Replacement Windows in Ireland, From Registered Contractors

How Long Replacement Windows Take, Start to Finish

Almost all of the wait is manufacturing rather than fitting. Frames are made to the measurements taken at your survey, so nothing can be ordered until somebody has stood in every room with a tape.

Six to twelve weeks from survey to delivery is the normal range. Foiled colours, non standard glazing and anything with a shaped head sit at the longer end, because those are not held in stock in the way white uPVC casements are.

The fitting itself is short by comparison. A standard three bed semi is usually two to four days, and a good crew works one opening at a time rather than stripping the house and leaving it open to the weather.

The clock starts at the survey and not at the deposit, which is worth confirming in writing. If a date matters to you, say so before you order rather than afterward, and ask what is actually in stock. What replacement windows cost goes through how lead time and specification move together.

Do You Need Planning Permission to Replace Windows?

For a straightforward like for like replacement in an ordinary house, generally no. You are replacing what is already there in the same openings.

Two situations change that completely. If the house is a protected structure, works affecting its character usually need consent, and that includes the windows. If it sits in an architectural conservation area, the rules apply to what is visible from the public road, which is normally the front elevation.

In both cases the local authority is the authority, not the contractor and not this page. Ring the conservation officer before you order anything, because made to measure frames cannot be sent back.

Where consent is needed, the specification usually follows: slim timber sections and true sash proportions rather than standard uPVC. That is covered in the material comparison, and aluclad and timber windows is the type page for it.

Changing an opening is a different matter again. Making a window bigger, moving it, or turning a window into a door affects the structure and is not a like for like replacement in anybody's reading.

The Whole House at Once, or in Stages

Per window, doing the house in one go is almost always cheaper. The survey, the delivery and the fitting crew are one visit rather than several, and you are paying for that visit each time.

Phasing is still reasonable when budget is the constraint, as long as the order is right. Do the worst elevation first, which on an exposed site is whichever one takes the prevailing wind and rain. Doing half of every room instead leaves a house that is neither warmer nor finished.

Say at the first survey that it is a phased job. Profiles get discontinued and foil colours get reformulated, so matching in two years is far easier when the first phase was recorded properly and chosen with the second in mind.

It is also worth pricing the doors at the same time even if you fit them later. One survey covers both, and a composite front door or a set of patio and sliding doors specified alongside the windows will actually match them.

If grant funding is in play the order may not be yours to choose. Schemes assess the house and fund what the assessment says it needs, usually attic and walls before glazing. How SEAI grants apply to windows and doors sets out how that works.

Choosing Between Two Contractors

Once you have two quotes that price the same scope, the decision stops being about the windows and becomes about the fit, because that is where jobs go wrong.

Ask both for two addresses locally where they did the same work in the last year or two, and go and look at the outside. What you are judging from the footpath is the joint where the frame meets the wall: whether the render is made good and painted, or whether a bead of silicone is doing work it was never meant to do.

Ask who is actually on site, whether the person who surveyed will be among them, and who you ring for an adjustment six months later. Snagging is normal on a full house, and a contractor who expects to come back once is being realistic rather than careless.

How to choose a window and door contractor goes through the rest, including what belongs in a written quote and the warning signs worth walking away from.