Window and Glass Repair in Thorndon, Wellington

Thorndon sits at the northern end of the central city between Te Ahumairangi Hill and the port. Parts of it have been protected since the district scheme work of the 1970s, becoming a Residential E Zone in the 1970s, a Character Area in 1993 and later the Thorndon Heritage Area and Thorndon Urban Conservation Area. That history is why the streets around Tinakori Road still have rows of narrow multi storey houses from 1902 instead of modern infill.

Heritage rules shape what we can do to a Thorndon window

If a property is in the Thorndon Heritage Area or listed on the district plan heritage schedule, exterior changes can need resource consent. Replacing original timber joinery with aluminium is usually off the table, and would be a poor idea anyway.

Repair and retrofit are the answer here. We keep the original sashes, scarf in new timber where the sill has gone, machine the rebate for a double glazed unit and rebead it to match the original profile. From the footpath nothing has changed.

Windows from 1900 were built from timber you cannot buy

Thorndon joinery is old growth rimu, matai and totara, milled from trees that took centuries to grow. The grain is tight and dense in a way that nothing in a timber yard today comes close to.

That is why we scarf and not replace. A sill with 150mm of soft timber at one end has another eighty years in the rest of it, and cutting out the bad section is both cheaper and better than fitting a new frame made from fast grown pine.

Wind off the harbour and the hill

Lower Thorndon takes the northerly straight off the harbour and the port, and the streets climbing Te Ahumairangi get accelerated wind coming over the hill. Both mean driving rain on the joinery for a good part of the year.

Practically, that shows up as rot on the north and west elevations first, and as rattling sashes that owners have lived with for years. Brush pile draught seals fix the rattle without changing anything visible, which matters in a heritage area.

What we get called out for in Thorndon

• Window Repair in Thorndon, diagnosed before anything is quoted, not after.
• Glass Repair in Thorndon, common sizes measured and glazed in 24 to 48 hours.
• Window Installation in Thorndon, joinery ordered to your site wind zone, not a standard spec.
• Window Replacement in Thorndon, full joinery replacement, or insert units into sound frames.
• Retrofit Double Glazing in Thorndon, keeps your existing frames, so villas keep their character.

Thorndon sits on the same run as Mount Victoria, Kelburn and Ngaio, so we are usually in the area anyway.