Home improvement ideas: timber doors and windows

Home improvement projects are on the rise as lockdown eases. Update your property with bespoke timber doors and windows for an elegant, refined aesthetic.

With all of us appreciating a slower pace of life and spending more time with family indoors post-lockdown, we’ve finally had a moment to pause and tackle overdue projects and tasks around the home. We’ve learnt to see the value of staying inside more than ever before, and we’ve had to make use of the space we have in different ways. As a result, many people are looking to invest in their homes and make improvements now that the world is returning to normal.  

It’s no surprise people want to make changes after the long, dull months in lockdown. Giving your home a makeover can be an invigorating project to embark on, and there’s something rather exciting about seeing your property transform. Many homeowners have discovered that fitting new doors and windows can make a significant difference to their property without causing much disruption to family life. The key is to invest in premium products, which can completely alter the aesthetic of a home by making it look distinguished and grand. A well-designed, beautiful timber window that is perfectly balanced in terms of proportion, shape, and colour has the power to turn an ordinary home into a spectacular looking home. On the other hand, poorly fitted and outdated uPVC doors and windows can let your whole property down. 

Timber doors and windows that last for half a century or more…

Exceptional timber doors and windows will harmonise with the architecture of your home in the way that standard products never can – and they last considerably longer, too. A high-quality product has been crafted by experts from only the best, premium materials like Accoya, which guarantees exceptional longevity.

Accoya is a revolutionary, knot-free engineered timber, which doesn’t split like traditional woods. Accoya is ideal for making sturdy, durable doors and windows, offering better dimensional stability than even tropical hardwoods, with a reduction in swelling and shrinkage by 75% or more. Accoya timber is guaranteed for 50 years, so your exquisite windows and doors will look as good as new for half a century. It’s also a highly sustainable, renewable material. 

What’s more, Accoya’s dimensional stability means that your doors and windows will not expand in the warmer weather and shrink in the winter, so it’s a highly suitable surface for painting. UV absorption or seasonal mechanical stress won’t cause unsightly peeling, so the finish can last up to twice as long as a standard painted window. Accoya timber painted with specialist water-based microporous paints such as Teknos can last for 12 years or more before they need repainting, as long as you wash them down with soap and water on a biannual basis.

Improve sound insulation and energy efficiency in your home

All the exterior surfaces in your home will lose heat, and the speed at which this happens depends on the thermal effectiveness of the material. If you don’t pay attention to the thermal efficiency of your new doors and windows, then your home will have a larger carbon footprint and you’ll have some very high energy bills. The amount of thermal energy lost through a material per meter squared at a specific temperature is measured by its U-Value. The lower U-Value a door or window has, the less energy passes through it. 

Unfortunately, it’s not merely a case of purchasing any off-the-shelf window with a low U-value. Many companies like to advertise their ‘impressively low’ U-Values, but usually this only refers to the energy efficiency of the glass pane, instead of the entire window or door. Always look for high-performing U-Values that are measured for the whole product, including both the frames and the panes.  

If you’re updating windows and doors in a room that overheats or feels cool because of its position to the sun, consider glazing with a Low-E coating designed to reduce heat transfer. The glass will both reflect the heat back into the room or protect the room from excessive sunshine. Warm edge spacer bars help to insulate the edges of a sealed glazed unit and will also keep the panes apart which stops cold bridging. If you own a period property and you want to achieve a traditional style to suit the architecture, double-glazed windows filled with krypton have as much energy efficiency as argon-filled glazing but with thinner, classic-looking panes.

Westbury Windows and Joinery is proud to be a FENSA registered company. We’ve been designing and supplying bespoke timber joinery to homeowners and specifiers for over 25 years and have built a reputation for our outstanding quality and unrivalled expertise.  Click here if you would like to discuss your home improvement project with a consultant or request a brochure.