We recently carried some sash window repair and renovation work out in Twickenham near Strawberry Vale, it was a pretty straight forward job, or so we thought. The work scheduled was to remove all the sliding sash windows from boxes all of which were only 8 years old. The windows had not been fitted very well and due to the use of softwood and poor joinery techniques had not faired well at all.  Our plan was to produce new hardwood sashes and fit them into the boxes that at first glance looked reasonably ok. After an hour or so we had successfully removed the first two windows and prepared ourselves to start getting the boxes roped up and weighted in anticipation of retro fitting the clients newly made hardwood double glazed sash windows. To our utter disbelief upon replacing the pulley wheels our worker noticed that the timber of the box looked very unusual and had an almost kitchen unit look about it. As we investigated further by gently removing an area of paint we found that the entire box had been crafted out of MDF! For those of you that don’t know what MDF is, it is a composite sheet product made from “timber dust” effectively bonded together with glue and should only ever be used for interior applications only as it is prone to swelling if in contact with wet or damp conditions. We can not begin to tell you of our utter disgust with the company that supplied that box and we are surprised it lasted as long as itdid. Unfortunately the client has refused to allow us to exposethe company that fitted the windows but we have advised him to go to trading standards as he paid well over £1,5000.00 and the detail on the quote clearly indicated “Redwood boxes” So be warned folks! Check every thing, visit whoever is making your windows tomake they even have a workshop; many windows are being made in places as faraway as China. Double check everything as it would seem there are some so called “sash window specialists” in London ready to rip you off at the first chance they get. Get as many quotes as you can and if things seem too good tobe true then they generally will are. We decided to make the customer new boxes in the end at a reduced cost as we felt so sorry for him, so at least he has high quality windows now. It is a real shame that there are so many dedicated trustworthy sash window companies out there in London and this client seemed to end up withprobably the worst. Fortunately for him though even if it did take him 8 years he eventually found the best sash window people in London and we have done a great job for him that should last into the next century. As a result of our unfortunate findings we urge the public if they have had windows fitted in the last 10 years (the company is still trading by the way) to check the window boxes. All you need to do is drive a small screw into a hidden area of the box and gently remove it without turningit, if it comes out with dusty, soft stuff on it then there is a good chance the box is MDF. If you do find this in your home please do give us a call we would love to help and also maybe you can tell trading standards as well! Hopefully the company that is doing this to its victims across London will be brought to justice very soon. |
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