Draughty windows: repair or replace? An honest checklist

A company that only sells new windows will tell you a draughty window needs replacing. We do repairs as well as replacements, so we can afford to be straight about it: a good share of the draughty windows we look at can be fixed for far less than the cost of a new window, and some cannot. Here is how to tell which yours is before anyone quotes you anything.

First, find where the draught actually gets in.

On a breezy day, hold the back of your hand around the edge of the window, slowly, all the way round. The back of your hand feels air movement better than your palm. A lit candle moved around the frame shows the same thing if the air is still.

Note whether the cold air comes from between the opening part and the frame, from between the frame and the wall, or seems to come off the glass itself. Those three point to three completely different problems.

Draughts that are usually repairable.

Air between the sash and the frame is the most common and the most fixable. The rubber gaskets that seal the window compress and harden over the years, and hinges drop so the window no longer pulls up square against its seals. New gaskets and a hinge adjustment restore the seal on most windows.

A window that needs slamming to lock, or that rattles in wind, usually needs its locking keeps adjusted or its hinges replaced rather than the whole window. Friction hinges are a standard replaceable part. If the handle no longer pulls the window in tight, the lock mechanism can be adjusted or swapped.

Draughts that point at the end of the road.

If the frame itself has warped, cracked or opened at its corner joints, sealing around it is a patch, not a fix. Single glazed windows and early double glazing with failed units are usually not worth sequential repairs: by the time the seals, hinges and glass have all been done, a new window would have cost little more and performed far better.

The clearest sign is repetition. If you fixed a draught last winter and it is back, the window is moving or the material is past holding a seal. Money spent repairing it again is money towards the window you will end up buying anyway.

The honest middle ground.

Plenty of houses have a mix: two or three windows genuinely done, the rest fixable. There is no rule that says a house does the whole lot at once. Replacing the worst windows and repairing the rest is a legitimate plan, and it spreads the cost across years instead of one bill.

When we survey, we will tell you which windows fall on which side of the line. Sometimes that survey ends with a repair sheet instead of a window order. That is fine with us. The replacement work comes back around when it is actually due.