How long does it take?

The two halves of the timescale

A window replacement has two very different clocks and it helps not to mix them up.

• Manufacturing. From accepting the quote to the material being made. I cannot speed this up much: it depends on the system, the colour and how the manufacturer is running at the time.
• Fitting. The days I am in your home. This part is down to me, and it is usually far shorter than people fear.

A real example

The terrace enclosure on the home page was started on 5 August and finished on the 7th. Two days, including the structure, the glazing and the finishing. That is not a brochure figure, those are the dates on the site videos.

A normal home with several windows is usually days rather than weeks. Window by window it moves quickly when the openings hold no surprises.

Can you live there while it happens?

In most cases yes, and you can sleep there the same night. The whole house does not come apart at once: it goes opening by opening, and none is left open at the end of the day.

There is dust, I will not pretend otherwise. It gets covered before we start and cleaned when we finish, but it is building work and you notice it while it lasts.

What genuinely stretches the timescale

• Special colours or finishes, which almost always take longer than white
• Openings that are not square, typical in old towns, because catalogue sizes will not fit
• Anything that means touching the blind or its housing
• Community permissions, especially for enclosures and on facades with a uniform look
• August, bluntly: half the province is on holiday, factories included

How to avoid surprises

The quote carries the estimated manufacturing lead time and the fitting days. If the manufacturer slips I tell you as soon as I know, not on the morning I was supposed to turn up.

And if you have a date that cannot move, a house move, visitors arriving, a tenancy starting, tell me at the beginning. It can nearly always be worked around, but only if it is known in advance.