Wooden windows has been used since the 1700 century – and is a part of the great English building traditions, and even to this day, wood is still an extremely popular material for windows and doors. In no small part due to the air of authenticity and charm the wooden windows adds, and the fact that wood suits both classic and modern building styles as well.
There are so many options for styles, openings, venting, energy saving, maintenance and durability that almost only the imagination sets the limit. We’ve asked Enviroscreen, a company specializing in curtains and blinds in St. Albans, to shed some light on the process:
The road from tree to window
The wood for wooden windows often comes from forestry in Nordic forests, which are known to deliver some of the best wood in the world. The trees grow slowly, providing a beautiful tree structure and a long-lasting material. In the forests the best quality is selected and felled, and then goes through a comprehensive quality optimization.
The wood is scanned to reveal hidden creeks and cracks, resin pockets and wind damage. When these are removed, the first framing takes place, and the pieces are assembled and glued by hand to assembled planks, which is the starting point for the production of windows and doors. The resulting material is very sturdy and ensures that windows and doors do not twist or bend, and as such the windows can open both in summer and winter time, despite the temperature differences.
By using the hand assembled wood windows, resin extraction is minimized and unsightly yellow spots are not appearing under the paint, as can be the case with some machined windows. And at the same time this method allows for window that is comprised of more than 90% solid wood, compared to other lesser quality methods.
Wooden windows can not do without paint
With the right maintenance, wooden windows can be kept beautiful for decades. Wooden windows are usually finished when arriving from the factory, which includes the final layer of paint. This in turn ensures that there is paint on the entire window – also in the corners and in particularly exposed places.
This means that the finish is uniform and beautiful even before they are placed into their final spot in the house. Wooden windows must be painted with a protective wooden coating when needed, and especially the south-facing windows are more exposed, and therefore often need paint more regularly than windows that look out to the other corners of the world.
Any type of window can do better than just a standard old fashioned curtain. Instead there are plenty of modern and environmentally friendly alternative, from a set of curtain tracks to rooflight blinds, that help save energy and recirculate the air at the same time.