Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve
Dawlish Warren is a sand spit across the mouth of the Exe, where brent geese, godwits and avocets roost at high tide in autumn and winter.
Learn more about Dawlish Warren National Nature Reserve on Google MapsTimber Windows & Doors In Dawlish
Do the trains on the sea wall rattle your Dawlish sashes every time one passes?
Regency and Victorian sashes, front doors and acoustic upgrades for houses around the Lawn, the Strand and Brunswick Place
Dawlish became a resort almost overnight. Around 1807 John Edye Manning straightened Dawlish Water and made the Lawn out of the marsh beside it, the Strand went up along one side, and Brunswick Place was largely finished by about 1830. Then, in 1846, Brunel's railway arrived along the sea wall, and it has run past the front of the town ever since. Houses near it get salt spray, wind off the sea and the passing trains, and old sashes in tired boxes rattle with all three. We make and repair timber sashes and front doors for Dawlish's Regency and Victorian houses, with draught seals and glazing that quieten them, inside the conservation area Teignbridge District Council designated in 1997.
Book A Dawlish Window Survey
Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we will arrange a time to come and measure. A photo of the space on your phone is usually enough to start with.
The Joiner Behind It
Regency sashes by the Lawn
Dawlish became a resort fast, and the houses round the Lawn, the Strand and Brunswick Place kept their Regency and Victorian sashes. The railway alongside adds noise to think about too.
Luke has done joinery since he was young, and it's the family trade. Getting a period sash to look right and work quietly is learned at the bench, not in a classroom. He and the team make each one in Barton.
- Custom Joinery Projects
- 300+ Custom Joinery Projects
- Fitted Wardrobes Built
- 100+ Fitted Wardrobes Built
- Kitchens & Fitted Furniture
- 200+ Kitchens & Fitted Furniture
- Measured Design Visit
- Free Measured Design Visit
Dawlish
Regency fronts beside a seaside railway
The Regency houses around the Lawn and Brunswick Place were built for visitors who came for the sea bathing, and their windows were made to show off the view and the light. Where those sashes survive, they are often worth repairing. Later in the century villas climbed the slopes along Barton Road, East Cliff Road and Oak Park Road, with larger windows of their own. All of that sits in or near the conservation area, which covers the Lawn, the Strand, Brunswick Place and much of the old town.
Most of the new housing on the north-east side, at Secmaton and Shutterton, comes with modern windows already fitted, so our window work in Dawlish is mostly in the older town. Bedrooms in those new homes often need storage, though, and our page on fitted wardrobes in Dawlish covers both old and new houses.
The Case For It
Window and door work for Dawlish's older houses
Rattles stopped
New beads, parting strips and brush seals stop a sash shaking every time a train or a gust goes by.
Quieter glazing where allowed
Slim double-glazed units, or secondary glazing inside, cut the noise from the sea wall line without changing the outside.
Regency patterns copied
Glazing bars and horns taken from the original sashes around the Lawn and Brunswick Place.
Salt-ready specification
Accoya, sealed joints and stainless or bronze fittings for houses facing the sea.
Front doors to match
Panelled doors and fanlights made to the proportions of the Regency and Victorian houses.
Consent prepared
Drawings for Teignbridge where the house is listed or the work needs planning permission.
Before You Choose
Before replacing windows in Dawlish
Ask whether the noise and draughts can be fixed without replacing the window. In many Dawlish sashes, worn beads and loose sashes cause the rattle, and a careful overhaul with seals does more than new glass alone.
If you want double glazing, ask how the maker will keep the glazing bars slim. In the conservation area, thick bars and stuck-on strips are exactly what the council does not want to see.
For a house facing the sea, ask what timber and ironmongery the maker proposes. Spray from the bay reaches a long way inland on a windy day, and standard fittings soon streak rust down fresh paint.
Compared
Quietening a Dawlish sash: four options
Owners near the sea wall railway usually want quieter, warmer windows. These are the routes we compare.
| Overhaul with seals | Secondary glazing | New sash, slim double units | Replacement uPVC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noise reduction | Noticeable | Greatest | Good | Good |
| Draught reduction | Good | Very good | Very good | Very good |
| Outside appearance | Unchanged | Unchanged | Matched to original | Changed |
| Conservation area outlook | Welcomed | Usually fine | Case by case | Poor |
| Original kept | Yes | Yes | Frame often kept | No |
| Relative cost | Lowest | Low to middle | Upper | Middle |
Our Process
Window and door work in Dawlish, in order
Our seven steps for Dawlish windows and doors, from a first look to a check after the winter.
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Survey and listening
We look at each sash, check for rot and note which windows rattle when a train passes.
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Pattern taken
Glazing bars, horns and mouldings are recorded and drawn at full size.
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Consent checked
We confirm whether the house is listed or affected by the conservation area and prepare drawings if needed.
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Repair or replace decided
Each window is priced for overhaul, secondary glazing or replacement so you can compare.
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Workshop making
New sashes and doors are made from conditioned timber at Barton, with seals fitted in the beads.
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Finishing
Every face primed and painted before delivery.
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Fitting and follow-up
Sashes are rehung and balanced the same day. We come back after a winter on the coast to check the seals.
Reassurance
What We Stand Behind
- Timber moved before it was cut
- Boards come into the workshop and sit there before anything is machined. Cutting a wide oak panel on the day it arrives is how you end up with a door that has cupped by Easter. In a bay where spring humidity runs high, that waiting period is not optional.
- Scribed to your walls, not shimmed to them
- Older Torquay walls are rarely square and almost never plumb. Every fitted piece is scribed to the actual surface on site. If you can see daylight behind a filler strip, the job was measured once and hoped over.
- Ironmongery rated for the job it is doing
- A drawer in a holiday flat gets pulled open forty times a week in August. We fit runners and hinges specified for that, and we tell you which ones we used, so in eight years you can buy the same part rather than replacing a whole unit.
- If it moves, we come back
- Solid timber is a material that responds to the room it lives in, and occasionally something needs easing in its first year. That visit is part of the job, not a callout. Say so and we will book it.
Budget
Window and door costs in Dawlish
£1,400 – £9,000
per opening, made and fitted
Overhauling and sealing a sash costs a fraction of a new one. Secondary glazing sits low in our per-opening range, and new accoya sashes with slim double units sit near the top. A panelled front door with fanlight falls in the middle. Timber and glazing options are on our windows and doors page.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceVillas on the slopes
Houses on Barton Road, East Cliff Road and Oak Park Road often have tall upper windows on sloping plots, which need towers or scaffold.
Seafront exposure
Accoya and stainless fittings for windows facing the sea wall add to the cost and to the life of the window.
Listed houses
Consent drawings and exact copies for listed houses around the Lawn add design time.
Questions
Dawlish window and door questions
- Do I need permission to change windows in Dawlish's old town?
- Possibly. The Dawlish conservation area, designated by Teignbridge District Council in 1997, covers the Lawn, the Strand, Brunswick Place and much of the old town. Listed houses need listed building consent for new windows and doors, and flats have no householder permitted development rights. Unlisted houses have more freedom but should still match the original. Read the Dawlish conservation area appraisal before ordering.
- Can you stop my Dawlish sashes rattling when trains go by?
- Usually. New beads and parting strips with brush seals, and sashes rebalanced on their weights, stop most of the rattle.
- Will secondary glazing help with railway noise?
- Yes, often more than any other option, because the gap between the two panes absorbs a lot of sound. It also leaves the original window untouched.
- What timber suits a Dawlish seafront house?
- Accoya or a durable hardwood, sealed on every face, with stainless or bronze fittings. Repaint the sea-facing side a little more often.
- Do you work on the newer houses at Secmaton and Shutterton?
- Those homes usually come with modern windows, so we do more storage work there. We are happy to quote for timber doors if you want them.
- Can you copy a Regency front door?
- Yes. We record the panels, mouldings and any fanlight and make a new door to match, or repair the existing one.
Feedback
What Customers Say
Rated 5 out of 5
“Our bedroom is in one of the old Warberries villas and the back wall bows by about an inch and a half across four metres. Two national firms measured it, quoted, then went quiet. These came, measured, and said it needed scribing rather than filling. The wardrobes go right into the corner and there is no gap anywhere. My husband keeps running his hand down the join.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“We run a bar on the harbourside and needed the counter and back fittings replaced without losing a summer weekend. They built the lot off site, came in on a Sunday night and had us trading by Tuesday lunchtime. Knowing the whole thing was made before they ever shut our doors is what sold it.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Sash windows on the front elevation, and we are in a conservation area so it had to be timber and it had to match. They took a profile off the original, made new boxes in accoya, and the planning side went through without a query. From the pavement you genuinely cannot tell which is which.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Two alcoves either side of the chimney, and they turned out to be 40mm different in width, which explains why the flat-pack ones we tried first never sat right. Made as a pair but to two different sets of measurements. Small thing, but it is the difference between looking fitted and looking bought.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“We let our place out over the season so everything gets hammered. I asked them to over-specify the drawer runners and they did, and told me exactly which ones so I can order spares. Three summers in, nothing has sagged. The last kitchen we had did not last two.”
Local
What To Do In Dawlish
Dawlish has a beach, a nature reserve and a town museum within easy reach. Three to visit:
The Lawn And Dawlish Water
The Brook runs down the Lawn over small weirs, and the black swans that arrived in 1906 still nest beside it.
Learn more about The Lawn And Dawlish Water on Google Maps
Dawlish Museum
Knowle House on Barton Terrace dates from 1805 and has housed Dawlish Museum since 1969. It opens seasonally.
Learn more about Dawlish Museum on Google MapsDawlish On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
Dawlish is the furthest up the coast we usually go. Here are all the areas we cover.
Across Torquay
- Wellswood
- The Warberries
- The Lincombes
- Chelston
- Babbacombe
- St Marychurch
- Cockington
- Shiphay
- Torre
- Ellacombe
- Livermead
- Maidencombe
And across South Devon
Or go straight to a service
Quieten your Dawlish windows
Send us a photo of the windows and tell us which ones rattle. We will survey them and price an overhaul, secondary glazing or replacement.