Glass and Window Repair in Port Chalmers, Dunedin

Port Chalmers gives us both problems at once. It is a working port on salt water, so corrosion is constant and marine grade hardware is the default rather than an upgrade. And it is one of the oldest settlements in Otago, with a hillside of Victorian cottages and villas built from the same era and often the same stone that built central Dunedin. Port Chalmers breccia is in the walls of Otago Boys High School.

Salt on a working harbour

Harbour salt is less violent than open coast spray but it is relentless, and on a port there is industrial dust in the mix as well. Hardware pits, powder coat chalks and drainage slots crust up faster than they do inland.

316 marine grade stainless goes on as standard here, and we recommend washing frames with mild detergent every three months. On timber, the same exposure attacks the paint film, which is what lets the rot start.

Old cottages on a steep hill

The housing steps up the hill from the port in tight rows, much of it small nineteenth century cottages with modest double hung sashes. Simple joinery, old growth timber, and usually still original.

That is quick and rewarding to repair. Scarfing new wood into a small sill is a short job, and machining a plain rebate for a sealed unit is quicker again. Access is the harder part, because parking and frontages are tight.

Exposed elevations rot first

On a harbour side hill, the elevation facing the water takes wind, salt and driven rain together while the sheltered side gets almost none of it. It is common here to find one face of a house needing full sill repairs and the other face perfectly sound after a hundred and twenty years.

We quote by elevation for that reason, and we recut the drip groove under the sill if it has been painted solid, which is one of the most common causes of a repair that keeps coming back.

What we get called out for in Port Chalmers

• Window Repair in Port Chalmers, diagnosed before anything is quoted, not after.
• Glass Repair in Port Chalmers, common sizes measured and glazed in 24 to 48 hours.
• Bay Window Repair in Port Chalmers, rot in the sill and corner mullions repaired in place.
• Sliding Window Roller Replacement in Port Chalmers, rollers replaced and tracks dressed or capped.
• Bifold and French Door Glass in Port Chalmers, door glass replaced in toughened or laminated safety glass.

Port Chalmers sits on the same run as North Dunedin, Dunedin Central and Opoho, so we are usually in the area anyway.