Window Replacement in Dunedin – Full Joinery Replacement & Double Glazed Upgrades

Two very different piles of work sit behind that. There is the single glazed aluminium fitted between the 1960s and the 1980s, which has no thermal break at all and streams with water on a frosty Dunedin morning. And there is timber joinery from the villa and bungalow era, where the sill has gone soft at the bottom after a century of southerly rain while the rest of the sash is still perfectly good. Quoting them the same way is how people end up spending far more than they needed to.

Three ways to replace a window, and what each costs

Glass only replacement keeps the frame and swaps the pane. On a standard sized single pane it starts around $250 to $600 and it is the right call whenever the frame is structurally sound.

Insert replacement drops a new unit into the existing frame or reveal, leaving cladding and flashings alone. Full joinery replacement takes the whole thing out. As a rough national benchmark, retrofitting models at $450 to $800 per square metre of glass against $800 to $1,600 for full replacement, which is why the retrofit against replace decision moves the total more than the glass spec ever does.

When the old aluminium has finished

Look at four things. Corner joints that have opened. Powder coat that has gone chalky white. Rubbers that have hardened flat and no longer spring back. Stays that are pitted and stiff. Three or four of those together and the joinery is done.

Replacing it in Dunedin buys more than it does further north, because the temperature difference across the glass is bigger here for more of the year. NIWA's 1991 to 2020 averages give the city roughly 50 days of ground frost annually, with about 15 in July alone.

Timber joinery: fix the bottom, keep the top

Villa and bungalow windows almost never rot evenly. The head and stiles shed water and survive. The sill and the bottom rail hold it and go.

So on a character home the honest answer is often not replacement. We scarf new timber into the sill, reglaze, prime and leave the rest of a hundred year old window where it is. It costs a fraction of new joinery, it keeps the original glass and proportions, and in this city it keeps the street looking like Dunedin.

What replacement changes in a Dunedin house

The bills move, though not usually as much as people hope. What moves more is how the house feels. Bedroom windows stop running with water in June. Curtains stop going mouldy at the hem. The room holds its heat for a couple of hours after the heater goes off instead of shedding it straight back out through the glass.

If damp is the complaint rather than cold, be careful. In the low lying southern suburbs the moisture is often coming up from the ground, and glass on its own will not fix that.

Our window replacement process in Dunedin, step by step

Window and Glass Repair Dunedin runs joinery work to a fixed sequence, and on a Dunedin house two of those steps take longer than they would anywhere else in the country. Here is the whole thing so nothing arrives as a surprise.

1. Free measure, every opening individually

   Window and Glass Repair Dunedin measures each opening on its own rather than working from a plan. In a Dunedin villa or bungalow almost no two openings are the same, because they were made on site by hand a century ago and the house has moved since. Head, jamb and sill get checked for level and plumb and the reveal depth is recorded.

2. Establish what the Building Code requires here

   Dunedin sits in H1 climate zone 5, which carries the highest window performance requirement of anywhere in New Zealand. Window and Glass Repair Dunedin confirms at quote stage whether your job is consented work that has to meet it, or a like for like replacement that does not, because it changes the product and the price substantially.

3. Written fixed quote with the unknowns named

   Frame material, glass specification, hardware and what happens to the internal linings, all in writing. Rot behind the reveal cannot be seen until the old unit is out, so it is carried as a stated allowance with the rate shown rather than as an open ended variation.

4. Manufacture, and the real lead time

   Joinery is made to your measurements. Aluminium typically runs four to six weeks, thermally broken longer, and timber longer again. Window and Glass Repair Dunedin confirms the date in writing and books the fit around it rather than promising a start that depends on somebody else's factory.

5. Removal, and repairing what is behind

   The old unit comes out and the opening is inspected. On older Dunedin housing the bottom of the reveal is where decay concentrates, because that is where a century of condensation has run down the glass and sat. Damaged framing is repaired before anything new is fitted.

6. Fit, flash and air seal

   The unit is packed, levelled, fixed and flashed so water getting past the face drains back out instead of into the frame. The air seal between the joinery and the framing matters more in a cold climate than most people realise, because that gap is a direct path for heat and for draughts.

7. Reinstate, clean and hand over

   Linings, scotia and architraves go back, glass is cleaned and the site is cleared. Window and Glass Repair Dunedin walks the job with you, hands over the keys and explains exactly what the manufacturer warranty covers and what it does not.

Why Dunedin homeowners choose Window and Glass Repair Dunedin for window replacement

Dunedin is a harder place to fit windows than most New Zealand cities, for reasons that have nothing to do with the windows themselves.

We specify for climate zone 5, not for a national average

The performance figure required here is the highest in the country. Plain aluminium joinery with a standard unit does not reach it, and a quote that assumes it does is either not consented work or is going to fail an inspection. Window and Glass Repair Dunedin tells you which one you are looking at before you commit.

We work on heritage stock every week

Dunedin holds the largest surviving collection of Victorian and Edwardian buildings in New Zealand. Fitting modern joinery into a house built in 1895 is a different job to fitting it into a 1990s subdivision, and the difference is in the reveals, the linings and the proportions.

We allow for frost and condensation properly

Around fifty ground frost days a year means the inside face of the glass and the frame spend a lot of the winter well below room temperature. That is why frame choice matters here in a way it does not in Auckland, and why we raise thermal breaks rather than waiting to be asked.

We put the third party costs at cost

Consent fees and any engineering are shown as their own lines at what they cost us. Bundling them into a per window rate makes two quotes impossible to compare, which is usually the point of bundling them.

What window replacement costs in Dunedin and how long it takes

Joinery is the largest single spend on most window projects, so here are the real numbers and the real timeline rather than a range wide enough to mean nothing.

Per window, fitted

Aluminium runs roughly $550 to $850 per window supplied and fitted on a straightforward like for like replacement. Thermally broken aluminium sits above that. Timber joinery runs about $800 to $1,250 per window, and more where the profile has to be matched to existing heritage joinery rather than ordered from a standard range.

Whole house

A full re joinery on an average Dunedin home typically lands between $10,000 and $24,000. The spread inside that is driven by three things: how many openings there are, whether they are standard sizes or all different, and whether the house is single or double storey, because scaffolding on a two storey villa is a real line rather than a rounding error.

The timeline, honestly

Measure to installed is typically six to ten weeks. Four to six of those are manufacture and nothing can compress them. Site time is usually one to three days for a few openings and a week or more for a full house. Window and Glass Repair Dunedin confirms the manufacturing date in writing before booking the fit.

What sits outside the quote

Repainting the room after linings are disturbed, curtains and blinds being rehung, and consent fees where the work is consented. Window and Glass Repair Dunedin states each of those so they are decisions rather than surprises.

Choosing between the joinery options in Dunedin

In climate zone 5 the frame material decides more about the long term result than the glass does. Here is the honest comparison.

Standard aluminium

The cheapest and the strongest, with the slimmest sightlines. It also conducts heat straight through the frame, which in a city with fifty frost days a year means the frame will be the coldest surface in the room and will sweat even behind good glass. Fine on a sheltered elevation or a garage, poor in a bedroom.

Thermally broken aluminium

An insulating strip separates the inside and outside faces, so the internal frame stays near room temperature. It costs meaningfully more per window and it is the option that actually solves condensation rather than relocating it. On consented work in this climate zone it is effectively the default.

Timber

Warm by nature, and the only option that keeps the proportions and sightlines a Victorian or Edwardian house was designed around. It needs painting on a cycle and it costs more up front. On a character street it is usually worth both, and on a modern house it rarely is.

uPVC

Good thermal performance for less than thermally broken aluminium, with noticeably wider frames and a different look. It suits rental and investment property well, where performance per dollar matters more than sightlines, and it reads wrong on a heritage frontage.

Replacing windows in a Dunedin home without surprises

Full replacement is the largest job we do on an existing house and it has three cost drivers people do not expect.

What is behind the reveal

Rot in the framing around a timber opening, or corrosion where an aluminium unit has been leaking quietly. It cannot be seen until the old unit is out, and it is the one item we cannot price at the measure.

We put an allowance on the quote and show the rate, so if we find nothing you pay nothing and if we find something you already know what it costs.

Making the opening square

Older houses settle. An opening that is out of square by more than the tolerance of the new unit has to be packed and trimmed, and on a villa that is normal rather than exceptional.

Linings, scotia and paint

Replacing joinery disturbs the internal finish around every opening. Reinstating linings and architraves is part of our scope. Repainting the room usually is not, and it is better to know that at quote stage.

Window replacement costs and staging in Dunedin

Whole house replacement is a large number. It does not have to be spent at once.

What it runs per window and per house

Roughly $550 to $850 per window for aluminium retrofit, $800 to $1,250 for timber, and a whole home typically between $10,000 and $25,000 depending on size, access and material.

Staging by room rather than by wall

Doing the living areas and the bedrooms people actually use first gets you most of the comfort benefit for part of the spend. Doing it by elevation looks tidier and delivers less.

Retrofit against full replacement

If the existing frames are sound, retrofitting double glazed units into them costs substantially less than new joinery and delivers most of the thermal benefit. We price both where both are real options.

Window Replacement at a glance

Glass only

About $250 to $600 a standard pane, $600 to $1,200 for large panes

Insert units

New unit into the existing frame, cladding untouched

Retrofit benchmark

Around $450 to $800 per square metre of glass

Full replacement benchmark

Around $800 to $1,600 per square metre of glass

Whole house

Most Dunedin projects land between $10,000 and $24,000

Timber option

Scarf repair to the sill and bottom rail, keeping the original sash

Consent

Not required for like for like replacement