Windows and doors fitter recommendations

Hi all, looking for recommendations for a windows and doors fitter, in particular I’m interested in finding a company that handled after sales service well as I know somebody who went with a big company who left them in the lurch when there were problems with the door. Im in the Dublin area. Last thread I could find on this was 2015 so was hoping for newer feedback. Also I need to get 0.7/0.8 u value and found that one small company advised this wasn’t possible with upvc while a few of the big ones said it was. Small company gave a good reputation but I have no way to evaluate conflicting statements. Any insights on that welcomed too. Thanks

We are in the process of getting new windows and are using a local company. They came recommended to us as did a front door for one neighbour and windows for another. We are based in north county Dublin.

Not sure if I can share their name or not. Will PM if not allowed.

ps. have no connect to this company other then being a current customer.

TRS30 said:

Not sure if I can share their name or not. Will PM if not allowed.

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Go for it. We prefer public recommendations as then others looking for the same thing can benefit in the future.

ACME homes are priced competitively in Dublin.we have used them previously and would do again.

Leo said:

Go for it. We prefer public recommendations as then others looking for the same thing can benefit in the future.

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We are going with PEAK Window & Doors based in Swords based on points above, price and quality of products.

We had 15 or so TG windows, front door and screen, a lift and slide, French doors and a couple of back doors installed by https://www.mcmullanodonnell.com/ earlier this year. Really could not recommend them highly enough. No pushy sales, huge team showed up to do the install very quickly, really clean and tidy job done. They do the job start to finish, so no chasing installers who blame the suppliers etc.

In-terms of aftercare, we had a funny shaped pane that ended up leaking and a door/window that needed adjusting, absolutely no hassle, they just got it sorted.

No connection to them.

We had one of the very big names fit some patio doors last year. After visiting 5 Dublin showrooms we reluctantly choose the one we went with....because we liked the style of their doors over the others.

The salesman we had to deal with was pig ignorant. Took offense if you asked him a question. Basically told us that he did not need our business and that it was a small order. It was a €10k order.

The fitting of the doors was OK. Problem with the saddle. Took them a long while to sort it out. They basically did a fix job.

When the fitters left we discovered lots of nails left among the gravel on our driveway. One of the fitters spent his whole time on his phone, did not clean up properly.

One of the door handles is "sticky" when you open and close it. We have a second door to compare with.

No matter who you choose you might encounter problems of some sort or another like we did. You really have to go with the Gods.

We had planned to get 5 windows on the back of our house replaced as the next job. Used the patio doors as a test situation. This experience has knocked us back about making the next step, as I felt the company we dealt with were not great, so reluctant to give them any further business.

Hi,
I have placed an order with www.crescentwindows.ie for a new french door. It is due to be fitted in mid September. Price wise they were very competitive.
They were recommended to me by a person who services windows who stated that the most important thing is the installer. I have no affiliation with them beyond being a customer.

Looking at the comments above many people have had problems with the installation. I have read nightmare stories about some of the big names out there.

Tintagel said:

We had one of the very big names fit some patio doors last year. After visiting 5 Dublin showrooms we reluctantly choose the one we went with....because we liked the style of their doors over the others.

The salesman we had to deal with was pig ignorant. Took offense if you asked him a question. Basically told us that he did not need our business and that it was a small order. It was a €10k order.

The fitting of the doors was OK. Problem with the saddle. Took them a long while to sort it out. They basically did a fix job.

When the fitters left we discovered lots of nails left among the gravel on our driveway. One of the fitters spent his whole time on his phone, did not clean up properly.

One of the door handles is "sticky" when you open and close it. We have a second door to compare with.

No matter who you choose you might encounter problems of some sort or another like we did. You really have to go with the Gods.

We had planned to get 5 windows on the back of our house replaced as the next job. Used the patio doors as a test situation. This experience has knocked us back about making the next step, as I felt the company we dealt with were not great, so reluctant to give them any further business.

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Thanks for posting this, this is exactly what I am terrified of with the bigger companies. A lot of them have a sizeable chunk of very bad reviews where people have spent lots of money but just been left with a rubbish install.

Apologies for the delayed reply, had something come up so wasn't online to see this for the last few days. Thanks to everyone for the recommendations - will see if I can get some quotes. A big issue seems to be that the smaller companies don't do the very low U values that the bigger companies do. But the service seems to be much better with smaller outfits.

Tintagel said:

We had one of the very big names fit some patio doors last year. After visiting 5 Dublin showrooms we reluctantly choose the one we went with....because we liked the style of their doors over the others.

The salesman we had to deal with was pig ignorant. Took offense if you asked him a question. Basically told us that he did not need our business and that it was a small order. It was a €10k order.

The fitting of the doors was OK. Problem with the saddle. Took them a long while to sort it out. They basically did a fix job.

When the fitters left we discovered lots of nails left among the gravel on our driveway. One of the fitters spent his whole time on his phone, did not clean up properly.

One of the door handles is "sticky" when you open and close it. We have a second door to compare with.

No matter who you choose you might encounter problems of some sort or another like we did. You really have to go with the Gods.

We had planned to get 5 windows on the back of our house replaced as the next job. Used the patio doors as a test situation. This experience has knocked us back about making the next step, as I felt the company we dealt with were not great, so reluctant to give them any further business.

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Similar experience with probably the same "big name"
Very untidy job and afterservice not what I would expect from such a company either.

Need to tackle this myself - long overdue - and I'm dreading it...

mir2001 said:

A big issue seems to be that the smaller companies don't do the very low U values that the bigger companies do.

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When there isn't a major difference in the product, are you sure you're comparing like with like? Many of those advertising the very low U-values are only specifying the glazed unit and not the glazed unit and frame combination.

A friend recommended TSL Windows from Tallaght some years back so we went ahead and used them. They are excellent on customer service and the quality of the windows is excellent also. They have a handy showrooms too.

I'm getting Lumi windows and doors fitted by Walker windows at the end of the month. My wife fell in love with Lumi windows, and there appears to be only one company that fits them outside of Dublin. Hopefully it all goes well. It's ar retrofit, replacing old double-glazed units, and replacing concrete cills with limestone.

Tintagel said:

The salesman we had to deal with was pig ignorant. Took offense if you asked him a question. Basically told us that he did not need our business and that it was a small order.

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We did the big five who have showrooms in Dublin.

We also came across very superior and arrogant salespeople. Also some very nice salespeople.

However there was a terrible smugness from the top two. One individual in particular, who if you sent him an email to clarify something, he would just copy and paste some obscure and well hidden term/condition in a document full of terms and conditions with the answer highlighted in marker, nothing else.

I am not an expert of replacement windows and it would have been nice to receive a bit of help from the salesperson.

Tintagel said:

We had one of the very big names fit some patio doors last year. After visiting 5 Dublin showrooms we reluctantly choose the one we went with....because we liked the style of their doors over the others.

The salesman we had to deal with was pig ignorant. Took offense if you asked him a question. Basically told us that he did not need our business and that it was a small order. It was a €10k order.

The fitting of the doors was OK. Problem with the saddle. Took them a long while to sort it out. They basically did a fix job.

When the fitters left we discovered lots of nails left among the gravel on our driveway. One of the fitters spent his whole time on his phone, did not clean up properly.

One of the door handles is "sticky" when you open and close it. We have a second door to compare with.

No matter who you choose you might encounter problems of some sort or another like we did. You really have to go with the Gods.

We had planned to get 5 windows on the back of our house replaced as the next job. Used the patio doors as a test situation. This experience has knocked us back about making the next step, as I felt the company we dealt with were not great, so reluctant to give them any further business.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing that, this is exactly the sort of thing I'm afraid of with some of the larger companies, I've seen some awful accounts on Google reviews.

Leo said:

When there isn't a major difference in the product, are you sure you're comparing like with like? Many of those advertising the very low U-values are only specifying the glazed unit and not the glazed unit and frame combination.

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Thanks for pointing that out, that is a difference I only became aware of when I said to a guy in a small company that I couldn't understand why none of the smaller companies had a U value lower than 1 for triple. He suggested that the bigger companies might just be referring to the glass alone. I asked the technical assessor if the 0.7/8 was for the glass only or the entire unit and he said the entire frame.

In case this helps anyone else, I called ACME on foot of @Pinoy adventure's recommendation and the guy there did say they can do 0.7 UPVC so waiting to get a quote. Can't say much based off a single inquiry but he was nice to deal with and phoned me back to say they had received the email which was a nice touch too.

Thanks for all the new recommendations - will try giving a few a call tomorrow. I'll keep the thread up to date on how things are going as it might help somebody else later on.

Just got our windows and two doors replaced(went upvc in the end). Found the whole Experience quite stressful As it’s a huge amount of money and the quality of fitting seems a bit pot luck.

Whilst low u values will help with energy efficiency the quality of fitting and attention to detail is way more important IMO, especially sealing around the windows.

we went with a small local company in the end and the fitters did a decent job I think, certainly spent a fair bit of time on the fitting and very tidy finishing on the inside with no repainting or decorating required except for one minor piece on a reveal. The crew had all been with the company about a year and seemed competent, although my heart was in my mouth when they installed a large feature window (1st floor level) with a crane, as it was swinging around And the crane driver commented that it looked like the guys hadn’t done much crane work

As above i think there is a huge element of getting lucky with the fitters.I got One highly recommended company(from a builder I know) but the price was almost double I paid (for only a slightly better UPVC profile) but their fitting is supposed to be second to none, but couldn’t justify the cost(we have about 27 windoes so it was expensive)

The company I went with is owner managed, and all fitters are employed directly by company and the owner whilst only on site one day seemed to be very carefully monitoring progress throughout. (No pushy sales talk and very organised, offered good advice on where to put handle etc, very accommodating with my requests for detailed specs etc.. I’d say he thought I was mad as I can go into overdrive with research)

I’d recommend getting insulation on the window reveals at the same time to get a better seal and avoid thermal bridging, we didn’t in the end because timings didn’t work out, we got insulated plasterboard in the upstairs of the house around the same time. (look up aerogel and airtight tape for more detail)

in terms of u value it’s u of the window rather than the glass you want to focus on as others have pointed out. However unless you are going passive (or the house is extremely air tight) I’d say very little difference between a u value of 0.9 or 1 and 0.7,0.8 In term of comfort and energy usage.

you Should get specs of profiles (frames ) and glass, we got deceunick profiles and pilkington optitherm glass. Other common profiles are kommerling and veka( seems to be a bit better with more chambers in frame). Seems hard to get definitive info. on what’s better though

lastly I wouldn’t be too focussed on BER, air tightness and attention to detail of any improvements or upgrades more important