Meadfoot Beach
About a mile round the headland from the harbour, Meadfoot was one of Torquay's first beaches for mixed bathing. Thatcher Rock sits just offshore.
Learn more about Meadfoot Beach on Google MapsTimber Windows & Doors In The Lincombes
Want warmer windows in the Lincombes without losing the view you bought the house for?
Large timber sashes, glazing upgrades and entrance doors for the stuccoed villas and apartment buildings above Meadfoot
In the Lincombes the windows are the reason for the house. The villas were set on terraces cut into the hill so their principal rooms could look straight out over Meadfoot and the open Channel, and the sashes are big to match. Replace them badly and you get thicker frames, heavier bars and a view seen through more timber. We make timber windows and doors for the Lincombes that keep the original sightlines, use glazing that suits both the council and the weather, and close tightly enough to stop the whistle on a windy night. Many of the buildings here are hotels or apartments, and we work with their owners and freeholders as often as with households.
Discuss Lincombes Windows With Us
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
Big sashes facing the open Channel
In the Lincombes the windows are the reason for the house. The villas were set on terraces cut into the hill so their main rooms look out over Meadfoot, and the sashes are big to match.
Luke was doing joinery as a child, and the trade runs through his family. A large sash in salt wind needs building with care that only experience gives. Luke and the team make them to last up here.
- 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
The Lincombes
Big glass, open water, a conservation area
Torbay Council designated the Lincombes Conservation Area on the same day as the Warberries in January 1975, and at over 101 hectares it is one of the larger in Torbay. Its centrepiece is Hesketh Crescent, built by the Harvey brothers between 1846 and 1848 and listed Grade II*. Darwin stayed at No 2 in 1861. Around the crescent, stucco villas stand in their own grounds, and their seaward fronts carry most of the glass. Those fronts are what the planners care about, and they are also the ones the weather reaches first.
Most window work here therefore comes down to two questions: how to keep the original look on an elevation everyone can see from the coast path, and how to make a large sash comfortable to live behind in winter. We answer both opening by opening. Indoors, the same villas often need storage that copes with damp outside walls, which is covered on our page about fitted wardrobes in the Lincombes.
The Case For It
Keeping the view while fixing the window
Sightlines kept slim
We copy the depth and width of your existing bars and rails, so the new sash frames the sea exactly as the old one did.
Glass chosen for the opening
Slim double-glazed units, laminated glass on vulnerable low panes or traditional single glass, depending on what the council will accept and what the room needs.
No more whistling sashes
Brush and compression seals set into the beads and meeting rails cut the draughts and the noise that big sashes make in an easterly.
Easy to open, easy to clean
Large sashes are counterbalanced to their real weight. Where cleaning the outside is a struggle, we can fit tilt-in mechanisms that keep the traditional look.
Entrance doors for shared buildings
Main doors for apartment blocks and hotels made in hardwood with heavy hinges, closers and locks chosen for constant traffic.
Finished for exposure
Seaward joinery is fully primed and painted before it arrives, with stainless or bronze fittings throughout.
Before You Choose
Asking the right questions about Lincombes windows
Ask the maker how they will keep the glazing bars slim if you want double glazing. The honest answers involve slim units designed for heritage sashes, or secondary glazing. If the plan is a standard sealed unit in a thicker bar, the view and the conservation officer will both notice.
Ask who is applying for consent and what drawings will support it. On a listed building such as those in Hesketh Crescent, listed building consent comes before any work, and the drawings need to show the existing and proposed sections side by side.
If the building is a hotel or a block of apartments, ask about the entrance door separately. It takes more use than any window, and the hinges, closer and lock matter as much as the timber. A maker who treats it like a domestic front door will be back to fix it within a year.
Compared
Glazing choices for a Lincombes sash
The glass decides how warm, quiet and clear a big Lincombes window is. These are the options we discuss most often for houses and apartments above Meadfoot.
| Single glass, draught-stripped | Slim double units | Secondary glazing | Standard double units | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effect on bar thickness | None | Little or none | None outside | Bars must thicken |
| Warmth | Improved | Good | Very good | Good |
| Wind noise | Reduced | Reduced | Much reduced | Reduced |
| Listed building outlook | Usually fine | Case by case | Usually fine | Unlikely |
| View through the window | Unchanged | Unchanged | Two panes to clean | Heavier frame |
| Relative cost | Lowest | Higher | Moderate | Moderate |
Our Process
Our window process for the Lincombes
In the Lincombes we follow seven stages for every window or door, with extra care on the consent stage because so many buildings are listed or divided.
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Survey from inside and out
We check every opening, note which ones face the sea and grade each as repair or replace. Seaward fronts get a closer look at cills and joints.
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Sections taken
Bars, rails, horns and mouldings are recorded and drawn at full size, existing and proposed side by side.
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Consent route agreed
We tell you whether we expect planning permission or listed building consent from Torbay Council, and supply drawings for the application.
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Glass and timber specified
Glazing type per opening, accoya for exposed fronts and hardwood for heavy-use doors, all listed on the quote.
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Made from conditioned stock
Timber settles in the workshop before it is cut, then frames and sashes are jointed and test-assembled.
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Painted before delivery
All faces primed and finished in the workshop, with fittings installed and checked.
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Fitted, sealed and revisited
We install opening by opening, seal the frame to the wall and check the balance. After the first winter we return to look at every seaward window.
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
Lincombes window and door costs
£1,400 – £9,000
per opening, made and fitted
The large seaward sashes here sit in the upper part of our per-opening range, particularly in accoya with slim double glazing. Repairs and draught-stripping cost far less and are often where we start. An entrance door for an apartment block or hotel is priced separately from domestic doors because of the heavier hardware. See our windows and doors page for the options.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceHeight above Meadfoot
Many villas sit high on steep plots, so upper seaward windows need scaffold or a tower. It is often worth doing several openings while it is up.
Listed status
Hesketh Crescent and other listed buildings need exact copies and consent drawings, which adds design time before making.
Glass specification
Slim heritage double units cost more than single glass or secondary glazing. Which one you can use may depend on the council.
Questions
Windows and doors in the Lincombes: questions
- Who approves new windows in the Lincombes?
- Torbay Council. The Lincombes Conservation Area was designated on 28 January 1975 and contains listed buildings, including Hesketh Crescent at Grade II*. A listed building needs listed building consent for new windows or doors. Hotels, apartments and other buildings that are not single houses generally need planning permission for external changes. The council's conservation area appraisals page includes the boundary map.
- Can I have double glazing in a Lincombes villa?
- Often, through slim units designed for period sashes, which keep the bars close to their original size. On a listed building it is a case-by-case decision, and secondary glazing is the usual fallback.
- Why are my big sashes so draughty when the wind is off the sea?
- Large sashes move in their boxes, and worn beads and parting strips leave gaps. Fitting brush seals and new beads, then rebalancing the sashes, cuts most of the draught and the rattle without replacing anything.
- Do you make entrance doors for apartment blocks in the Lincombes?
- Yes. We make hardwood doors with frames and fanlights to match the building, and fit closers, hinges and locks rated for heavy use. Any door that also forms part of a fire escape route has to meet that standard, and we will tell you if it does.
- Is it worth repairing seaward sashes or should I replace them?
- If the decay is limited to the cill and bottom rails, repair is usually better value. Where the box frame itself has softened, replacing the whole window is often the more sensible spend.
- Can the outside of a high window be cleaned easily?
- We can make sashes with concealed tilt mechanisms, so they swing inwards for cleaning but look traditional when closed. It is worth considering for upper floors on steep plots.
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 The Lincombes
From the Lincombes the coast path runs right past the windows. Three spots along it are worth knowing.
Daddyhole Plain
Daddyhole Plain stands around 75 metres above the sea. Local legend says the Devil, or Daddy in old Devon speech, lived in a cave below.
Learn more about Daddyhole Plain on Google Maps
Beacon Cove
Beacon Cove, near the harbour end of the path, was once the ladies' bathing cove. The cliffs around it show layers of red rock.
Learn more about Beacon Cove on Google MapsThe Lincombes On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
Window and door work takes us from the Lincombes to every district and town in this list.
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
Keep the view, lose the draught
Send us photos of your seaward windows and tell us whether the building is a house, apartments or a hotel. We will arrange a survey and price each opening.