Kents Cavern
Kents Cavern has been a Site of Special Scientific Interest since 1952 and a Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1957. You can only go in with a guide.
Learn more about Kents Cavern on Google MapsTimber Windows & Doors In Wellswood
Thinking of new windows for a Wellswood house inside the Warberries Conservation Area?
Sashes for the Victorian villas, casements for the 1930s houses and panelled front doors, made in timber to match
Wellswood packs a surprising amount of window history into a few streets. The 1853 terraces of Wellswood Park, the later villas along Barrington and Ellesmere Roads and the 1930s detached houses on Wellswood Avenue were built eighty years apart, and their windows differ in pattern, section and opening. All of them fall inside the Warberries Conservation Area, so what you put in matters to Torbay Council as well as to you. We make timber windows and doors in Wellswood that copy your house's own profiles, whether that means a slim Victorian glazing bar or a sturdier interwar casement. Sound frames get repaired rather than replaced.
Request A Window Survey In Wellswood
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
Eighty years of windows in a few streets
Wellswood packs Victorian villas and 1930s houses into a few streets, and their windows were built eighty years apart: sashes for one, casements for the other.
Luke has done joinery since he was a child, in a family where it runs. Getting each house's windows right instead of using one design for all is down to experience. Luke and the team make every frame in timber to match.
- 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
Wellswood
One neighbourhood, three kinds of window
The oldest houses here came out of the grounds of Wellswood Hall, which March Phillips built in 1840 well away from the town. Wellswood Park was laid out in 1853 as three blocks of five houses sharing a communal lawn, and a run of matching sashes along one of those blocks is exactly the kind of thing a single mismatched replacement spoils. The villas that followed later in the century have their own patterns, and they vary from house to house.
Wellswood Avenue is a different story. It was cut through the old park within a year of the hall's sale in 1932, and its six detached houses were each designed separately, several with an Arts and Crafts feel. Windows from that period are often side-hung casements in heavier sections, and front doors tend to be plainer, sometimes ledged oak. We match whichever you have. Bedrooms in these houses often need storage to match the period too, which we cover on our page about fitted wardrobes in Wellswood.
The Case For It
Why timber is worth it on a Wellswood elevation
Matched to your street's pattern
Where a block of houses shares one window design, we copy it exactly so your front still sits with your neighbours'. That is what a conservation officer looks for first.
Casements done properly
Interwar casements need the right weathering on the bottom rail and a proper rebate to shut out driving rain. We make them to the original depth instead of a modern slim profile.
Sashes balanced by weight
On the Victorian villas we hang sashes on cords and iron weights where the box allows, so they slide easily and stay put at any height.
Front doors that suit the house
A four-panel door with mouldings for a villa, or a plainer boarded or panelled oak door for a 1930s house. Frames, fanlights and side lights are made alongside.
Weather from the headland
Houses on the higher roads catch wind off the Ilsham headland. On those elevations we recommend accoya and a good drip detail under every cill.
Repair before replacement
A rotten bottom rail or a split cill can often be spliced. We would rather save an original window and paint it than throw it out.
Before You Choose
What to check before choosing a window maker in Wellswood
Ask whether the maker will survey every window rather than quoting from a photograph. In a Wellswood house the front and back elevations may have been altered at different times, and a quick count of openings misses which ones are original and worth repairing.
Ask to see how they will copy the glazing bar and the meeting rail. A full-size drawing taken from your own frame is the standard to expect in a conservation area. A catalogue section that is only roughly similar tends to show up in a row of matching houses.
And ask about timber choice for each elevation. A back window facing a sheltered garden can be engineered softwood. A front bay on the upper slopes towards Warberry Hill may justify accoya. One timber for the whole house, chosen without looking at exposure, is a sign the maker has not thought about your site.
Compared
Timber choices for Wellswood windows and doors
In Wellswood the question is usually which timber, not whether to use timber. Here is how the common options compare for houses in this conservation area.
| Accoya | Engineered redwood | European oak | uPVC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best use here | Exposed fronts on higher roads | Sheltered sashes and casements | Front doors and 1930s joinery | Rarely suits the area |
| Stability in damp weather | Very stable | Stable when sealed | Moves more | Does not move |
| Copies a slim Victorian bar | Yes | Yes | Yes, but heavier | No |
| Finish | Paint | Paint | Oil, stain or paint | Factory colour only |
| Likely view in the Warberries Conservation Area | Generally acceptable | Generally acceptable | Generally acceptable | Often resisted |
| Price position | Upper | Lower | Middle to upper | Lowest |
Our Process
Replacing windows in Wellswood, step by step
Our window work in Wellswood follows these seven stages. Matching the house and checking the consent position come early, before any timber is ordered.
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Window-by-window survey
We inspect each opening inside and out, test the timber for soft spots and decide which frames can be repaired and which have gone.
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Profiles recorded
Glazing bars, rails, horns, cill noses and door mouldings are traced from the house and drawn at full size for your approval.
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Planning position
We tell you what we think the Warberries Conservation Area means for your house and supply drawings if Torbay Council needs to see them.
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Timber and glass agreed
Species per elevation, glazing type and ironmongery are set out on the quote so there is nothing to argue about later.
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Making in the workshop
Frames, sashes and doors are machined from conditioned stock, jointed and dry-fitted at our Barton workshop.
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Priming and painting off site
Every face gets primer and top coats before delivery, including the edges and end grain that will sit against the frame.
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Installed and revisited
Each opening is swapped in a day so the house is never left open. We come back after the first winter to adjust and touch up.
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
Wellswood window and door prices
£1,400 – £9,000
per opening, made and fitted
A single casement at the back of a 1930s house sits at the lower end. A tall box sash in accoya on an exposed villa front, with slim double glazing where permitted, sits near the top. A panelled oak front door with a new frame and fanlight falls in between. We itemise every opening, so you can phase the work. See our timber windows and doors page for timber and glazing options.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceExposure on the higher roads
Houses on the slopes towards Warberry Hill and the Ilsham headland catch more weather, and accoya on those fronts adds to the price but extends the life of the window.
Matching a terrace
Copying the shared sash pattern of a Wellswood Park block means a custom cutter and careful setting out, which is mostly a one-off cost.
Glazing choice
Single glass, slim double units or secondary glazing all price differently. What the council will accept on your house may decide this for you.
Questions
Questions about windows and doors in Wellswood
- Do I need permission to replace windows in Wellswood?
- It depends on the building. Wellswood is inside the Warberries Conservation Area, designated by Torbay Council on 28 January 1975, and the Lincombes Conservation Area adjoins it. A single unlisted house replacing windows like for like is often permitted development, but flats have no such rights and listed buildings need listed building consent. Torbay Council's conservation area appraisals and maps show the boundary, and its planning team can confirm your position.
- Can you match the sashes on my Wellswood Park terrace?
- Yes. We take the profiles from your own windows or, if yours have been changed, from an original on a neighbouring house with the owner's permission. That way the whole block reads as one again.
- My 1930s house has casement windows. Do you make those?
- We do. Interwar casements are a different construction from Victorian sashes, with side-hung opening lights and heavier frames. We copy the original sections and fit stays and fasteners in keeping with the period.
- How does the wind off the headland affect timber windows?
- Driving rain and salt carried on the wind shorten the life of paint, especially on cills and bottom rails. We use accoya on the most exposed fronts, finish every face in the workshop and make sure the drip groove under each cill throws water clear of the wall.
- Can I have double glazing in a period window here?
- Often, using slim units that fit a traditional sash without thickening the glazing bars. On a listed building it is less certain, and secondary glazing fitted inside the original window is the usual alternative.
- Will you make a new front door to go with original windows?
- Yes. We make the door, frame and any fanlight or side lights to suit the house, then hang it with ironmongery of the right period. On a Wellswood villa that usually means a four-panel door with mouldings.
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 Wellswood
The streets around Ilsham Road lead quickly down to the coast. Here are three places worth the walk.
Anstey's Cove
Anstey's Cove sits below woodland on the north side of the headland. It is small and steep, popular with climbers and, on still days, with people exploring the rock pools.
Learn more about Anstey's Cove on Google Maps
Ilsham Marine Drive And Thatcher Point
Ilsham Marine Drive circles towards Hope's Nose and passes Thatcher Point, where benches look out over the sea. Bishop Phillpotts built his Bishopstowe house nearby in 1841.
Learn more about Ilsham Marine Drive And Thatcher Point on Google MapsWellswood On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
Our window and door work reaches every Torquay district in this list, and the wider towns around the bay and the Teign.
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
Get your Wellswood windows looked at
Send us a few photos of the front and back elevations. We will arrange a survey, tell you what can be saved and price the rest opening by opening.