Heritage Window Replacement: Traditional Looks, Modern Performance

Are you worried that replacing your heritage windows will mean sacrificing today’s high-performance standards?

If you own a listed, conservationarea or period property, it’s a common concern, but it doesn’t have to be. Below, we explain how bespoke timber windows can preserve authentic style while meeting (or even exceeding) modern energy efficiency targets.

Why Energy Performance Matters

With energy costs rising and sustainability high on every agenda, minimising heat loss is more important than ever. Yet planning rules or your own love of the building’s character often require you to keep the original appearance of doors and windows. Custommade timber windows bridge that gap.

Six Ways Bespoke Timber Windows Deliver

1. Material & Authentic Style

• Handbuilt to your exact sightline, moulding and pane sizes—perfect for nonstandard openings.

• Timber choice is flexible: durable options such as Accoya or engineered redwood outperform many softwoods and can even outlast uPVC.

2. Paint Finish & Maintenance

• Modern factory coatings vastly extend redecoration intervals; some systems last 10–12 years before first maintenance.

• Accoya and similar timbers resist rot and insect attack, so any paint failure is aesthetic, not structural.

3. Double or Triple Glazing

• Highperformance IGUs cut heat loss and outside noise dramatically.

• Even Grade I and II* properties are increasingly granted consent for slimline heritage double glazing.

• Where double glazing is refused, discreet secondary glazing or insulated shutters can still achieve large energy savings.

4. Specialist Glass Options

• Lowemissivity coatings, warmedge spacers and inertgas fills boost Uvalues.

• For single glazing, invisible lowE films improve thermal performance without altering appearance.

5. Traditional Detailing

• Heritage putty beads can be applied to modern glazing, retaining original sightlines.

• Authentic glazing bars, horn details, ogee and other matching mould profiles can be created to match your existing frames.

6. Draughtproofing

• Concealed brush or compression seals eliminate rattles and air leakage while keeping the original frame proportions intact.

Have Your Cake and Eat It

With a carefully specified heritage window replacement, you keep the look that makes your building special and gain the comfort, efficiency and durability of today’s best technology.

Need Advice?

Corbel Joinery Ltd specialises in bespoke timber windows for heritage and listed buildings. Get in touch for expert guidance, drawings and quotes tailored to your project.