for a period property where replacing the windows would be a shame or would need consent. Beading is usually pinned or puttied rather than clipped, so it is slower, and occasionally the timber underneath turns out to need attention first. We will tell you if that is the case rather than glaze over a problem.
And if the glass is smashed rather than blown, broken and cracked window glass is dealt with on its own page.
Doors. Glass in a door works the same way and comes out the same way, with the one difference that it must be safety glass, so toughened or laminated rather than ordinary float. There is more in toughened or laminated glass, and door work generally is on our door repair page.
Getting the specification right
A replacement unit is not simply a piece of glass, and the details are worth a minute of your time because you are going to live with them for fifteen years.
Thickness has to match what the frame was built for. Get it wrong and the beads will not sit, or the unit rattles. Low emissivity coating is standard now and worth having, because it reflects heat back into the room and costs very little extra over plain glass. The spacer bar round the edge, the strip you can see between the panes, comes in aluminium or in a warm edge composite, and the warm edge type reduces the cold bridging that makes condensation form at the bottom of the pane.
Then there is what the glass itself needs to do. Obscure patterns for a bathroom or a door side panel, covered in choosing obscure glass. Toughened or laminated where the regulations require safety glass, which is any pane in a door and any pane sitting below 800mm from the floor. And an acoustic specification if you are on a main road, which does more for noise than adding a third pane does.
If your house has a mix of ages of glazing, say so. Matching a new unit to the tint and reflectivity of what is already there matters more than people expect on a front elevation, and it costs nothing to get right at the ordering stage.
When repair stops being the answer
We repair for a living and we would still rather tell you the truth than take money for something that will not last. There are a few situations where a repair is not the sensible spend.
If the frame itself has gone, distorted, cracked at a weld, or the corners have opened up, a new unit in it will fail early. If most of the units in the house have already blown, replacing them one at a time gets expensive and you are probably better pricing the lot. If the hardware pattern is long discontinued and nothing retrofits, that changes the sums. And if the windows are single glazed originals, you are not repairing double glazing at all, you are considering an upgrade.
In any of those cases we will say so plainly on the visit, and you are under no obligation. If replacement genuinely is the answer, our page on new windows in Wishaw sets out the styles and what separates them.
Some symptoms look like a failed unit and are not. Mould appearing between the panes means the seal has gone and moisture is sitting in there. Losing the argon fill is something people worry about far more than they need to. And condensation on the outside of the glass is a sign the window is working well rather than failing.
Where we repair double glazing
We are based in Wishaw and we cover North and South Lanarkshire and the surrounding areas, which takes in Motherwell, Hamilton, Bellshill, Coatbridge, Airdrie, East Kilbride and out towards Glasgow. The full list is on our areas we cover page.
If you are not sure whether you are inside the area, ring and ask. It is a short conversation and there is no charge either way.
Common questions
Is misted double glazing worth repairing?
Yes, in nearly every case. The fault is in the glass unit, not the window, so replacing the unit restores the window for a fraction of the cost of a new one.
How long does a sealed unit replacement take?
Most single units are done in well under an hour once the glass is with us. The glass itself is made to measure, so there is normally a short wait between measuring and fitting.
Do you repair double glazing on wooden or aluminium frames?
We work mainly on uPVC. Ring us with what you have got and we will tell you honestly whether it is one for us.
Will a new unit look different from the rest of the house?
It should not. We match the glass specification to what is coming out, including obscure patterns and energy coatings where they are there.
Do you guarantee the work?
Yes. Ask us what applies to your particular job when we quote it.
Do you take card?
Yes, along with cash and bank transfer.
Ready when you are
If you are in Wishaw itself, there is a page covering windows and doors in Wishaw that puts the repairs alongside the styles we fit.
Send a photo on WhatsApp, call us on 01698 604 278, or fill in the contact form and we will come back with a real price rather than a range. If it turns out to be a window repair of another kind, that is the same two people and the same no call out fee.
For the wider picture, including the window styles we fit and what separates one uPVC quote from another, see our windows in Wishaw page.