Timber Sash Window Restoration in Dunedin
Glass and Window Repair Dunedin restores double hung and casement timber windows across the city's villas, cottages and bungalows. We replace broken sash cords, refit weights and pulleys, ease sashes that have been painted shut for decades, cut out rot, reglaze, and draught proof the whole thing so it stops rattling on a cold night.
- Sash cords, weights and pulleys replaced so windows work again
- Rotten sills and bottom rails scarfed rather than replaced
- Reglazed with traditional putty or modern beads
- Draught proofed without changing how the window looks
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There is more of this work in Dunedin than in any other New Zealand city, and it is not close. The gold rush from 1861 built the place fast and then growth slowed, which is why the city ended up with the largest surviving collection of Victorian and Edwardian buildings in the country. Most of those windows are over a century old, built from old growth rimu, matai and kauri, and they are worth keeping. Timber that dense is not sold anywhere today.
Why the window will not open, and what fixes it
A double hung sash hangs on cords running over pulleys to cast iron weights hidden inside the box frame. When a cord frays and snaps the sash drops and stays down. Nothing is broken, it is disconnected.
We open the pocket in the frame, fit new cord, rebalance the weight to the sash so it holds wherever you leave it, and refit the beads. The other common cause is decades of paint bridging sash to frame, which we cut and ease rather than force. Both fixes cost far less than any form of replacement.
Rot repair: cut out the bad, keep the rest
Villa joinery rots at the bottom. The sill and the bottom rail take the driving rain, and once the paint film breaks the timber takes water on and holds it. Everything above is usually still sound.
So we scarf. Soft timber gets cut back to solid wood and a new piece is let in, glued, pinned and shaped to the original profile. Where a bottom rail has gone completely it is replaced into the existing sash. Either way you keep the original glass, the proportions and the window.
Putty, beads and getting the glass back in
Traditional linseed putty is still the right material on a heritage sash and it is what we use where the look matters. It needs a properly primed rebate and it has to skin before painting, which is why rushed putty work fails inside a couple of years.
Where a sealed unit is going into the sash, putty will not hold it. That job needs the rebate machined deeper and a timber bead fitted, matched to the original profile. Done properly it is almost invisible from the footpath.
Draught proofing without ruining the character
An unsealed double hung window has a gap the full width of the sash at the meeting rail and down both stiles. On a still frosty Dunedin night that is a permanent cold draught, and it is the main reason character homes here feel colder than their insulation suggests.
Brush pile seals let into a routed groove close it without changing anything you can see, and the sash still slides. Combined with a retrofit into the same sashes it turns a hundred year old window into something that genuinely performs.
Timber Sash Window Restoration at a glance
- Sash cords
- New cord, weights rebalanced, pulleys freed or replaced
- Rot repair
- Scarf repair into sound timber, or full bottom rail replacement
- Glazing
- Traditional linseed putty, or machined rebate and bead for sealed units
- Draught proofing
- Brush pile seals routed into the sash, invisible when closed
- Original timber
- Old growth rimu, matai and kauri retained wherever possible
- Heritage areas
- Work matched to original profiles for protected streetscapes
- Bench work
- Sashes removed to the workshop where needed, temporary glazing fitted
Timber Sash Window Restoration in Dunedin: common questions
My sash window fell down and will not stay up. Is it broken?
Almost certainly a snapped sash cord. The sash itself is fine. New cord, the weight rebalanced, and it works as it did originally.
Can rotten villa windows be repaired instead of replaced?
In most cases yes. Rot concentrates in the sill and bottom rail while the rest is sound. Scarfing in new timber costs far less than new joinery.
Can you double glaze my original sashes?
Yes, by machining the rebate deeper and fitting a bead. We check the timber and the sash balance first, since the unit is heavier than the original single pane.
Will draught proofing stop the rattle?
Yes. Brush pile seals close the gap at the meeting rail and stiles, which stops both the rattle and the draught, and you cannot see them.
Recent Dunedin jobs
Got three quotes for retrofitting the front of the house. Only ones who measured every opening and explained why the south facing rooms needed different glass. Fourteen windows over three days and the difference in the mornings is obvious.
Landlord here. Had four flats assessed before the inspections. Two just needed sashes freed up and stays replaced rather than new joinery, which saved me a fortune. Straight answers and a written report I could hand over.
Slider had been jamming for years and we assumed it needed replacing. Turned out to be rollers and a bent track. Two hours, a fraction of the price we were braced for.
Fogged unit in the lounge, measured on the Tuesday and in by the following Monday. Fair price and they cleaned up after themselves.
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