With growing climate crisis often covered in the media, it is time for timber to be considered as the preferred material.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), households remain the highest contributors to the UK’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. Before events like Cop26 became headline news, people had been starting to recognise the need to protect our environment and the Government’s intention to “build back greener” will impact on us all.
As a manufacturer that’s been making windows and doors on the same site since 1884 and has only ever worked with timber, George Barnsdale Windows & Doors don’t need convincing about the benefits of sustainability and greener building materials.
The legacy of rotten wooden windows still hangs over many consumers but new evidence shows this no longer to be the case. In fact, the introduction of engineered timber and the latest state of the art manufacturing techniques have extended the life of timber products massively. Most products will now last at least 60 years* with minimal maintenance and there is ample independent research to support this.
There are an extensive range of options available with timber plus the lifetime cost is considerably less because timber windows last at least twice as long as uPVC and of course are much kinder to the environment.
Approved Partners of George Barnsdale (such as ourselves at Excell) deal in timber windows and doors.
By providing mixed materials we also see major benefits in extending our offering for more environmentally conscious clients and those restricted by planning and conservation rules.
We recognise and appreciate the benefits of modern engineered timber doors and windows including better thermal properties of wood, the ability to customise and match to original design and the environmental advantages.
Today’s products are very different to many of the wooden windows produced cheaply in the second half of the 20th century which were poorly designed and led to uPVC gaining such a gigantic foothold in the fenestration world.
*Wood Window Alliance research carried out by Heriot-Watt University shows that modern timber frames can last up to four times longer than uPVC frames.