Michael McNeil wrote:
"David Hearn" wrote in message


Yes, a most ambiguous post.

What was ambiguous about it?

You don't say what is built into the exterior angles of the lower
window to stop the second floor falling in on you when you eventually
remove the bottom window.

Windows are not egineered to take the weight of the building, they
just provide cheap infill in the manner of wattle and daub or brick
panels in timber framed (i.e. Tudor) houses. Fitted into a wall they
reqire lintles.

With a wooden bay they may have the sides extended all the way
to the top. With replacements this problem could be solved by just
cutting the old bits out and putting in replacements that are going to
sag after the fitters have been paid. Probably after the guarantee has
expired or the firm that supplied them has changed hands/gone
broke/found out what the fitters did.

Hence why we'll be using a company which has experience doing other bays in
our locality (preferably recommended by someone we known) and have been
trading under the same name for at least as long as their guarantee period.

Put it this way, the majority of houses in our road have PCVu windows and
all have bays. A couple have signs of bay drops being repaired (repointing
etc) so we're well aware of potential problems.

As for windows not being engineered to take load - the URL in the other
reply explains a lot about problems with dropped bays and new windows -
however points out the cause as being "the metal inserts in the window frame
elements 'X' were not fitted, or fitted incorrectly. ...Unfortunately over
time, with a constant load, PVC creeps, slowly lowering the upper bay. This
is why the metal inserts are needed." PVCu windows aren't incompatible with
bays - they just have to make sure that adequate provisions are made for
taking the weight.

Incidentally, our bay is already sagging due to the wood the vertical
supports sit on being rotten - hence why we need to replace that part, which
is likely to require removal of old windows.

D