Livingston is about half an hour from us, along the A71 or the M8, and we cover it from Craigshill and Ladywell to Dedridge, Eliburn, Adambrae and Murieston. When double glazing mists up, we take out the failed sealed unit and fit a new one in the frame you already have, from £75 for a hopper sized pane. Cracked and smashed glass, doors that will not lock and worn hinges are all on the list too.

Glass replacement in Livingston

A misted window has not broken in the usual sense. The two panes are fine, but the seal around the edge of the unit has let go, so damp air gets into the gap and leaves a haze you cannot wipe off from either side. The answer is a new unit, made to measure and fitted into the existing frame, and the frame stays exactly where it is.

Smashed or cracked glass gets the same new unit, just with the opening made safe first, and our broken window repair page explains how that works. Glass in a door or the panel beside it goes back in as safety glass, and patterned bathroom glass can usually be matched. The full picture is on our window glass replacement page.

Timing is the thing to know about Livingston. Big parts of the town went up within a few years of each other, and the private estates of the nineties, Eliburn and Adambrae among them, are now old enough for their original units to start failing. When one unit goes on a street, it is often the first of several.

What else we fix in Livingston

Misted and blown units, replaced from £75 for a hopper sized pane
Safety glass for doors and side panels, and obscure glass for bathrooms
Front and back doors that have dropped or will not lock
Window hinges, friction stays, handles and gaskets
Cylinders, letterplates and replacement door panels
New uPVC windows and doors when the frames are past saving

A new town, built district by district

Livingston was designated a new town in 1962, and the Development Corporation built it district by district over the following thirty years before handing its housing to West Lothian Council in 1997. Deans came first, then Craigshill from the mid sixties, Ladywell, Howden and Knightsridge through the late sixties and seventies, and Dedridge in the seventies and early eighties.

Craigshill is the district people remember for its building method. Its first houses were system built from concrete panels, they had flat roofs, and they suffered from water getting in, which is why many were later given pitched roofs. The grey harled terraces of Ladywell and Howden followed, and Knightsridge alone has more than a thousand terraced homes from the seventies.

Tenants could buy from the start, and by 1992 half of the town’s homes were owner occupied. A lot of those were re-windowed privately over the years, so across the older districts you find windows of every age and make, sometimes side by side in the same terrace. Then come the private estates: Eliburn from the early nineties, Adambrae from the late nineties and the larger detached houses of Murieston, many of them still on the windows and doors the builder fitted.

What a repair costs in Livingston

There is no call out fee, even this far out. You pay for the work done and nothing else.

New glass starts at £75 for a hopper sized unit. Beyond that the price follows the glass: its size, whether it is toughened or obscure, and whether it carries a leaded or Georgian bar design. Hardware follows the part, and a part for a system nobody makes any more is not the same job as a current one. We quote every job on its own, and a photo on WhatsApp with a rough size usually gets you a good idea before anybody comes out.

Getting out to Livingston

Livingston is one of the longer runs we make, about half an hour each way, and we are happy to make it. We work Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. If the house cannot be left secure, say so when you call and we will do what we can to get there sooner.

We do the work ourselves, with no subcontractors, so the person who measures is the person who fits. Glass jobs are usually two visits, one to measure and one to fit once the new unit has been made.

Not sure what is wrong? Send a photo of the window or door on WhatsApp and we will give you a quick idea of the fix and the cost, with no obligation.

Call 01698 604 278 or message us on WhatsApp for a free quote on glass, window or door repairs in Livingston.

Livingston Village conservation area

The old village, along Main Street and Kirk Lane by the River Almond, is Livingston’s only conservation area, with an eighteenth century kirk and inn and a row of listed cottages. West Lothian Council says most work that would normally be allowed without planning permission does need it there, so changing windows or doors in the village is a conversation to have with the council before you order anything.

A repair is a different thing. Replacing a misted unit in the existing frame or freeing a sticking sash changes nothing anyone can see. Our piece on window rules in Scotland covers the general position.

New windows and doors in Livingston

When the frames are sound we will tell you so, and when they are not, we supply and fit the new ones ourselves. Casement windows suit most of the town, and tilt and turn or reversible windows make sense in upper floor flats where the outside of the glass is hard to reach. For doors we fit uPVC and Palladio composite doors. Our page on new windows and double glazing goes through the options, and measuring and quoting cost nothing.

Questions from Livingston

Can you match the obscure glass in our bathroom?

Usually. Most of the common patterns are still made, so a failed unit in a bathroom can go back with the same pattern as the window next to it. If yours is a pattern that has been discontinued, we will tell you before ordering and show you the nearest match. Our guide to obscure glass for bathrooms explains the privacy levels.

Our house is from the nineties and the original units are misting one by one. Should we do them all?

Only the ones that have actually failed. Check them on a cold morning, when a failed unit is easiest to spot, and replace those. If several have gone, doing them on the same visit keeps the cost per window down.

Our windows are old and nobody seems to make the parts. Is that the end of them?

Not always. A lot of older hinges, handles and locks have modern equivalents that fit the same holes, and we carry the common ones in the van. Where a window really is beyond parts, we will say so before you spend anything, and that is the point where new windows start to make sense.

Before you call us out

A lot of the jobs we get in Livingston start as one of these questions. The answers are free to read and there is no sales pitch in any of them.

There are nearly fifty articles in all in our window and door advice section.

On the way out to Livingston we also cover Shotts and Cumbernauld. There is a full list of every town we work in on our areas we cover page.