Old glass, and a heritage overlay.
Toorak, South Yarra, Armadale, Hawthorn, Kew and Camberwell, where what you are allowed to change is part of the question.
Can anything be done about the heat without touching the windows?
That is usually the reason film is being considered here. Film goes on the inside face of the glass you already have: nothing is replaced, no frame is altered, and it comes off again. What it is not is a planning opinion, so the quotation names the film and the glass it is going on, and you or your heritage adviser can put that to the council.
The glass, before the film.
Replacing the glazing is the hard road
Councils across these municipalities publish the same position on heritage glazing: a full window replacement is for frames beyond reasonable repair, replacements have to match the original profile, and street-visible work on a significant building generally needs a planning permit. Film changes none of that, because it changes nothing about the window except what is on the inside of the pane.
Period glass gets looked at first
Original glass is often thinner than it looks, sometimes slightly irregular, and occasionally already chipped at an edge where a sash has been forced. All three change what can safely go on it. This is the glass where the difference between specifying against the actual pane and specifying off a brochure stops being a principle and becomes the job.
The problem is usually the new glass
A retained frontage with a large modern addition behind it is the common shape of a house here, and the room that is unusable in February is almost always the new one. The heritage glass at the front is frequently not the glass that needs treating at all.
A permit answer is not ours to give
Whether any particular work needs a planning permit under a heritage overlay is a question for the responsible authority, and the schedule for your property is what decides it. We will tell you exactly what we propose to put on the glass, in writing, so that question can be asked properly.
What that changes about the job.
The glass is confirmed before anything is quoted
Type, condition, thickness where it matters, and whether a pane has damage that rules a film out. On this housing stock that visit is not a formality.
You get a document, not a verbal
The quotation sets out the film being specified and the glass it suits, which is the form the answer has to be in if it is going to a heritage adviser, an architect or a council.
Where film is the wrong answer we say so
Sometimes the honest recommendation on a period window is external shading or nothing at all. That is a conversation we would rather have before you have paid for anything.
- Film is applied to the inside face of the glass you already have.
- Nothing is replaced and nothing structural changes.
- Film can be removed and replaced when the space changes.
Suburbs covered by this pageArmadale, Camberwell, Hawthorn, Kew, South Yarra and Toorak.
Tell us about the glass.
Describe the property and the rooms that are hard to use. We confirm what suits the glass before anything is quoted, and the quotation says which film and why.
