I'm surprised that no-one has written a piece on Everest yet. Does that say something about the age of a typical Everest customer? Um.
We live in rural Devon in a cob cottage (basically an Englishman's mud hut), and have struggled with the upkeep of its wooden windows for years. The original oak windows have long gone, the cottage being about 250 years old, and we have had to suffer the previous owners' enthusiasm for cheap deal frames. I had toyed with the idea of plastic windows some years previously, but had been put off by the very noticeable imbalance caused by a single opening casement in the thick frames. I don't like aluminium, and hardwood windows still need regular maintenance (I've got a couple at the back). But plastic windows in a cob cottage! Heresy.
But now it is done one has to look very hard to see that the windows are, indeed, plastic. The frames are thicker, but by specifying two casements in each window it looks as balanced as before. Aesthetically I shall probably get slated for daring to wreck a beautiful old house. Nuts. This is a working cottage, always has been, and previous owners didn't get dewey-eyed about keeping things as they were from the
year dot. Nevertheless, the quality of window that I was going to get would have to be good, which really meant a national operator. A distant relative, having worked as a rep for Everest, gave me some good advice generally, and recommended his old firm as one to deal with.
The local rep was called, we had an hour or so of very useful discussion, and he went away without an order but also without offending us by being in any way pushy. If he was disappointed he masked it well. As soon as he had gone my wife and I went into conclave, decided that we could afford it, and that we wanted it, and the next day I rang the rep and he returned to complete the order.
That was about six weeks ago. At the time of writing (11/4/03) the men have just left, and we have been getting back to normal. One thing both my wife and I were worried about was the amount of dust that the operation would produce. Cob dust, as we know to our cost, is like nothing else. If you have been in a normal house during building work, and you think it has been messy, believe me you don't know the half of it.
I had hoped that the windows could be masked from inside to minimise the entry of dust, but when the two fitters arrived I was told that that was not possible. In fact we needn't have worried. Yes, we paid a premium price for the goods, but that included the care with which these chaps did their work. We covered some things inside, and they covered the rest. I have to say I could not fault their efforts both in keeping the mess to an absolute minimum, and in their clearing up. They didn't smoke, swear or have a ghettoblaster playing all day, they didn't even seem to eat, drink or use the toilet. Where DO these people come from? Er, well, St Austell actually.
So what have we got? Seven windows fitted in two days, of best quality uPVC (many people don't realise that some other firms use reconstituted PVC which yellows prematurely), steel internal frames, high levels of security and a long and meaningful guarantee. One window had a slightly misformed hinge, and before I had a chance to query it one of the fitters pointed it out and informed me that he was ordering a replacement. The finish around the windows both internally and externally is superb, and that means something in an old cottage with bumpy and friable internal plaster and lime rendering externally.
The steel internal framing was not an issue in our house, but I have seen a house in which non-reinforced uPVC frames were installed (not by Everest, I hasten to add), and because the old wooden frames contributed part of the structural integrity the front of the house is now quite literally moving away from the rest of it under pressure from the roof. Not nice.
Our cottage, being bang on the main village road, with large trucks grinding through daily, will be an interesting testbed for the windows in terms of the amount of noise they kill (which was one of our original considerations). First impressions are very good in this respect. It will also be interesting to experience hot summer and cold winter days with the double glazing adding to the effects of the already superbly insulative cob. I'll give you an update in, say, 20 years' time.
10th Sep 1008 I couldn't really leave you all in suspense for 20 years so I thought a quick update might not go amiss.
Actually there is nothing really to say. All the windows have performed perfectly. There have been no failures, no leaks, no problems, period. The winters we have been through so far have hardly been a test for them, but they give the impression of being able to insulate both from noise and cold (and heat) and with the woodburner I am sure that we have used less fuel than when we had wooden frames.
We do have to be careful with the woodburner, because it demands air, of course, and occasionally we have had to crack one of the the parlour windows open to get Moloch to draw, but this is carping. It does make the point about the casement sealing, though, which is excellent and hasn't deteriorated. There doesn't seem to be another rather annoying fault which I have noticed on the windows of a new house, where the sealing strips have quickly (like in months, spare us) come unstuck or actually split, rendering them useless.
The one tiny fault, if it is one, is that there is a slim gap between the external seals and the glass units where the seals curve back to exert pressure, and these spaces are visible from the inside, of course. Over the years small insects and spiders have become trapped here, and their corpses now rather touchingly decorate the seals, and there seems no way of getting them out. Well, there isn't unless one dismantles the frame, but having put the glass in a couple of these units about ten years ago I can say that you really, really don't want to go down that road. I still have the mental lesions of that one...
I'm sorry one of the commentators had such a bad experience with the firm. One wonders whether there is a ghost Everest firm operating, a sort of fake installer. It's been known. Personally, apart from their rather irritating habit of ringing us up to try to sell us conservatories or plastic doors, I wouldn't hesitate about using them again. Last time I just made it plain that I didn't want to be bothered again, IF they didn't mind. It seems to have shut the sales drongos up. Nevertheless, overall I would still give Everest five stars.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Thank you for your helpful review though some prices would have made it a very helpful review. Everest seem to have a very obscure pricing policy.
s2budd 13.07.2003 00:16
I would take this view with a pinch of salt if I were you.
After over three years of Everest installing windows for us
we have finally given up hope of windows from Everest that do not either crash to the ground when the spings fail (11 times to date) or are square, or can actually be opened.
We are have given them 7 days to refund or we sue.
The following sites from other Everest customers may also be interesting to you.
www.htvwales.com/theferret/extra/01_02_03.shtml
www.grovesdyke.co.uk/Descriptions/windows.htm
www.everest-sash-windows.co.uk
SueMagee 13.04.2003 09:01
I look forward to reading the update! I do agree that we're too precious about buildings and wanting to keep them "as they were". A home is a working building after all.
Advantages: 10 year no exclusion warranty, free carefree plan without using or claiming on your house insurance. Value and quality for your money Disadvantages: Other companys selling inferior roofing products
spyder75 10.03.2006 (30.04.2006)
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