Re: Re: Irish say no to PVC windows

I’ve seen those inner glazing windows behind sashes you refer to MrX here and there in Dublin too – The Irish Times have them in their Georgian buildings on D’Olier Street. Needless to say, this is what should have been promoted and used on a large scale in Ireland years ago if people wanted the ‘airlock’ insulation effect, before the horrific PVC replacement blitz began.

Perhaps PVC does have its place – though its manufacture is an intensive chemical (and thus environmentally unfriendly) process.

Well spotted on the removed chimney stack on ‘The Wood Shop’ (above right), Graham – hadn’t noticed that myself. Chimneys are so important for punctuating roofscapes and giving visual demarcation between individual buildings – they should be maintained even if disused. Shame on New Ross Town Council for letting such unsympathetic alterations be carried out to these quayfront buildings, which are the ‘face’ of the town.

Interestingly, before it was PVC’d, the T. Bradley building (above left) had original sashes on the first floor and later, larger-paned sashes on the top floor.

New Ross has one of the highest survival rates of traditional shopfronts in any town in Ireland – there must be upwards of 50 in basically intact condition in the central streets of the town. The Wood Shop front is a beautiful fluted, Ionic-columned design – but looks pretty poor now that it’s been sanitised by the building next door. The curtain in the window display when a shop ceases to trade is a charming country town feature – but it’s seen less and less now.

Also, the old timber-boarded vehicle underpass doors in the earlier pictures of this building have been replaced by a sheet metal gate by ‘04 – not exactly traditional :rolleyes: . Ok, this is a minor enough change, but the loss of historic sash windows is grievous.
(Did my best to crop the PVC out of this picture 🙂 )

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Anyway, enough about New Ross. It’s happening all over the country all the time. This is an old pub in Portarlington in 2003 (top) and 2004 (above). A recent change of ownership meant the removal of the nice ‘P. Finlay’ lettering across the top – which harmonised with the pubfront and 1st floor window architrave detailing – and, more seriously, the replacement of the painted sash windows with open-out stained timber windows – almost just as visually damaging as PVC (sounds like the same situation as the Step Inn in Stepaside, mentioned earlier in the thread).