Important Information for Our Customers
To ensure your installation proceeds smoothly and efficiently, we’ve outlined some essential information you’ll need before getting started. Proper preparation can save you time, prevents costly mistakes, and ensures that everything fits and functions as expected.
Whether you’re measuring, ordering, or getting ready for the actual installation, understanding these key points will help the process go as seamlessly as possible.
From tools and materials to common pitfalls and helpful tips, we’ve covered the most important factors to keep in mind. Take a moment to review these details to set yourself up for a successful installation experience.
What to Expect from Your Installation
Please read this information carefully before ordering our installation service.
Replacing windows and doors involves building work and every property is different. This information explains how to prepare for your installation, what you can expect before and during the work, what is included in our installation service and what additional work may sometimes be required.
Clear expectations before work starts help us complete your installation as smoothly as possible and allow any potential issues to be identified and discussed at an early stage.
1. Survey and Measurements
The approximate measurements you initially provide allow us to prepare your quotation.
Before manufacturing begins, we will normally carry out a survey of the property to confirm the final measurements, inspect the visible condition of the openings and discuss the installation requirements with you.
Someone familiar with the property and your requirements should be present during the survey so that any questions about the windows, doors or installation can be discussed.
If the final measurements or requirements are materially different from the information originally provided, we may need to revise the order or quotation. Where this results in additional work or changes to the products required, an additional charge may apply before manufacturing begins.
A survey can only assess areas that are visible and reasonably accessible at the time. The condition behind an existing window or door may not become apparent until the old product has been removed.
2. Installation Is Building Work
Replacing windows and doors is building work, not decorating work.
Over time, an existing frame can become bonded into the fabric of the building by plaster, render, mortar, sealants, paint, tiles, timberwork and previous repairs. Removing the frame may therefore disturb surrounding wall surfaces and decorative finishes, even when the work is carried out carefully.
Installation will also involve some noise, dust, vibration and temporary mess. Tools, materials, packaging and removed products will be present while work is underway.
Our fitters will work with reasonable care and seek to minimise disruption, but it is not realistic to expect every surrounding surface to remain completely untouched when an existing window or door is removed.
3. Older Properties and Fragile Finishes
The risk of disturbing surrounding finishes can be greater in older properties.
Existing plaster, render, paint, wallpaper, tiles, decorative cornices, mouldings and timberwork may be aged, brittle, loose or already deteriorating. Previous repairs or defects may also be concealed behind the existing frames.
When an old window or door is removed, surrounding material may crack, loosen or come away. Previously concealed problems can also become visible for the first time.
Our surveyor will try to identify visible concerns before installation. However, it is not always possible to determine the condition of concealed materials until removal begins.
If we discover a significant problem during installation, we will explain the issue and discuss what needs to happen next.
4. Planning Permission, Building Regulations and Other Approvals
Unless we have specifically agreed otherwise in writing, it is your responsibility to ensure that any permissions or approvals required for the proposed work are in place before installation begins.
This may include, where applicable:
- Planning permission.
- Building Regulations approval.
- Listed building or conservation requirements.
- Freeholder, landlord or managing-agent approval.
- Restrictive covenants.
- Other permissions relating to the property.
Any costs associated with obtaining permissions or approvals are your responsibility unless they have specifically been included in your quotation.
Please tell your sales advisor before ordering if you believe the property may be subject to any restrictions or special requirements.
5. Making Good, Plastering and Decorating
Our fitters will complete the installation and the installation-related finishing specifically included in your quotation.
Unless specifically stated otherwise in your quotation, our installation service does not include:
- Plastering or specialist plaster repairs.
- Rendering.
- Painting or decorating.
- Wallpaper repairs.
- Replacing tiles.
- Replacing or repairing decorative mouldings or cornices.
- Specialist repairs to existing floors, walls or decorative finishes.
Depending on the condition of the existing opening, some minor making good or redecoration may be required after the installation, particularly in an older property.
At the survey stage, we will try to identify any significant finishing work that is likely to be required. In some situations our surveyor may recommend plastering or rendering rather than trims. Unless specifically included in the quotation, this work will need to be arranged separately by you.
The full extent of any making good cannot always be known until the existing window or door has been removed.
6. Preparing Your Home
Before our fitters arrive, please:
- Remove curtains, blinds and other window or door dressings.
- Move furniture and possessions away from the working area.
- Remove fragile or valuable items from nearby walls, shelves and surfaces.
- Provide clear access to every window or door being replaced. Tell us about particularly delicate floors, furniture or finishes.
- Keep children and pets safely away from the working areas.
Our fitters will use reasonable protection in the immediate working areas and along the access routes they use.
If your property contains unusually valuable, delicate or specialist finishes, please discuss this with your sales advisor before installation so that we can consider whether additional protection or arrangements may be required.
We cannot reasonably protect items that have been left in an area we have asked to be cleared. This does not affect our responsibility to carry out the installation with reasonable care and skill.
7. Services and Other Obstructions
Existing services or fixtures may need to be moved before installation can begin. These can include:
- Radiators.
- Water or heating pipes.
- Electrical wiring.
- Telephone or broadband cables.
- Alarm systems.
- Aerial cables.
- Shutters.
- Fitted furniture.
- Other fixtures obstructing the window or door opening.
Unless specifically included in your quotation, our fitters do not move, disconnect or reconnect these items.
Please discuss possible obstructions during the survey and arrange for any necessary work to be completed before the installation date.
If an obstruction prevents us from safely accessing or installing a product, we may be unable to continue work in that area until it has been removed.
8. Access, Parking and Delivery
Our team will need safe and reasonable access to the property and to every working area.
Please tell your sales advisor in advance about:
- Parking restrictions or permits.
- Limited or restricted vehicle access.
- Difficult access to the property.
- Flats or communal entrances.
- Building-management requirements.
- Restricted working hours.
- Access codes or security arrangements.
- Anything else that could affect delivery or installation.
Our installation vehicle will normally require suitable parking reasonably close to the property. Where parking restrictions apply, please discuss them with us before the installation date.
Windows and doors may be delivered before the fitting date. If storing the products at the property before installation would be impractical, please discuss this with your sales advisor in advance.
9. Installation Dates, Timings and Delays
Any installation duration or completion date given in advance is an estimate unless we have specifically agreed otherwise in writing.
The time required will depend on factors including:
- The number and type of products being installed.
- Access to the property.
- The condition of the existing openings.
- Structural or other problems discovered after removal.
- Weather conditions.
- Availability of necessary components.
We always aim to meet the installation programme given to you, but occasionally circumstances outside our reasonable control may cause a delay. These can include severe weather, illness, transport or delivery disruption, supplier problems, or damaged or missing components.
We will keep you informed if the expected programme changes.
Please allow for the possibility of changes when booking decorators, flooring contractors or other work that depends on the installation being completed.
Nothing in this section affects your statutory consumer rights.
10. Failed or Prevented Installations
Please make sure that somebody can provide access to the property at the agreed time and that any preparation or work identified during the survey has been completed.
If we arrive on the agreed installation date and cannot carry out the work because:
- Nobody is available to provide access;
- Required preparations identified during the survey have not been completed;
- Services or obstructions that you were asked to move remain in place; or
- The installation is cancelled at very short notice after our team has been allocated or has begun travelling to the property,
we reserve the right to apply a reasonable additional attendance or rescheduling charge. Where applicable, this may be equivalent to the survey fee.
We will explain any charge that applies before arranging a further installation visit.
11. While Work Is in Progress
An installation can look untidy or incomplete while it is underway.
Old frames must first be removed before the openings can be prepared and the new products positioned, fixed, sealed, trimmed and adjusted.
Dust sheets, tools, materials, packaging and debris may therefore be visible during the working day.
Something that appears unfinished partway through the installation may still require trims, sealant, adjustment, cleaning or other finishing work.
Please allow the fitting team until the end of the installation to complete the agreed work, clean the immediate working areas and tidy up.
If you are concerned about something while the work is underway, please speak to the lead fitter. They should be able to explain what has been completed and what remains to be done.
12. Structural Problems, Lintels and Concealed Defects
Some problems cannot be identified until the existing window or door has been removed.
These may include:
- Missing, inadequate or unsuitable lintels.
- Inadequate structural support. Rotten timber.
- Loose or damaged masonry.
- Previously concealed water damage.
- Poor previous installations or repairs.
- Other structural defects affecting the opening.
We will check visible conditions during the survey where reasonably possible.
If we discover during installation that additional structural work, a new lintel or another repair is required, we will explain the issue to you before carrying out additional chargeable work.
Where the problem prevents the installation from being completed safely, we may need to pause work until the necessary remedial work has been agreed or completed.
Any additional work that falls outside the agreed installation quotation may involve an additional charge. We will discuss this with you before proceeding wherever reasonably possible.
13. Asbestos and Other Hazardous Materials
A normal window or door survey cannot confirm the presence or absence of asbestos or every other potentially hazardous material concealed within a building.
If asbestos or another potentially hazardous material is suspected or discovered in an area affected by the installation, work in that area must stop.
The material may need to be assessed by an appropriately qualified specialist and, where necessary, safely removed before our installation can continue.
Unless specifically agreed otherwise, arranging and paying for specialist asbestos testing, surveys or removal will be the property owner’s responsibility.
The installation will be rearranged or continued once we are satisfied that the affected working area is safe.
14. Old Windows, Doors and Installation Waste
Old windows and doors are often damaged during removal and should not be expected to remain complete, undamaged or reusable.
If you wish to retain an old window, door, glass, hardware or another fitting, please tell your sales advisor before installation begins.
We will take reasonable care when removing an item you have asked to retain, but because of the way existing products may have been installed or bonded into the building, we cannot guarantee that they can be removed without damage.
If you would like us to remove and dispose of your old windows, doors and associated installation waste, please notify your sales advisor at the time of order.
We will confirm whether disposal is included or available and whether an additional charge applies.
Unless removal and disposal have been requested and confirmed as part of your order, responsibility for disposing of the old products will remain with you.
15. Completion and Final Inspection
Before the installation is treated as complete, the fitting team should, where applicable:
- Check that the newly installed windows and doors operate correctly.
- Complete the installation finishes included in your quotation.
- Make necessary final adjustments.
- Clean the new frames and glass.
- Clear installation debris from the immediate working areas.
- Remove old products and installation waste where this service has been requested and confirmed.
- Explain the basic operation of the new products.
- Record and explain anything that remains outstanding.
Please allow the fitters until the end of the job to complete these steps.
You should then be given a reasonable opportunity to inspect the installation.
Occasionally a component may be missing, damaged or require replacement, or another issue may require a return visit. Where this happens, the outstanding item should be recorded and explained to you and we will arrange the necessary follow-up.
16. Damage and Outstanding Work
Some disturbance and minor making good can be an unavoidable part of replacing existing windows and doors, particularly where old frames have become bonded into an older or fragile building.
However, customers are not expected to accept careless or avoidable damage, inadequate protection, poor workmanship or agreed installation work being left incomplete.
Damage should not automatically be described as unavoidable simply because it occurred during installation.
If you believe damage has been caused or something has not been properly completed:
- Raise the issue with the lead fitter where possible.
- Take photographs if appropriate.
- Notify your sales advisor as soon as reasonably possible so that the matter can be recorded and investigated.
Please give us a reasonable opportunity to inspect the issue and, where we are responsible, put it right before arranging repairs by another contractor.
This does not apply where urgent action is reasonably required to make the property safe or prevent further damage.
17. Special Requirements and Changes
If you have any specific installation requirements, concerns or requests, please tell your sales advisor as early as possible.
This is particularly important where the property has:
- Specialist or valuable finishes.
- Unusual access requirements.
- Restrictions on working hours.
- Special building-management requirements.
- Listed or conservation status.
- Unusual structural conditions.
- Other contractors working at the property at the same time.
Requirements raised after the order has been placed may affect the installation method, programme or cost where they involve work that was not included in the original quotation.
Any agreed change should be confirmed before the additional work is carried out.
18. Our Right to Stop or Refuse Installation
Safety comes first.
We may stop, postpone or refuse to carry out all or part of an installation where we reasonably believe:
- The work would be unsafe.
- The opening or surrounding structure is unsuitable for installation.
- Hazardous materials may be present.
- Necessary access cannot be provided.
- Required preparation has not been completed.
- A survey recommendation that is necessary for safe installation has not been followed.
- Continuing the work could cause significant damage or create a safety risk.
Where possible, we will explain why the installation cannot proceed and what needs to be done before work can continue.
Where we decide that an installation cannot proceed because the work itself is unsuitable or unsafe and this is not due to something you were required to arrange or complete, any applicable installation-fee refund will be dealt with in accordance with your order and the circumstances of the work already carried out.
Where the installation cannot proceed because access, preparation or other agreed customer requirements have not been met, the provisions regarding failed or prevented installations above may apply.
19. Your Consumer Rights
These installation terms are intended to explain the practical requirements, responsibilities and reasonable limitations associated with our installation service.
They do not remove or reduce any statutory rights you have as a consumer.
We will carry out our installation service with reasonable care and skill and will investigate concerns relating to the standard of our work.
Questions Before Ordering?
If you are uncertain about what is included in your quotation, how to prepare your home, whether additional permissions are required, or what finishing work may be needed afterwards, please speak to your sales advisor before placing your installation order.
It is much easier to address special requirements before manufacturing and installation begin.
Clear expectations, preparation and good communication help the installation proceed smoothly and allow any concerns to be addressed promptly.
