Features

Wood windows are increasingly recognised as the best-looking, as well as the most sustainable, solution. Over recent years the wood industry has worked with suppliers and manufacturers to produce highly durable finished timber products backed by performance guarantees. Today's wood windows can come:

• Fully-finished
• Ready double-glazed - in clear, obscure, laminated, leaded or toughened safety glass - all compliant with BS 6262 1982 and NHBC recommendations
• Fitted with ironmongery fitted meeting security and insurance requirements
• Part L compliant.

Now, for the first time ever, some of the best known names in windows have come together to provide the UK market with a range of products and services that can be specified with confidence, through the Wood Window Alliance.

The brandmark is a guarantee of quality. Not just for the windows themselves, but for their installation and care.

All windows carrying the brandmark comply with independently audited quality standards and offer durability, performance and sustainability guarantees.

Wood. At the heart of good design.

Contemporary, traditional, functional or feature, nothing looks or feels like a wood window. It’s no surprise that people are talking about how wood windows enhance the value of your home.

Wood. At the heart of good performance.

Double or tripled-glazed, windows carrying our quality brandmark are warm, stormproof and secure.

Wood is a natural insulator and enhances the thermal performance of a window. Windows carrying the quality brandmark are guaranteed to meet or surpass the energy efficiency recommendations in the UK building regulations.

Many members offer even higher levels of energy efficiency, as well as security and other features.

Wood. At the heart of a long life.

Good quality wood windows are an investment that can last a lifetime.

Windows carrying the quality brandmark have service life warranties for durability, paint life, ironmongery and insulated glass units.

Durability: up to 35 years.

Paint life: up to 10 years.

Modern technology means that windows can be supplied ready painted or stained, extending maintenance intervals. Re-finishing is easy, with a rub down and a single coat of paint. There’s no need for the time-consuming sanding-down, burning off, or chemical stripping of the past.

If older windows need attention, they can often be reconditioned and brought up to modern standards without the need for replacement.

Wood. At the heart of sustainability.

Wood is the ‘green’ choice. It is the only naturally renewable material for windows. Because of the carbon sink effect of the forests, it actually reduces your carbon footprint.

In fact, you can go really green and extend the life of your wood windows indefinitely, through appropriate care and repair when necessary.

Windows carrying the quality brandmark are made from certified timber, so you can be sure that the wood harvested has been replaced by even more new trees. At the end of their life, wood windows can be recycled, or used as a biomass fuel. And if they do end up in landfill, they are fully bio-degradable. Just think about the sustainability of other window materials…

For more information visit www.woodwindowalliance.com

Warranties

The TWA (Timber Window Accreditation) Scheme operated by the British Woodworking Federation is one of the independent auditing bodies recognised by the Wood Window Alliance. It offers a BS Kitemark. TWA Scheme windows holding the kitemark are fully factory finished and ready-glazed. They offer the following warranties:

30 year warranty against rot and fungal attack on all external timber components

10 year warranty against double glazing failure for factory fitted glazed windows

10 year warranty against manufacturing defects

8 year warranty on paint finish

5 year warranty on stain finish

For more information visit www.bwf.org.uk

To download a copy of the Wood Window Alliance brochure click here