Rowner Estate gets a makeover from Window Warehouse
A former Ministry of Defence housing estate has been transformed from boarded up shells to desirable private housing with the aid of Window Warehouse, the Portsmouth-based Halo fabricator who completed the project ahead of time.
The Rowner Estate in Portsmouth, built by the Ministry for naval personnel and their families during the 1960s, is now owned by Annington Homes. When the homes were deemed surplus to requirements by the MoD and handed back to Annington, they decided to refurbish the 85 homes and sell them on the open market.
“We chose the Eclipse range not only because it met our energy and security standards but was also aesthetically attractive, with slim sightlines and the option of a grey foil finish, which we specified for the doors and windows at the front,” said Angela Walsh of Annington Homes.
Window Warehouse, the fabricator and commercial installer, redesigned the windows to the three and four bedroom houses and two bedroom maisonettes so they were wider and fitted them with specialist fire escape hinges.
Window Warehouse chose Halo windows for the project because it offers a wide range of coloured foil options that can be applied to virtually any window design in the range. For this project they supplied Finesse “sand effect” grey foils which have a slightly textured finish, with great tactile appeal and which reflects light and shade in a very attractive way.
Malcolm Cake, MD, Window Warehouse said ‘as a long standing local manufacturer we were pleased to carry out this refurbishment project that has transformed run down part of the city’.
Manufactured with three or four fully enclosed chambers for strength and thermal performance, Eclipse’s 70mm profile matches most timber sections found in UK homes, and installations can be completed with minimal ‘making good’ after the removal of timber frames, or old PVCu or aluminium windows.
Eclipse doors and windows meet the highest standards of security including PAS 23 and 24 and Secured by Design, the crime prevention initiative developed in the UK by ACPO CPI (Association Chief Police Officers, Crime Prevention Initiatives). Designed for energy efficiency, Eclipse products comply with Part L of the Building Regulations when fitted by FENSA registered installers or approved by Building Control. It is possible to produce A rated WER windows using the Eclipse profile with just double glazing if constructed using Halo’s unique thermal profile insert.
A chamfered edge system, Eclipse has a high level of interchangeability with Eclipse Esthétique – its sculpted sister profile – so that a huge range of styles, performance benefits and sales options can be sourced from a single systems supplier.
There is also a wide choice of finishes across the Eclipse range, including white, rosewood, oak and rosewood-on-white and oak-on-white which, combined with the ancillary profiles and beads, means that doors and windows can be personalised to suit individual tastes.
The decision to refurbish and sell the homes was clearly the right one – so successful was the scheme that they all sold within weeks of handover.