The Sliding Sash Window – Back at the Top of Britain’s Housing Hit List

There was once a time when the sliding sash window was seen in every home, on every street, in every county in the UK. It looked good, it offered a lot of light from and for every aspect, and it was easy to paint in those smart colours that used to distinguish each house from the next. Then the 80s happened, and genuine architectural features made way for mass produced, quick to put up and long to last substitutes – plastic fantastic windows that kept heat in, kept noise out and weren’t susceptible to damp or cold. Perfect for comfort, in other words, but uglier than a duck’s back side. 

Things always come full circle, of course – we all know that. You can’t keep a good man, woman or window design down. The sliding sash window, then, is back in all its former glory – only now it’s been updated to do all of those things that the 80s onwards plastic marvel does. The new sash is airtight, watertight, heat retaining, noise deflecting and extremely tough: and it looks just like it did in the old days too. That beautiful open space and shape is back, for all of Britain’s houses to enjoy – only with a lot more common sense and a lot more energy efficiency to boot.

That’s a great thing, both for the man and woman in the street (who will have something much nicer to look at when they take their evening stroll soon); and for the home owner. The interior benefits of the new sliding sash window are three fold. First, the lintel is real wood, and really wide – so it adds a touch of class and beauty to any room, and brings a bit of old school charm to its decoration. Second, the panes are either self cleaning or completely removable – which means they can be kept absolutely spotless with ease. 

Third, and most impressive of all – some of these things can be fitted with very little disturbance to the interior of an already decorated room. Replacement window technology allows for the new sliding sash window to be inserted into an existing frame or space without the need for costly, time consuming and ugly chipping away at the old one.

It’s about time the standard British build regained some of the style for which it used to be renowned. Thanks to the advances made in the industry over the last 10 or 15 years, it finally has. No more horrible plastic things staring out at us wherever we go: we’re looking at proper aluminium cladding, made to look exactly like real treated wood – and with genuine real wood on the inside part of the frame. That’s so much nicer to look at in the evening than the plastic back side of yet another white frame window. The sliding sash window is back – and it’s about time we all started thinking about putting one in.