Designed to look lovely and last a lifetime

Hats off to hardwood windows. In the last 15 years they largely caught up with other materials in performance, overtook them in price, and set the standard for appearance. And factory finished windows can last for up to 10 years before they need repainting.

But younger homeowners and homeowners with no experience of first generation timber windows won’t understand the significance of the improvement, or why PVC makes such a point of low maintenance. Surely all materials and home improvement products are low maintenance?

Well no, PVC-U is so low maintenance it’s virtually no maintenance. But timber’s paint coating is there to protect the timber, because without it water and weather will do irretrievable damage to timber. To appreciate that we have to go back to the dark days of timber windows in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Everywhere homeowners looked in the 70s they saw houses with flaking, rotting, jammed or sagging timber windows. At the weekends, in their evenings and holidays, people were hard at work repairing, making good and repainting their windows. Homeowners in their millions couldn’t wait to replace them for low maintenance PVC windows that gave them their lives back.

Today’s homeowners aren’t used to maintenance and don’t want the hassle and loss of leisure time in having to DIY, and certainly don’t want the cost and difficulty of getting hold of a reliable decorator to undertake the necessary regular rub downs, making good, and repainting them outside, and in. And it has to be done if you want them to last. Most people don’t want that, so PVC-U window installers still see new build estates with timber windows as money in the bank.

New generation PVC-U
Five years ago, with the launch of Residence 9, a new generation of PVC-U windows caught up with hardwood in looks, while maintaining its lead in performance.
Even the most expensive PVC-U window costs less than hardwood, and the total lifetime cost of a hardwood window including maintenance over a period of 50 year period is likely to be two to three times the cost of an equivalent quality Residence 9 which requires very little maintenance.

From its conception, Residence 9 (R9) was designed to delight. Perfect in dimensions, detailing, styles and colours, it’s British designed and British made for British homes. Homeowners, installers, private developers and planners were immediately smitten. This super-premium, butt-jointed ‘timber-alternative’ flush sash filled a gap people hadn’t noticed until they fell in love with it.

Equally smitten, systems companies followed with their own flush sashes, adding profiles to existing systems rather than create a dedicated flush sash system.

R9 is still the only window that’s designed to give planners the dimensions and comprehensive detailing they demand for conservation areas. It’s perfect for period homes, listed buildings and upmarket private developers. It’s so authentic you wouldn’t know it’s not wood, and its outstanding all-round performance, energy efficiency, weather, security, plus a lifetime’s trouble-free low maintenance makes timber an expensive alternative.

The mechanically-jointed nine chambered 100mm R9 with perfectly equal sightlines is a hand-crafted super-premium window that homeowners have taken to their hearts. It also brought a new range of much copied, stylish colours with distinctive names to the market, and raised expectations for traditional quality hardware.

Last year we added Residence 7 (R7), a seven chamber 75mm flush system with perfectly equal sightlines that’s uniquely flush inside and out. It’s designed to be mechanically-jointed or welded, and has opened up a new market in high-end contemporary homes and self-builds, modern new builds and city apartments, as well as semi-detaches and country cottages. Like R9, R7 has been engineered to meet existing and future standards and specifically designed to accommodate the additional weight of triple glazed units, so heavy duty hinges fit and operate perfectly. Its seven chambers, and the extra 5mm its 75mm gives on the usual 70mm dimensions, results in superior thermal, acoustic, strength and security performance.

R7 is designed to set the benchmark for PVC-U systems with mechanical joints or welding, while R9 is a mechanically jointed product that’s built to beat hardwood, aluminium, PVC-U or composite windows in looks and performance.

If you’d like to fabricate or install authentic R9 or R7 windows that will continue to delight homeowners many years from now visit www.residencecollection.co.uk, email journey@residencecollection.co.uk or follow @Residence9 on twitter.