Window Stay and Hinge Replacement in Wellington

This is the single most common hardware repair we do in Wellington, and the wind is why. A friction stay is a pair of hinged steel arms that both carry the sash and hold it against the wind. Every gust works them. Add salt air on the south coast and around the harbour and the pivots seize, the arms corrode and eventually one bends or snaps.

What a friction stay does and how it fails

The stay carries the whole weight of the sash on two thin arms while providing enough friction to hold it at any opening. When the friction goes, the sash swings. When the pivots seize, the arms twist rather than fold and the sash sits proud at one corner.

A stay that has been forced in a gust is often visibly bent. Bending it back does not work, because the steel has already fatigued. It gets replaced.

Sizing and load

Stays are sized to the sash width and weight, and they are handed. Fitting the wrong length or a light duty stay to a heavy double glazed sash puts you straight back where you started. Retrofitted double glazing makes sashes noticeably heavier, and stays sized for the original single glass are a common failure point afterwards.

We measure the sash and check the weight before we order, and we upgrade to heavy duty where the sash needs it.

Restrictors and safety

Where a window sits above a drop, or in a bedroom used by children, a restrictor stay limits how far it opens while still allowing ventilation. Worth fitting at the same time as the stay because most of the labour is shared.

Sizing a stay so it lasts

Weight, width and handing

Stays are sized to the sash they carry and they are handed left or right. A light duty stay on a heavy sash will wear out inside a season, and it is the single most common reason a customer tells us they have had this fixed before.

We measure the sash and check the glass thickness before ordering. Where a sash has been retrofitted with a sealed unit it is roughly twice its original weight, which almost always means stepping up to heavy duty.

Restrictors on exposed elevations

A sash left on the latch will eventually be caught by weather, and the stay is what bends. Once steel has been forced past its limit it has fatigued and will fail again even if it looks straight.

On weather facing elevations we fit a restrictor at the same time as the stay. It limits how far the sash can swing while still letting the room ventilate, and it costs very little against a second callout.

Window Stay and Hinge Replacement at a glance

Types

Friction stays, egress stays, restrictor stays, butt and pivot hinges

Material

Stainless steel, 316 marine grade near the coast

Sizing

Matched to sash width, weight and handing

Double glazing

Heavy duty stays where units have been retrofitted

Typical time

Ten to twenty minutes a window