Architects - Making Work for Window Cleaners

Looking through the glass: Location may be real estate's best friend, but the view is the home's soul-mate. Windows frame our vision of the outside world. As more people are looking for the best possible perspective, they are also hunting for smart ways to increase the value of their homes. Windows are a good starting point. Newer, bigger, wider, taller, more efficient windows are a hot upgrade and there are options galore.

Christopher Simmonds, one of Ottawa's leading architects, works on the premise that, aside from providing shelter, a house is primarily a place to experience nature from within. "For me, windows are all important. So when we are designing a house, we are always thinking, what are the views trying to capture? Is it a tall tree? Is it a horizon? And how wide should we take the window to capture the view but screen out what we don't want to see, like the side of a neighbour's house or the road." In the past, windows were the absolute weakest link in the home, says Mr. Simmonds, who has crafted a reputation for connecting inside and outside spaces by using a lot of glass. In the early years, when log cabins were the house of choice, people kept windows small for structural reasons and because they let in the cold.

Technologies have vastly improved, even if winters are still raw, and many Canadians are attracted to a Mediterranean concept of living with lots of light. "There is such a desire to open up to the outside, to create integration," says Mr. Simmonds. "Fortunately, we have the technology to go along with it. It's common to see triple-glazed windows with low-e coatings and argon gas, says the architect. "The thermal performance of these windows is significantly better, three or four times better, than windows used to be 25 or 30 years ago."

Manotick Windows and Doors owner Bob Milne has seen a lot of changes in the past 20 years, with owners of older homes and those building new homes looking for the best windows to stop drafts, resist mould and rot and provide security. Typically, they choose from four types of frames that carry their own strengths and weaknesses. These include PVC, fibreglass, wood and aluminum.

• PVC windows

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, are well suited for buyers looking for low maintenance. These windows require no painting inside or outside; and are popular for starter homes right up to million-dollar properties. "You don't have to paint against weather stripping," says Mr. Milne, adding the frames come in trendy colours, including shades of brown, grey, and green. "You don't have to paint against handles or cranks. You just clean your windows." But one of the downsides to PVC is its tendency to expand. So why would you want it? "PVC is the most economical product on the market," says Mr. Milne. "So say windows are $10,000 in PVC, they may be $14,000 in fibreglass." Given that PVC is cost efficient, they are the current industry standard - which is why most companies that make the cranks and the hardware for window companies are designing them mostly for vinyl windows. The price A 60x60-inch picture window costs $900 to $1,100, installed.

• Fibreglass

Fibreglass has been around for years, but it's still a relatively small player in the world of windows. Its big advantage is that it expands very little, allowing the caulking that holds the seal to outlast other installations. "Fibreglass does not expand any differently than glass," says Mr. Milne. "It's made of glass. It's glass fibres." People concerned about having the highest energy efficiency will search out fibreglass products. But they are more expensive, and there are limitations, such as it's hard to get them made into curves. The price A 60x60-inch picture window costs $1,300 to $1,500, installed.

• Wood

Wood is the original window frame material, but these days it's used for high-end jobs and comes with regular maintenance. "It's usually someone who appreciates a wood finish on the inside," says Mr. Milne. Given Ottawa's weather extremes, it's hard to keep paint on a wood window. Wooden windows usually have aluminum cladding on the outside and wood on the inside. "Some people forget the wood and let it go. Then it peels inside and it's not as good a look as the vinyl window." The price Wood windows have a bigger price range, just like wood furniture, because there will be different qualities of wood. Prices range between $900 and $2,000 for a 60x60-inch picture window, installed.

• Aluminum

Aluminum has been widely used in high-rises for its strength and longevity, which is of utmost importance when dealing with high winds several floors up. They are light, strong, low-maintenance and easily formed into complex shapes. However, they conduct the cold, so it will tend to be a chillier window. "You go on the balcony of a 17th-floor apartment building and feel the wind blowing. You want a window that's stronger to hold that glass," says Mr. Milne. He says aluminum expands a certain amount too. "It's less than vinyl, but more than wood or fibreglass." The price Similar to vinyl for a 60x60-inch window, ranging from $900 to $1,200, installed.

Life behind a wall of glass: As a nation we Brits like our privacy and generally prefer to play out our home lives with blinds closed and curtains tightly drawn. Not Henry Squire, pictured, who lives in a house in which the entire façade is clad in huge sheets of glass. This floods his rooms with light — but also gives anyone walking through Paradise Park in Holloway, North London, an eyeful of his supersleek kitchen and taste in soft furnishings (white). Contemporary architects have embraced expanses of glass because of the way it maximises natural illumination. Agents say that enthusiasm for this kind of design is growing and prices regularly exceed comparable properties with regular windows.

Squire, 37, is a director of Squire and Partners, the architectural practice working on the controversial Chelsea Barracks redevelopment. Having helped to design the Holloway glass home, he put his money where his mouth was and moved in some six years ago. Living behind a glass wall sounds frightening to the bashful, but Squire has embraced it. “Fear of overlooking is a very English phenomenon,” he says. “You can walk through very nice parts of Chelsea and Belgravia and you are looking straight into people’s houses. It is terribly easy to deal with: you just shut a blind.”

Trevor Abrahmsohn, the managing director of Glentree International, is about to put the glass-heavy Hillside House in Highgate up for sale for about £5 million. “Walls of windows do wonderful things to a room,” he says. “It is almost shocking when you go into a house like that on a dull day and see how bright it is.” Living in a glass house is not without complications, however. “The big issue I have found is maintenance, because unlike brickwork, you do have to clean it,” Squire says. “To keep it looking really good, you ideally need to clean it once every six months, or even every quarter.”

Some environmentalists take issue with glass. But Chris Wilford, head of sustainable design at PRP Architects, says it does not necessarily produce an environmental calamity — boiling in summer and requiring air-conditioning, and expensive and difficult to heat in winter. “There are some fantastic glass products on the market with good insulating value, so you can build houses that are flooded with light but are very efficient too,” he says. “And a lot of glass means you don’t have to have the lights on all the time.” When it comes to investment potential, Paul Jarman, a director of Savills estate agents, says that glass houses do a little better than their brick-built peers. “The young City money would much rather have a glass house than something traditional,” he says. “The sub-forties want a house that has all the latest technology built in and a glass house will have that. “Buyers also like to have nice, open, airy rooms, and by having glass the feel is much more spacious and open and connected to the outside.”

One concern that comes up again and again, though, when it comes to glass houses, is security.
No official data exists about whether you are more likely to be burgled if all your worldly goods are permanently on show. But Abrahmsohn believes that glass houses could actually be a turn-off for burglars. “If you get a bit of glass that is 8ft high and 6ft across, it’s very difficult to try to cut out a portion of it,” he said. “You could cut your leg off. It is also usually toughened and very hard to break and you can’t jemmy it open like you can a rotten window frame. In the trade it is a known fact that they [glass houses] are very hard to get into and therefore burglars hate them.”

The pros:

• Expanses of glass flood a house with light, making rooms feel bigger and taking advantage of any views.
• Natural light eliminates the need to have so many lights on.
• Glass properties are relatively rare and popular with young house-hunters. This can push prices higher than for equivalent, conventionally constructed properties.
• Glass houses are low maintenance — aside from the window cleaning.
• There is no need for painting or repointing.
• Glass houses are usually contemporary and so tend to come with the latest technology, from ambient heating systems to computer-controlled lighting.
  

The cons:

• Some people may find being so exposed a problem, although this can be mitigated with opaque or tinted glass or blinds.
• The glass will need to be cleaned every four to six months, possibly by specialist window-cleaners.
• If whole walls are glass, there is less space for shelves and cupboards, or to hang pictures, than in a conventional property.
• A badly designed glass house can be too hot in summer and very costly to heat in winter. Check the energy performance certificate in the Home Information Pack. Look for a rating of D or better.