Sash windows in East Grinstead and Forest Row

Sash windows are less common round the forest than casements, but East Grinstead has plenty. The Victorian streets that grew after the railway came in 1855, such as London Road, West Street, Glen Vue Road, Moat Road and Queen's Road, were built with sliding sashes, and Alma Terrace on West Street, from 1865, shows what they looked like.

uPVC sliding sash

A uPVC vertical sliding sash opens and looks like the original, with run-through horns, slim meeting rails and bars in the same pattern. In white, cream or woodgrain it is the usual replacement for a Victorian terrace outside a conservation area, and costs a little over half the price of timber. It needs no painting and does not stick or rattle.

Timber box sash

Timber box sashes are made to measure for listed houses and for owners who want them; the Forest Row listed house example shows how a timber sash job is priced. On a listed house, timber is normally what the council will accept. Elsewhere it is a matter of choice, bearing in mind that a painted sash wants its first repaint at around three years old and steady repainting after that.

Getting the details right

• Count the panes. Many East Grinstead terraces have two-over-two or plain one-over-one sashes; copying the six-over-six of a Georgian house onto them looks wrong.
• Keep stone cills and brick arches. Damaged arches are found and priced at the survey.
• In a terrace, matching the neighbours matters more than matching a brochure.

A typical job

Illustrative example of a typical job

Three front sashes on a Victorian terrace off Queen's Road, East Grinstead

A railway-era terraced house in the streets that grew up after East Grinstead's first station opened in 1855. Queen's Road was called Cemetery Road when these terraces went up.

• Three uPVC vertical sliding sashes, about 900 by 1800mm: two upstairs, one downstairs beside the door
• Woodgrain cream finish, two-over-two bars to match the street
• Scaffold for the upstairs pair included

Typically £5,800 to £8,250, supplied and fitted, including VAT.

Most of these Victorian streets lie outside the town's conservation area. A house outside it can change to uPVC sashes without planning permission, provided they look like the old ones. Check your street on the planning page first.

All eight example jobs.