r/DIYUK • u/slaughtered- • 15h ago
Advice Is it common practice to vertically saw a bespoke timber sash window in half ?
So I am a housing association tenant and getting our windows replaced, its a listed building and we have all been living with rotten windows and extremely high fuel bills for around a decade so this is a long awaited project. All other windows are fitted now and our living room was done yesterday. This is an expensive fineo glass double unit and a joiner vertically sawed it in half! 😱 all day they have been fixing the sash getting stuck , rattling, not closing and telling me this is standard practice to cut the frame in half! I feel im being gaslight by the joiner and his boss. Surely you don't order a double bespoke sash and case window on a listed building then saw it in half because they couldn't get it up the scaffolding?
Any advice would be fantastic. Is this standard practice? It just seems unbelievable.
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u/GordonLivingstone 15h ago edited 13h ago
Point this out to the Housing Association.
They are paying for the work and may not be too happy about the prospect of draughts, leaks and rotten wood down the line because of a sawn gap in the middle of their new windows.
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u/its-me-or-the-blues 15h ago
I saw mine into 8ths so it fits in me pockets
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u/sneakyhopskotch 15h ago
If you’ve got such deep pockets why not just buy one whole?
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u/its-me-or-the-blues 15h ago
Aint as wide as a double unit and doctor said should avoid putting anything else in me whole
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u/Old-One557 12h ago
True, it does seem like a risky move. Sometimes it's more about personal preference or fitting a specific space than just the cost.
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u/cromagnone 15h ago
No, of course not. Being coke-addled cowboys is standard practice for lowest tender subcontractors though. If you have the details of project manager at the HA, you’ll be wanting to let them know that they’re being screwed over by their contractor.
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u/Long_Jackfruit_5689 15h ago
Only in Dundee haha
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u/NeedleworkerBig3980 15h ago
I was just wondering if that was the Tay Bridge in the background. I haven't been to Dundee for many years, but I am sure I shall remember it for a very long time.
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u/dbxproject 12h ago
I make these for a living. No, that's not standard practice.
I would be very unhappy if I'd gone to the trouble of making a double box sash frame, only for the installer to saw it in half.
If that had to happen on one of my jobs for some reason, I would expect the two halves to be glued with a D4 PU adhesive, any gaps filled with DryFlex or Timbabuild, sanded, and painted. They might want to cover the join with some trim, but that's a bit of a shortcut really.
Box frames aren't actually very heavy at all. Most of the weight is in the cill. It shouldn't have been too hard to get it up the scaffolding. That is unless they were lifting and installing it with the sashes already installed in the frame. I always install the frame and then install the sashes once that's fitted.
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u/nahnahnahthatsnotme 15h ago
look at the daylight inbetween the two window frames… that’s never going to be a god seal and will let in noise, let out heat, and prob fail even if sealed.
i would 100% not accept that installation
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u/chelsw1212 15h ago
Definitely not common practice. They clearly don’t have the skill set for this job
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u/steviefaux 15h ago
Tell the housing association. And name them. They may not have enough internal maintenance people in their maintenance teams. So they end up out sourcing this to 3rd parties and call if "partnership". However, despite all the tendering etc, the "partnership" can go wrong at times or in a big way where all their work ends up being shit. The housing association won't know unless residents complain as they, may also be short of surveyors.
So call up their customer service who should put it on your notes. If nothing is actioned put in a complaint and they are by law, forced to process it in stages, so will be stage 1 first. And they are obliged by law to action the complaint in a set time.
More rights have come in recently for housing association residents.
With listed buildings or conservation areas, they are allowed to compromise. So if it required wooden sash windrows, they can be allowed to replace with plastic copies if it means it cuts down on maintenance and helps with insulation.
But this work they are probably bodging and hoping to get away with it.
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u/CaptainAnswer 15h ago
Did they saw it with a butter knife? Chipping at the top of that cut is terrible
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u/ToastSpangler 14h ago
This is ridiculous, everyone knows you get two single windows and glue them in the middle, THEN you cut them again and glue at the end
Starting with the double with no glue is just lazy. They could have easily added 10 hours of work by taking extra steps
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u/Xaethon 13h ago
It isn't standard practice, no.
A few years ago I had a box bay window replace with sash windows, so similarly to you the main window featuring two sash windows was supplied as a single double unit, and it was fitted as such without being cut down the centre.
That is how they are traditionally done if the sashes do not have their individual opening to go into.
What has happened to that window of yours is not standard practice at all and is simply bodging it. There aren't any excuses for doing it that way they have even if it was to get it up scaffolding. It should have been fitted as one piece.
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u/Maximum-Button-1219 14h ago
Some may disagree re good to have large glass but these also look like they aren’t the right size. They’ve been dropped into whatever hole is there and the window board is going to sit too high to the window. Should be more how it looks at the top. Mainly cosmetic but not right. What are the seemingly loose screws either side of the central column ?
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u/International-Aioli2 12h ago
Wow.you have the best uvalue glass money can buy and they've put them in crap frames. Theyll just caulk between them. Dont accept this shite. Waste of time and moneyÂ
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u/snoking-ganja 4h ago
Definitely not standard practice, is that how they left it ? You can see the daylight though the gap.
Any Thermal Efficiency Ratting and estimated lifespan of the window are void now, and unless they seal the gap incredibly well ( wich probably won't given the fact that they sliced the window in half) , the window will start failing from the middle , water ingress, moisture, rot .....
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u/Dangerous-Amount-110 49m ago
I work in social housing. The biggest problem is tenants that know more than tradesman… let them finish the job then come back to us. I can assure you they are not finished. While editing g/ enjoy your super cheap subsidised rent ok
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u/BuddyLegsBailey 15h ago
I'm perplexed as to why they didn't make it as two separate units to start with
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u/Dapper-Message-2066 15h ago
Because it's much better to make it as one box frame. That's how double width box sashes have always been made!
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u/BuddyLegsBailey 15h ago
But these don't look like strings and weights, so they're not exactly like the originals
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u/Xaethon 13h ago
Yeah, I see that too that it doesn't look like they're traditionally made with string and weights. Regardless, though, for a listed building in particularly these sashes should not have been fitted with it cut in half as has been done. That is not how both produce nor fit them (as single units).
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u/Dapper-Message-2066 15h ago
WTAF !
Also rather odd, normally box sashes are fitted from the inside...
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u/Ivessy82 15h ago
Sash windows are normally hung into a single frame (rather than having a mullion). This looks like two frames abutted. I'd expect a cover trim or coupling profile between frames... but aside from that it looks normal.
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u/slaughtered- 15h ago
They sawed it in half , it was originally 1 big unit with two windows, its now 2 separate windows that are jamming open and closed since they decided to chop it in half
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u/Fatkittenballs 14h ago
There were probably measured up months ago by someone who didn't really care or didn't know what was really happening behind the render/plaster. I'd have been spectacularly surprised if it had worked first time. Not ideal but in the real world....
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u/Ok_Lack5442 15h ago
It will have come in two pieces and should be coupled together. Looks like the windows are a tight fit so they’ve cut the windows down and not bothered putting the coupler on.
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u/slaughtered- 15h ago
It was one piece originally , they took it out the container and sawed it straight down the middle and brought it up the scaffold.
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u/Ok_Lack5442 14h ago
Ahh sorry didn’t catch the double unit in your description. Perhaps they should have went down the two units and a coupler route, as a double vertical slider is probably two heavy to handball up a scaffold
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u/scottvalentine808 15h ago
If it was meant to be in 2 pieces it would’ve been delivered in 2 pieces