custom glazing

[dave21478]

A client needs odd sized windows. I have been round the local and not so local places and while they happily claim to do custom work, when I tell them what sort of sizes are needed, there is shuffling of feet and sucking of teeth.

The place in question is all a bit "Grand Designs" if you see what I mean - as an example, the worst of the bunch is 60cm wide and 6 meters tall. This could be divided into two if needed but would prefer one piece. There are also a lot of small windows about 25cm square, but by the time they have made up something with the standard frame, there is a tiny amount of glass left, so really need slimline frames.

Google comes up with various places (mostly German) with various claims, but does anyone have any recommendations?

EDIT - double glazing, PVC or alu frames.

[EuroTrash]

I have a very old house where nothing is standard, or parallel or straight or at right angles. When I had double glazing put in I expected all kinds of problems but there were none. I got a local menuiserie windows and shuttters place to come and measure up, he ordered the windows from his supplier and they came as ordered within a few weeks, made to measure in the supplier's factory and not expensive at all. I had pvc frames and chose them from a very extensive catalogue, I'm sure there would have been slimline frames had I needed them. I think you need to go direct to a manufactuer or via a tradesman who has contacts.

[Théière]

Even slimline PVC is wider than Aluminium by a margin so Aluminium it would it probably have to be.

I used a company in Toulouse for a job in the UK, will try and find the paperwork and let you know  I bet they are stock sizes but my first thought was Germany although there must me manufacturers near you on an industrial site.?

[EuroTrash]

If you google fabricant double vitrage sur mesure you get loads of results. The first one is http://reverchon.fr/ and looks to be able to do most things - round windows, asymmetrical windows, can't imagine that a non standard size would faze them.

[dave21478]

The problem is that many places idea of "custom glazing" is to build normal house windows in the in-between sizes not available in the BricoDepot range.

When I start talking about 6 meter long units they dont want to know.

I have contacted several companies but their responses are poor - either they cant / wont do these sorts of sizes, or they are too far away. Obviously nobody will give even a hint of pricing.

I mentioned Grand Designs in the first post and it really is that kind of building. My client bought it as an unfinished shell that has been empty for 10+ years.

The architect involved is now gone and he made a piss-poor job anyway in my non-expert opinion, giving a design that I am sure looked very pretty on his sketch book and CAD program but the practicalities of what he has specified and plans the building has been built to so far are hopeless.....a 60cm wide, 6 meter high window set in a wall 3 - 4 stories up....thats going to be fun to install, and exectly how is anyone supposed to do any kind of maintenance or even clean the glass?

I need to remove a massive 5-leaf sliding door that is 3 meters high, God knows how wide, and curved along its full length - another genius idea that looks great on paper, probably cost a high five figure sum on its own and is completely useless....too heavy to be easily opened, the frames dont line up with the exterior columns so block the view, the handles are on the wrong bloody side and its a stainless steel frame bolted to the opening and single-glazed windows so pretty much completely un-insulating. Its old in that it dates from the initial construction but is still brand-spanking......still has the protective film of the glass. Only fit for the scrap pile really as finding someone to buy such a specific and poorly thought out thing will be impossible.

I get the impression that this architect had fun spending someone elses money.

[Chancer]

What nationality was the architect? Sounds unFrench.

 

I say that because I knew a French architect who was very untypical in that he designed houses that werent standard box pavilions like most of the others in France, most of his clients were Parisiens.

 

Now compared to a UK architect or Grand Designs his stuff was very conservative but he told me that no builder or sub-contractor in France would work to his designs  and those that said they could turned out to be incompetent b***s*****s, he used exclusively contractors from other European countries, Germany the UK and Poland being his regulars.

 

He would only do complete design and build or the client had to sign a contract saying they would use the nominated sub -contractors for all the non standard stuff otherwise the architect would not support them when the problems arose which they always did.

 

I never got anywhere sourcing a company  in France to make even regular sized sealed units, sure I found some but as you say getting a price out of people that dont want to do business just makes you give up, I found a small workshop making them not 1km from my UK address, there were several others withing a 20 minute drive.

 

As for cleaning your window if you ever get it made, I picked up a Hitch hiker who told me he was an escaladeur or cordist or something, he explained that he abseils down buildings in Paris to clean their Windows, that skinny French free climber bloke who is always getting arrested for climbing skyscrapers is a window cleaner when he's not on Youtube [:D]

[dave21478]

It was a British architect.

I still have all my old climbing gear, but am probably too fat for the harness these days.

There was a flyer in the post a few months back that I might have kept hold of from some enterprising chap who specialises in rope work on chateaus, removing weeds, cleaning facades etc....not big work like re-pointing or roofing but just maintenance.

Either that or I get one of those magnetic 2-part fish tank cleaners for each window!

[BJSLIV]

"Someone having fun spending a clients money" isn't that the dictionary definition of a architect?

[Chancer]

It does highlight the ever widening gulf between the 2 countries though doesnt it.

 

Whilst UK architects may somewhat deserve their reputation for designing things that cannot be made there are hundreds of companies the length and breadth of the country who try hard to realise their créations and in general succeed pushing the boundaries a little each time, it is completely absent in France where we still insist on holding pipes to walls with collier atlas's that belong in the Jules Verne museum in Amiens and will carry on doing so for several more décades.

 

The new Toolstation France catalogue has plastic snap fit pipe clips which have been getting people around here in a real lather, for years they have been lusting over mine (I kid you not!) and now they can buy them but where are they going to get the 15mm pipe to fit in them [:P]

 

I have a housebuilder friend who is as far removed from the average French person as is possible, nonetheless when I show him some Grand Design épisodes you would think he had been transported to an alien planet, to say that he is amazed and in awe in equal measure is an understatement.