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Timber Windows & Doors In Totnes

Is the front door of your Totnes house older than the front it sits in?

Six-panel doors with fanlights, side passage doors and sash and casement windows for listed houses on Fore Street, High Street and behind

A Totnes front is often a Georgian or Victorian face put on an Elizabethan house. When the merchants' timber frames were rendered or hung with slate, the fronts got vertical sliding sashes, mostly six over six and painted white, and six-panel doors, often with a fanlight. Behind them, the rear wings and kitchen blocks running down the long burgage plots kept a mixture of windows of different dates. South Hams District Council counts roughly 321 listed buildings in the conservation area, and a listing covers all of it, front and back. We make timber doors, fanlights and windows for Totnes houses, copied from what is there, and we prepare the drawings the consent application needs.

Call 01803 223288 Book A Measure Up
A narrow high street of independent shops with bunting strung overhead

Ask About Totnes Doors And Windows

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

Six-panel doors and six-over-six sashes

A Totnes front is often a Georgian or Victorian face on a far older house, with six-over-six sashes and six-panel doors under fanlights.

Luke has been a joiner since he was a child, and joinery runs in his family. Matching work like that on a listed street calls for knowledge built slowly at the bench. He and the team make each piece to the house's own pattern.

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Totnes

The front, the passage and the back of the plot

A typical merchant house in Totnes has three kinds of joinery worth looking at. The street front carries the sashes and the main door. Beside it, a passage runs back to the courtyard, and its door, set back from the street, takes a battering from weather and traffic. Then there is the rear: kitchen blocks and wings along the burgage plot, where windows may be casements, small sashes or later additions, and where repairs have often been done in a hurry over the years.

Because the listing covers every one of those, a rear window gets the same scrutiny as the front. We record each opening, work out which period it belongs to and propose like-for-like work. Bedrooms in these houses raise their own questions about storage and consent, which our page on fitted wardrobes in Totnes answers.

Close view of the glazing bars on a timber window made in our workshop

The Case For It

Door and window work for Totnes listed buildings

Six-panel doors copied

Panel layout, mouldings and proportions recorded from your door or a surviving neighbour, and made in oak or painted softwood.

Fanlights remade

Rectangular or arched fanlights glazed to the original bar pattern, made as part of the door frame.

Passage doors put back in shape

Side passage doors rehung, repaired or remade, with frames that sit square in old openings.

Rear windows given proper attention

Casements and small sashes on rear wings copied from what survives, not swapped for something convenient.

Six-over-six sashes

Where a sash really is beyond repair, we copy its glazing bars and horns exactly.

Consent prepared properly

Existing and proposed drawings, sections and a materials note for the South Hams application.

Before You Choose

What to ask before work on a listed Totnes house

Ask the maker how they will establish what is original. In a re-fronted Totnes house, the door might be Georgian and the frame later, or the reverse. Proposals that get this wrong tend to be refused or come back with conditions.

Don't forget the rear windows. Many owners assume only the street matters, but listed building consent covers the whole building, and unauthorised work is a criminal offence wherever it is.

Ask how long components will reach the back of the plot. On Fore Street and High Street the side passage is often the only route, so frames and doors need to be planned to fit through it.

Compared

Front door options for a Totnes merchant house

For a listed house, the choices narrow quickly. These are the routes we discuss for a worn front or passage door.

Front door options for a Totnes merchant house
  Repair the existing doorNew door copying the originalNew door to a neighbour's patternOff-the-shelf period-style door
Original fabric kept MostFrame may stayFrame may stayLittle
Consent outlook Repairs treated lightlyUsually acceptableAcceptable if justifiedUnlikely
Panel layout OriginalCopied exactlyCopied from next doorApproximate
Fanlight KeptRemade to matchRemade to matchOften lost
Timber As existingOak or softwoodOak or softwoodVaries
Relative cost LowestUpperUpperMiddle

Our Process

Door and window work in Totnes, start to finish

In Totnes, approvals usually take longer than the making. These are the seven stages and the order they run in.

  1. Recording the building

    We photograph and measure the front, the passage and the rear, and note which joinery belongs to which period.

  2. Profiles taken

    Door mouldings, panel layouts, glazing bars and fanlight patterns are drawn full size.

  3. Consent application

    We prepare the drawings and materials note for South Hams and answer any questions from the conservation team.

  4. Timber selected

    Oak or traditional softwood chosen, with certified timber on request, and left to settle in the workshop.

  5. Made in Barton

    Doors, frames and sashes are cut and jointed, with traditional joints where they suit the piece.

  6. Finished

    Traditional paint or oil, applied in the workshop, ready to be touched up in years to come.

  7. Fitted through the passage

    Components come in by the side passage if needed, and are fitted by the people who made them. We return after the first winter to check.

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.
Hand finishing a timber panel in the workshop before it is delivered

Budget

Door and window costs in Totnes

£1,400 – £9,000

per opening, made and fitted

A new six-panel door with frame and fanlight sits in the upper half of our per-opening range. Repairs cost less in materials and more in time. Consent drawings and the wait for a decision are part of every Totnes job. More on timber and glazing is on our timber 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 price

Steep, narrow streets

Fore Street and High Street have little parking, and long pieces often travel through a side passage, which adds handling time.

Consent work

Recording, drawings and a materials note for South Hams are priced as their own item.

Oak versus softwood

Oak doors cost more than painted softwood, though the original material often decides it.

Questions

Totnes doors and windows: your questions

Who approves new doors or windows on a listed Totnes house?
South Hams District Council, through listed building consent. Its draft appraisal counts roughly 321 listed buildings in the Totnes conservation area, and a listing covers the whole building, rear wings included. Doing the work without consent is a criminal offence. A careful repair in matching timber gets an easier hearing than a replacement. South Hams lists its conservation areas and their maps, and the conservation team can advise before you apply.
Can you copy a six-panel Totnes front door?
Yes. We record the panels, mouldings and proportions and make the new door to match, along with any fanlight above it.
Do the windows at the back of my Totnes house need consent too?
If the house is listed, yes. The listing covers the rear wings and kitchen block as well as the street front.
Can you repair our side passage door?
Usually. We rehang it, splice in new timber where it has rotted and refit the frame, keeping as much of the original as possible.
Is slate-hanging around windows a problem when replacing them?
It needs care. Slate-hanging is part of what the listing protects, so if slates around a window have to be lifted, we plan it with a roofer and show it on the consent drawings.
Does Totnes's damp river setting affect timber doors?
The town climbs from the Dart, and houses near the river can stay damper. We seal end grain and joints before assembly and keep a good drip on every door.

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.”

Helen R.

The Warberries · Fitted wardrobes, Victorian villa

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.”

Marcus D.

Torquay harbourside · Bar counter and back fitting

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.”

Jonathan & Kate P.

Lincombes · Four box sash windows

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.”

Priya N.

Chelston · Alcove cupboards and shelving

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.”

Steve W.

Babbacombe · Kitchen for a holiday let

Local

What To Do In Totnes

The streets of Totnes are full of the buildings we work on. Three places to see while you are there:

Totnes On The Map

Coverage

Areas We Cover

Totnes is one of several towns we cover beyond Torquay. Every area we work in is below.

Across Torquay

And across South Devon

Or go straight to a service

Start with a record of the building

Send photos of the front, the side passage door and the back. We will visit, record what is there and tell you what consent the work needs.

Call 01803 223288 Book A Measure Up