Our house is fully double glazed – in wooden frames - but it seems we constantly have to replace them as they don’t last long. And at GBP100 a shot (for a mere 45x45cm piece of glass) that soon mounts up.

We lived in Sweden is the 1980s, in a house only some 10 years old at the time, and there they had an entirely different approach to double glaze. The window simply had a double casement, each single glazed, but one which opened outwards and one that opened inwards. It worked a treat. We were never cold (even at -25C outside) and the windows rarely fogged up – and even if they did, it was a simple matter to open the inner pane and wipe the glass. The rubber insulation round the windows was also of better quality than I’ve ever seen over here in the UK.

These days sealed units are much more common in Scandinavia but two weeks ago we stayed in a brand new hotel in Norway, which has a similar solution to double glaze to our house in Sweden. Only this time the window opened outwards only and with the inner and outer casement being hinged together.

We are thinking this would make a much better long term alternative to our sealed units here. Does anyone know of a supplier in the UK?

£100 for a 450mm square DG unit seems a bit steep - am I out of touch? Is that the going rate these days? Alwantstobegreen, are you getting your units direct from a manufacturer or from a glazing company?

£100 per square metre would be very expensive.

Thanks for your feedback. The £100 is the price of unit and fitting by a nearby glazing company (6 miles away). Having paid £70 to another company three times and having two of the units go again within 3-5 years I decided to try different company.
The fact is that of the 20 panes installed 8 years ago in our extension, 7 have blown (including one twice). (This compares with 46 DG panes installed in 1990 by the previous owner in much better hardwood windows - none of which have blown).
How the latest units were fitted I know not - I left that to the installers. By the look of it each has done it in their own way. The rebates have been stained the same as the rest.

HOWEVER - I am still interested if anyone has come across double glaze windows of the type I described in Scandinavia. That sort will always been cheaper to replace and can't 'blow' anyway.

>The £100 is the price of unit and fitting

Ah, it's the labour of fitting that costs. The firm is probably paying about £50-£60 per square metre for the units. Labour is always the biggest part of such jobs.