Undertaking the refurbishment of a historic Hertfordshire home, Mrs Pickup was introduced to Dale Joinery’s range of engineered timber windows and doors through her local branch of Jewsons in Letchworth.

Having managed a number of property development projects in the recent past, Mrs Pickup had a wealth of recent experience to draw on for the benefit of this house, “in a previous project, we had to have specially commissioned windows from another company to satisfy regulations but they were a nightmare for us and our builders as they arrived in kit form, and as it happens they really didn’t look any different to the Dale ones” she explains.

“This house had been in the same family for 90 years but couldn’t be maintained any longer and had fallen into a bad state, before we bought it – it would have been cheaper and easier to knock it down and start again but we wanted to preserve the features, be sympathetic to its history and do the right thing in every way possible.”

The house was originally a coaching inn on the Great North Road, and although has no listed designation, warranted preservation – the project took 18 months to complete and the lack of a conservation order made the works easier.

“We didn’t want to use the same windows as our earlier project, nor did our builders so we looked at the Dale website for ideas and could see other nice properties they’d been used on, which gave a good perspective.”

The project team were just as happy as Mrs Pickup with the new products as she summarises, “the builders loved them, they came fully finished, ready to use and were easy for them to install.”

THE DALE JOINERY SOLUTION
Sash Windows
Hidden spring sash windows were chosen by Mrs Pickup for the project, finished in ‘Pure White’, with vertical 18mm astragal glazing bars.

French Doors
Timber French door sets were also chosen in the same colour finish to match the new sash windows and allow for greater natural light and flexibility in the rooms.