There's also Canterbury Windows & Doors, in Springvale, who do timber frames, and I think, thermal-break aluminium,
http://www.canterburywindows.com.au/
And Rylock, in Clayton, & Mentone & Brunswick, who do mainly thermal-break aluminium
http://www.rylock.com/
And a mob whose piece of paper I picked up at one of the Eco-shows last year - Fairoak, in Hoppers Crossing, who do timber, and look a bit expensive,
http://www.fairoak.com.au/
And you're allowed to drool on the keyboard while looking at
http://www.paarhammer.com.au/
I saw their stand at one of the shows, and they do windows to die for. The prices are probably death-inducing too, but we can always dream... They apparently have a showroom or demo or somesuch at the Building Design Centre, which is beside Collingwood Footy Ground (Vic Park), if you want to have a look...
I can't yet recommend any of these, as I will be ringing several of them tomorrow to get quotes for a particular window which is causing me problems, but it will be interesting to see what sort of figures I get! I would like a timber frame, and will require installation, which might be fiddly or hard.
I can sympathise about the long windows - I have similar in my lounge and dining rooms, mainly north-facing (they are both corner windows, as well as floor-ceiling), and nobody wants to do pelmets for them, because I've made the curtains. Many places will do pelmets if you buy the curtains from them, but when I got a couple to come and do quotes, they were VERY non-committal about pelmets over curved curtain tracks! Not straight-forward, and they obviously did NOT want to have to do anything other than 'standard', which they could probably harmlessly give to the 1st year apprentice, LOL.
I think I'll collect some heavy cardboard and stick fabric to it, and make my own - these pelmets don't have to do anything except stop the draughts, so they can be made of anything which will stick to the wall, and can be made to look OK.
From what I can gather argon doesn't add a lot insulation-wise, so probably isn't worth the extra cost, although my building consultant reckoned the other day that most people are doing argon as standard anyway these days. But we were talking about timber frames specifically. No point in doing aluminium frames unless they're thermally broken. Also preferable to have 4-8-4 or 4-10-4 as a minimum too. Many places quote 3-6-3 unless you specify something else, and this is absolutely base level.
What's the ceiling/roof insulation problem? Was it you posting elsewhere about a cathedral ceiling with a tiny gap etc etc?? If so, yes, understand the problem.
Under-floor insulation - what services are under the house? My house is on a slope, with plenty of space underneath, and all the electrical power wiring is underneath! (The light circuits are in the ceiling, but seeing as blokes/sparkies reckon all power points except kitchen and bathroom should be close to the floor, when we rewired, it was sensible to put the power wiring underneath.) I could have had dodgy under-floor insulation installed until last week - the problems would be similar.
Do you have floor-coverings? Decent carpet with thick underlay might be another option for the floor, or that floating wooden flooring, and whatever you do, if you have skirting boards, you MUST draught-proof between them and the floor and the wall!! Many people don't even realise that neither the walls nor the floor will be exactly flat, and if the skirting boards don't meet them, there will be a draught!! Specially if your house had carpet originally, and it's been taken up and the boards polished. If so, there'll probably be great gaping holes between the skirting and the floor, as it would have been assumed that carpet would cover any gaps! "No More Gaps" or the expanding foam stuff is the answer!!
Anyway, I'll let you know when I get my quotes for my window, and see if any of them are wildly different from most of the others.
Happy daze...
Posted Tuesday 23 Feb 2010 @ 4:25:23 pm from IP
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