Renegade Conservatory Guy

By Guest – Renegade PR Guy….

I can feel the power coursing through my narrowed arteries as I contemplate the freedom bestowed upon me as a member of a select band of people to whom Renegade Conservatory Guy has handed the keys, as it were, to his blog. That he has done so must seriously call into question his state of mind and I would urge those nearest to him to consider the laws that ensure those with unbalanced faculties to be safely put out of harm’s way until such time as they can be suitably quelled. The alternative view of course is that the merry band of which I am a select member has been appointed because he trusts us implicitly to guard and sustain his precious baby, that we will do our best to bring an alternative stimulus to RCG in his absence.

Personally I just think he’s plain bonkers.

Nonetheless, whilst I have this tremendous if misplaced opportunity, I will use it to exorcise a rant fashioned last week whilst visiting a beautiful Cornish fishing village, the name of which is irrelevant for the purpose of this column. I am a thorough proponent of PVC-U as a framing material and as such I find myself irritated by the sweeping statements by which this thoroughly honest, hard working material is condemned. But In the eyes of a number of small but disproportionately vocal groups it is the invention of the Devil himself, an artefact designed to bring humanity to its knees and sweep us all to Hades and eternal damnation.

Most recently the appropriately monikered Chris Wood, head of building conservation and research at English Heritage, restated his views that PVC-U is not an appropriate material for use in conservation-zoned buildings, a comment that was rebuffed by the Glass and Glazing Federation by the supremely sensible riposte that it was the design of the window that was the key issue, not the material. This is a view with which I thoroughly agree and support.

Check out this Photo — Provided it is a well designed window — can you tell the difference between PVC-U and Timber?

Mr Woods comments came jarringly into mind during a stroll last week through the delightfully uneven and winding Cornish street. A single property was installed throughout with conventional, side-hung sash frames and what looked menacingly like a composite front door. The windows were, of course, quite obviously manufactured in PVC-U. They, and the door, were quite horrible and my wife’s immediate reaction was ‘How on earth did they get away with fitting those horrible PVC windows in a street like this?’.

I pondered if her outburst, were it to have come at all, would have been different had the frames been thoughtfully designed vertical sliders? Would she have glanced at the windows and made any reference at all to the fact that they were PVC-U and not timber, had the design been appropriate?

Apparently the area is now covered by a conservation order and the windows were replaced prior to this, thus allowing complete freedom to cock up not just the building but also the street itself. That the door was possibly composite is neither here nor there, but a dismal and inappropriate design is also representative of the owner’s lack of care for his property.

And thereby hangs, I believe, a subjective if timely example of the point made by the GGF: that sensitive and appropriate design is the key issue when replacing windows in any property, not the material from which they are made. There are some superb vertical sliders being made out there that offer good looks whilst bringing all the performance benefits to the occupants, in addition of course to windows that open and close perfectly.

I doubt however that even these would be acceptable to Mr Wood, who not only insists upon timber frames, but also that float glass be banned in favour of rolled. Surely some compromises must be made as the realities of global warming become ever more evident? But thoughtless compromises in the design of PVC-U windows have contributed much to the general resistance to the material now put up by so many people and places.

Who is going to take the lead now to overcome such prejudice?