Windows & doors · uPVC & aluminium

Glass & Glazing: What’s Actually in the Frame

The glass does most of a window’s real work: warmth, quiet, privacy, safety and light. It’s chosen to fit the job, not fixed by default. Here’s every option we fit, across windows and doors, uPVC and aluminium.

Get a Free Quote Visit a Showroom

A-ratedDouble glazed as standard

+£90Triple glazing per window

40–45 dBTypical acoustic glazing

5 yearsSealed unit guarantee

The glazing build

Double glazed. The standard build across the range. A-rated, with warm-edge spacer bars, argon-filled sealed units and a low-E coating. Typical whole-window U-values of 1.2 to 1.4 W/m²K.

Triple glazed. Available across our window range, uPVC and aluminium, for the highest thermal performance where it’s worth it: exposed sites, north-facing rooms, condensation-prone homes. Typically 0.8 to 0.9 W/m²K, roughly a third less heat loss than double. Adds just £90 per window including VAT. See triple glazed windows for an honest take on when it’s worth it.

Acoustic glazed. A laminated acoustic pane and a wider cavity for main roads, railways, flight paths and town-centre flats. Standard double glazing typically cuts outside noise by 30 to 35 dB; acoustic glazing typically achieves 40 to 45 dB, and every 10 dB is roughly a halving of perceived noise. It’s especially effective against low-frequency traffic rumble.

UPVC casement window - cross-section showing the frame chambers and glazing

Bars, blinds and special glass

Georgian bars and astragals. A Georgian bar fitted inside the sealed unit gives a flat, easy-clean grid with nothing to wipe around. Astragal bars sit on the glass surface for true shadow lines and a more authentic period look.

Integrated blinds. Venetian-style slats sealed inside the glazed unit, raised, lowered and tilted with a cordless magnetic slider. Dust-free, child-safe with no cords, and protected from knocks and weather. Available in double glazed units only.

Etched and sandblasted glass. Your house name or number on a front door side panel, a company name on a shop front, or a decorative motif in an obscure panel, etched directly into the glass rather than a sticker or film.

Fire-rated glass. Where Scottish Building Standards require it, such as a gable window close to a boundary or a tenement stairwell, ask us about fire-rated glazing. Fire doors use a separate FD30 doorset rating.

Glass types and finishes

Toughened safety glass. Heat-treated so that if it breaks it crumbles into small blunt granules. Scottish Building Standards require safety-rated glass in critical locations, such as low-level glazing and glass near doors. Standard on all our doors.

Laminated safety glass. A plastic interlayer bonds two panes so a break stays held in the frame. It adds acoustic insulation, UV filtering and a stronger deterrent against forced entry.

Obscure and privacy glass. Textured patterns rated 1 to 5, from a light distortion to full privacy, for bathrooms, en-suites, front door side panels and ground-floor windows facing a path. Patterns include Warwick, Reeded, Minster, Chantilly, Flemish, Sycamore, Digital, Taffeta, Autumn, Contora, Charcoal Sticks, Oak, Mayflower, Florielle, Stippolyte, Arctic, Pelerine, Everglade and Cotswold.

Solar control. A coating that cuts summer heat gain through south- and west-facing glass without dimming the room. Recommended on roof lanterns and large sliding doors.

Self-cleaning. A dual-action coating that breaks down organic dirt in sunlight and lets rain sheet off. Worth having on lanterns and large sliding panels.

Tinted and low-iron. Tints in grey, bronze or blue take the edge off glare. Low-iron glass removes the faint green cast of ordinary glass for true colour on large picture windows.

Decorative and leaded. Bevelled, coloured and leaded designs for composite and uPVC door glass.

Trickle vents and condensation

A trickle vent is a small controllable opening in the frame head that lets a background trickle of fresh air through even when the window is shut and locked. We fit them as an option and recommend them: new windows are far more airtight than the ones they replace, so moisture that used to leak out now stays in the house, and without background ventilation it condenses on the coldest surface.

Condensation on the outside of new glass on a cold morning is a good sign, as the low-E coating is keeping heat in. Condensation between the panes means a failed sealed unit, covered by our 5-year glass guarantee. There’s a full explanation on our triple glazed windows page.

Shaped, curved and fanlight glazing

Arched, circular, triangular and gable-shaped windows are made to measure, and so are arched and part-circle fanlights above doors, the classic treatment on period entrances and tenement close doors, in the same glass options as the door below.

Brochures