Kingskerswell has two kinds of window work, a few hundred yards apart. Around St Mary's church, the 3.5 hectare conservation area Teignbridge District Council designated in 1977 holds ten listed buildings, and the council's appraisal asks for painted timber windows and doors there, with uPVC treated as out of character. The cottages have small casements set deep in thick walls; the commuter villas built after the railway came have big sashes. East of the church, the twentieth-century bungalows are a different job, and the timber window we are most often asked for there sits in a new dormer. We make all of them in painted timber, at our Barton workshop a few minutes down the Kingskerswell Road.
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
Kingskerswell has two kinds of window work a few hundred yards apart: painted casements and sashes in the old village, and timber dormers for roof conversions on the newer streets.
Luke has done joinery all his life, since childhood, in a family where the trade runs. Handling both well takes experience no single course would give you. Luke and the team make them in Barton, just down the road.
Kingskerswell
For most of its history Kingskerswell was a farming village of orchards and thatch. The railway arrived in the late 1840s, Welsh slate replaced much of the thatch, and Torquay and Newton Abbot businessmen built villas here, many of them from pattern books. Several still have their large timber sashes. Those villas are worth looking after: a pattern-book sash is a well-proportioned, standard design, and copying one accurately is straightforward when the original survives to measure.
The newer village is mostly bungalows and chalet bungalows, and a lot of them have had or are getting loft conversions. A dormer window is the face of that conversion from the street, and a timber one in good proportion looks far better than a plastic box. Inside those roof rooms, storage under the slopes is the other half of the job, and we deal with bedroom storage on our page about fitted wardrobes in Kingskerswell.
The Case For It
Painted softwood for windows and doors in the conservation area, with oak where natural timber is wanted, as the Teignbridge appraisal prefers.
Small side-hung casements made to sit back in thick stone or cob reveals, the way the originals did.
Victorian villa sashes recorded and reproduced, with horns, bars and meeting rails to the same sections.
Timber casements for loft dormers, sized to the dormer face so the frame does not look heavy from the road.
Where building control needs an escape window from a new roof room, we size and hinge the casement to suit.
Kingskerswell is a few minutes from Barton, so surveys, deliveries and follow-up visits are quick to arrange.
Before You Choose
If your house is near St Mary's, ask whether the maker has read the Teignbridge appraisal for the conservation area. It is specific about painted timber, and a proposal that follows it is far more likely to be accepted.
For a villa sash, ask how the profile will be taken. An accurate copy needs a measured section of your own glazing bars, rails and horns, not a near match from a range.
For a dormer, ask to see the window drawn on the dormer face. The proportions of the frame against the cheeks and roof decide how the conversion looks from outside, and a maker should draw that before cutting anything.
Compared
Different parts of the village need different windows. Here is how we usually approach each type of house.
| Cottage near St Mary's | Railway-era villa | Bungalow dormer | uPVC anywhere | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Window type | Side-hung casements | Box sashes | Casements | Casements |
| Timber | Painted softwood or oak | Engineered softwood or accoya | Engineered softwood or accoya | None |
| Consent | Listed building consent if listed | Usually not if unlisted | Planning rules for dormers apply | Out of character in the conservation area |
| Key detail | Set back in a deep reveal | Bar and horn pattern | Slim frame on the dormer face | Bulky sections |
| Repaintable | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Relative cost | Middle | Upper | Lower middle | Lowest |
Our Process
These seven steps cover every Kingskerswell window and door we make, from an old cottage casement to a new dormer.
We look at each opening, or at the dormer framing if the conversion is under way, and measure carefully.
Existing windows are copied section by section. New dormer windows are drawn in proportion to the dormer.
For listed buildings we prepare drawings for Teignbridge. For roof rooms we check escape and thermal requirements.
Painted softwood, oak or accoya as suits the house, with double glazing where it is allowed.
Frames and casements are made from conditioned timber and test-fitted at Barton.
Primed and painted before delivery, on every face.
Fitted and sealed the same day. We come back after a winter to check everything is opening and closing well.
Reassurance
Budget
£1,400 – £9,000
per opening, made and fitted
Dormer casements sit towards the lower end of our per-opening range. Cottage casements in deep reveals cost a little more because of the fitting. Large villa sashes sit near the top. Listed building work adds drawing time. Our timber windows and doors page explains timber and glazing choices.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceCottages near the church have thick, uneven walls and often listed status, so fitting and paperwork take longer.
A dormer window may need a scaffold or tower, which is often already in place during a conversion. Timing the order well saves money.
Large pattern-book sashes use more timber and glass, and need careful balancing on weights.
Questions
Feedback
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
Kingskerswell is quiet, but there is plenty nearby. Three good places to visit:
St Mary's has a tall perpendicular tower and three Dinham effigies. Next to it are the ruins of the Dinham manor house, now a scheduled monument.
Learn more about St Mary's Church And The Manor Ruins on Google Maps
Teignbridge runs the Aller Brook nature reserve, where bee orchids grow on the banks in summer and paths join the Templer Way.
Learn more about Aller Brook Local Nature Reserve on Google Maps
At Stover Country Park, the Ted Hughes Poetry Trail has sixteen posts carrying his poems around the paths and the lake.
Learn more about Stover Country Park on Google MapsCoverage
Kingskerswell is one of the villages we serve outside Torquay. Every place we cover is listed here.
Send us photos of the house, or the drawings for your loft conversion. We will visit, measure and send a price for each window or door.
