Nearly everybody who lands on this page is at one of two points. Either a window has started playing up and you want to know whether it can be fixed, or the windows have reached the stage where the whole lot needs doing and you want to understand what you are actually choosing between. We do both, which is less common than you would think, and it is the reason we can give you a straight answer about which one you need rather than the one that suits us.
We are a family run firm working out of Wishaw. There are two of us. You get the same two people on the phone, at your door and doing the work, nobody is on commission, and there is no call out charge. If we come out and look at a window and there is nothing worth doing, we will say so and it costs you nothing.
Doors have their own guide. If it is a front, back, patio or French door giving you trouble, or you are weighing up a replacement, start with doors in Wishaw.
Repair or replace, and how to tell which you need
The single most useful thing to understand about a double glazed window is that the frame is almost never the part that has failed. What fails is a hinge, a handle, a gasket, a locking mechanism or a sealed unit, and every one of those is a wearing part that was always going to need replacing at some point in the window’s life. They are all things we take out and put back in with the frame staying exactly where it is.
So when somebody tells you a stiff window or a misted pane means you need new windows, that is worth a second opinion. A window that will not open is usually a seized hinge. A window that whistles is usually flattened gasket. A window you cannot see out of is a failed sealed unit, and the fix is a new pane in the frame you already own.
There are genuine cases where replacement is the right call, and we will tell you when you are looking at one. uPVC that has gone brittle and chalky, so it cracks every time a screw goes near it. A frame that has been forced or has cracked welds at the corners. Timber with rot in the sill. Old single glazing, or sealed units so shallow that no modern unit will fit the rebate. Hardware that has been out of production for twenty years with nothing that will retrofit. In those cases the frame really has finished, and we fit replacement windows and doors as well, so we have nothing to gain by pushing you either way. We have written the decision up properly in repair or replace your windows.
Double glazing repairs in Wishaw
Most of what we do day to day is repair work, and most of it falls into four groups.
Misted and cloudy glass is the one people notice first, because you can see it from the street. The seal round the edge of the sealed unit has failed, damp air has got into the cavity and it is condensing between the panes where no cloth will ever reach it. The frame, the hinges and the handles are all fine. You need a new sealed unit, and that is a glass unit replacement. There is a full explanation of why it happens in our guide to misted double glazing.
Stiff, dropped and draughty windows are the second group. A casement that has to be lifted to lock, a handle that spins without doing anything, a sash that will not stay open on a windy day, a whistle round the edge in a gale. These are hinges, friction stays, handles, gearboxes and gaskets, and they are cheap parts fitted quickly. Our window repair page goes through them, and there are articles on draughty and stiff windows and windows that will not stay open.
Broken glass is the third, and it is the one where we get out fastest, because a broken window is a hole in your house. We can board up the same day and glaze once the unit is made.
Condensation is the fourth, and it is the one that gets misdiagnosed most often. Water on the inside face of the glass is not a broken window, it is warm damp air in the room meeting a cold surface, and replacing the window will not stop it. Water on the outside face is the opposite, and it is a sign the glass is doing its job. Only water trapped between the panes is a failure. We have set out which is which on our window condensation page, so you can work out what you are looking at before anybody quotes you for anything.
Everything above sits under double glazing repairs, and doors are the same story with different parts, covered on uPVC door repairs and patio and French door repairs.
The window styles we fit
If you are replacing rather than repairing, the style you choose changes how the window opens, how you clean it, what it costs and how it looks from the pavement. It is worth ten minutes of thought, because you will live with it for twenty five years. We have written a page on each.
uPVC casement windows are what most houses round here have and what most houses should have. The sash is hinged at the side or the top and swings out. The hardware is standard, it is available everywhere, it is cheap to repair in fifteen years, and that last point matters more than the brochure suggests.
Tilt and turn windows do two things with one handle. Turn it one way and the top tips inwards for ventilation you can leave on safely. Turn it the other and the whole sash swings inwards like a door, which makes cleaning both faces from indoors straightforward. They suit upper floors and flats particularly well.
Flush sash windows, which people also search for as flush fit windows, sit level with the frame instead of standing proud of it. That single detail is what makes uPVC read as timber from the street, so they are the usual answer for older stone and sandstone properties and anywhere the standard chunky sash looks wrong.
Reversible windows pivot right round so the outside face ends up indoors. If you are in a flat above the ground floor, or you simply have no intention of getting a ladder out to clean an upstairs window, this is the style that solves it.
Vertical sliding windows are the sash and case pattern done in uPVC, with the sashes running up and down on balances rather than cords and weights. They are the right choice where a tenement or a traditional terrace would look wrong with anything that swings out.
Triple glazing is a glass choice rather than a style, and we are more measured about it than most people selling windows. It has a place, and there is a longer discussion of where that place is on the page and in our article on whether triple glazing is worth it.
What uPVC actually means when you are comparing quotes
Two quotes for uPVC windows can be hundreds of pounds apart and both be honest, because uPVC is a material, not a specification. A few things account for most of the difference, and knowing them lets you compare like with like.
Chambers first. A profile is not solid plastic, it is a hollow extrusion divided internally into chambers, and more chambers means more still air and a better insulating frame. Five chambers is the sensible modern standard. If a quote does not say, ask.
Reinforcement second. Larger sashes and frames need galvanised steel or an equivalent stiffener inside the profile, and it is invisible once the window is in. It is also the easiest thing in the world to leave out on a cheap job, and you find out three winters later when a wide sash has bowed and stopped locking.
Hardware third. Hinges, friction stays, handles and locking gear are where the wear happens, and it is the part of the window you will be dealing with in a decade. Recognised brands with parts you can still buy are worth more than an extra chamber.
Colour last. Anything other than white is a foil laminated onto the profile, and coloured foils cost more and usually take longer to come. Anthracite grey outside with white inside has been the most requested combination round here for a few years now.
The glass matters more than most people expect
The frame gets all the attention and the glass does most of the work. A modern sealed unit has a low emissivity coating on one internal face, which is a microscopically thin metal layer that lets short wave sunlight in and reflects long wave heat back into the room. That coating is doing more for your heating bill than anything else in the window.
Beyond that there is the gas fill, usually argon, and the spacer bar round the edge, where a warm edge composite bar performs noticeably better than old aluminium at the point where most condensation forms. Whether the gas has gone is a question we get regularly and we have answered it in has my double glazing lost its gas. If you want to know what the window ratings on the sticker mean, window energy ratings explained covers it.
Some panes have to be safety glass and it is not optional. Glass in a door, glass in a panel beside a door, and any pane whose bottom edge sits below 800mm from the floor must be toughened or laminated. The difference between the two is set out in toughened or laminated glass. Bathrooms and anything overlooked usually want obscure glass, and there is a page on choosing obscure glass patterns.
Choosing a window company in Wishaw
You will not need much advice about us specifically, but you might find some about the process useful, because window buying has a reputation and it is largely earned.
A price that halves while the salesman is still sitting in your living room was never a real price. A discount that expires tonight is a technique, not an offer. Neither tells you anything about whether the windows are any good. What does tell you something is whether the person quoting has actually opened the window and looked at the hinge, whether they can name the profile system and the hardware, whether the quote is itemised, and whether they are willing to tell you that you do not need what you asked about.
Ask who is doing the work. A lot of quotes come from firms who sell and then subcontract the fitting, and the fitting is where jobs go wrong. With us it is the two of us, start to finish. We have gone into the wider question in choosing a window repair company, and you can read what our customers have said on our reviews page or see the work on our before and after gallery.
Having new windows fitted
Most of this page is about repairs, because most of what we do is repairs. But a fair number of people arrive here having already decided the windows have had their day, and installation is a different conversation with different things worth knowing.
The first thing is that new uPVC windows are not a commodity, even though they are sold like one. Two quotes for the same house can differ substantially and both be honest, because what is being quoted is not the same. The profile can have three chambers or six. The reinforcement inside it can be steel or aluminium or absent. The hardware can be a recognised brand with parts you can still buy in fifteen years, or the cheapest that passes. The glass can be plain double glazed or low emissivity with a warm edge spacer. None of that shows on a quotation that just says white uPVC casement.
So when you are comparing window installers, ask what is actually going in. Ask the profile make and how many chambers. Ask what the hardware is. Ask whether the glass is low emissivity and what the spacer bar is. A firm that fits good windows will answer all of that without hesitating. A firm that will not answer is telling you something.
The second thing is that fitting matters more than the window. A well made window fitted badly will drop, drag, whistle and stop locking, and you will be phoning somebody about it inside three years. A sensibly specified window fitted properly will be forgotten about for two decades. That is not a small difference and it is the part of the job you cannot inspect afterwards, because it is all behind the trim.
Who actually does the work
This is where we differ from most of the window companies in Lanarkshire, and it is the main reason people pick us.
There are two of us. The person who comes out to measure is the person who fits the windows. There is no salesman on commission, no surveyor who never sees the job again, and no subcontract fitting team who were booked last Tuesday and have never met us. Whatever gets agreed at the measuring stage is understood by the people doing the work, because they are the same people.
It also means we are not incentivised to sell you windows. We repair for a living, so if your existing frames are sound and it is the glass or the hardware that has failed, we will tell you that and quote the repair instead. Nobody here gets a better month for talking you into a full replacement, and our reviews reflect that fairly consistently.
What fitting day looks like
People worry about the mess and the disruption more than anything else, so it is worth setting out plainly.
We work room by room rather than opening the whole house up at once, so you are never left with several holes in the wall at the same time. The old window comes out, the opening gets cleaned up and checked, the new frame goes in and is packed and levelled, then it is fixed, sealed and trimmed. Each window is finished before the next one starts.
Before we arrive it helps if curtains, blinds and anything on the sills are down and out of the way, and if there is clear access outside. We put sheets down inside, and we take the old frames and glass away with us rather than leaving them in your garden.
How long it takes depends on how many and what they are going into. A single straightforward casement is a short job. A full house is usually a small number of days rather than a week. We will tell you the realistic figure when we quote rather than an optimistic one, because we would rather be right than sound fast.
Replacement windows in Scotland have to meet a required standard, and there is a proper explanation of what applies, including where you need consent for a listed building or a conservation area, in our advice piece on window rules in Scotland.
Questions people ask before ordering
Do I have to do the whole house at once?
No, and plenty of people do not. Doing the front elevation first, or the worst two or three, then coming back to the rest later is completely reasonable. As long as the profile and colour are recorded, matching them up in a year or two is straightforward.
Can I keep the same style, or should I change it?
Either. Most people replace like for like because it suits the house, but it is a good moment to reconsider. If cleaning upstairs windows is the problem, reversible windows solve it. If ventilation is the problem, tilt and turn. If the frontage is the priority, flush sash. Worth five minutes of thought while the decision is open.
How long is the wait?
New windows are made to your measurements, so there is a manufacturing lead time between ordering and fitting. We will give you the current honest figure when we quote. Repairs are a different matter and most are done on the visit.
Will new windows stop my condensation?
Sometimes, and not always, and it is worth understanding before you spend. If the condensation is between the panes then yes, because that is a failed unit. If it is on the room side of the glass, that is humidity and ventilation, and new windows can occasionally make it worse by sealing the house up tighter. Our window condensation page explains which is which.
Do you do doors at the same time?
Yes, and doing them together usually makes sense for matching colours and for the disruption happening once. Our doors in Wishaw page covers that side.
What it costs
There is no call out fee. You pay for the work done.
Sealed unit replacements start from £75, and that figure is for a hopper sized pane, the small opener above a window. Everything past that is quoted on the job, because every job genuinely is different. A hinge set, a gearbox, a full height toughened unit and a set of replacement windows are four different pieces of work with four different parts bills, and publishing invented ranges would only mislead you. We would rather look at it, tell you what it needs, tell you what that costs and let you decide with nothing owed either way. There is more on how pricing works on our window repair prices page.
The quickest route to a rough figure without anybody travelling is a photograph. Send a picture on WhatsApp showing the whole window and a close up of whatever is giving trouble, and we can usually tell you what we are looking at.
Two things worth reading before you commit to anything. Window energy ratings explains what those A and A plus labels actually measure, which is less than the salesman implies. And double glazing guarantees covers what a twenty year guarantee is really worth and what to check before you sign one. On the security side, sash jammers are a cheap addition worth knowing about.
Where we work
Wishaw is home and it is where most of our work is, but we cover a fair bit of Lanarkshire and beyond: Motherwell, Hamilton, Bellshill, Coatbridge, Airdrie, Newmains, Shotts, Larkhall, Blantyre, Uddingston, Carluke, Lanark, East Kilbride, Cambuslang, Rutherglen and out towards Glasgow. The full list, with a page for each, is on areas we cover.
Getting a price
Ring 01698 604 278 between eight and five, Monday to Friday, and you will get one of us rather than a call centre. Send a photo to WhatsApp if that is easier and we will come back to you. Or write it down on the contact form and it reaches us just the same.
Whether it turns out to be a ten minute adjustment or a full set of windows, you will get the same answer about which one it actually is.
For everything else we do, windows and doors together, see our full list of services.
If a pane has actually been broken, our broken window repair page covers boarding up and reglazing.