Frequently Asked Questions

Finesse Windows are a FENSA registered company. Upon the completion of your project we register your details with FENSA who will send your Certificate of Registration to you directly. We recommend that you retain this certificate in a safe place as they are important and are required by solicitors if you come to sell your property in the future.

Our skilled fitting team work diligently to reduce any mess or inconvenience to you and your property during fitting.

Our team will bring their own doormats and dustsheets and will vacuum and mess cause during the installation process.

Yes! Our fitters are very conscientious and will always cover your floor around the installation area with dust sheets. We also cover any other items you would like us to e.g. televisions / furniture / valuable items. We cover the route we are walking into the room we are working in too – this includes covering staircases as well.

In fact we also bring our own door mats – so that we don’t have to make yours dirty walking in & out of your home!

We come armed with dust sheets as a matter of course – but please do just ask our fitters for more if you have any concerns – they will be happy to oblige.

We strongly reject and never take part in the typical ‘double glazing’ pricing model of giving a high first price – only then to reduce the price based on fictional discounts or any other type of misleading sales techniques. We reject any type of pressure selling.

Instead we always take a full survey of the requirements of every job we are invited to quote for. We price each piece of work as competitively as we can to allow for the full and correct installation. We understand that customers will always naturally strive to gain value for money and we ensure that all our processes are designed to achieve exactly that.

We stand by our assertion that the products we manufacture and the service we provide is unparalleled in our industry. We charge what we believe to be a fair price for the level of quality that we deliver. We firmly believe that we offer extremely good value for money. Indeed – the latest numbers from over 2,000 reviews from our customers show that we are rated as 9.27 out of 10 in terms of ‘value for money’

All Finesse Windows installations are covered by an insurance backed 10 year guarantee covered by Fairtrades Homepro.

This independent insurance backed guarantee covers all parts and labour for all our window, door and conservatory

An ‘A rated’ window is one that is exceptionally effective at gaining free heat energy from outside and then keeping valuable heat inside your home.

A window can only be classified as ‘A rated’ if it has been tested by an independent, certified organisation against energy efficiency criteria and been found to meet or surpass the specified requirements.

To enable a window to be classified as ‘A rated’ its various properties are measured and the results are then accumulated into just one simple figure. The figure dictates where the window can be classified on the A to G scale in terms of its energy efficiency. An A rated window is one that achieves an excellent score on this scale.

Common misconceptions

Many people mistakenly talk about ‘A rated glass’ or ‘B rated glass’. This is largely born from the fact that most people think that the energy efficiency of a window depends solely on the glass being used. This is a common misconception. There is actually no such thing as ‘A rated glass’.

When a window is being assessed to judge its energy efficiency rating a number of factors are considered and measured, not just the glass. The other components of a window that are just as important as the glass are:

• the UPVC being used – including how many internal insulating chambers it possesses
• the reinforcing material being used inside the UPVC to give the window strength
• the effectiveness of the window to form a tight seal when closed – eliminating draughts
• and finally the glass type is considered as part of the overall window composition

Free energy!

The testing procedure to gauge the energy efficiency of a window is designed to not only look at how effective a window is at keeping valuable heat inside your home – it is equally designed to assess how well a window can capture free heat energy from the sun. This free energy is described as solar gain (g). The solar gain factor has a large influence on the overall rating given to a window.

Yes, we are able to remove all existing hardward and in the cases of replacement porches and conservatories bases should this be required. We have processes in place whereby we currently recycle almost XYZ% of project related waste.

All of our doors are available in a large range of colours, allowing you to match the colour to that of your home’s decor, inside and out; you can even select a colour combination with one colour for the inside and a different colour for the outside.

From standard colours, such as white, black and grey to the more modern on trend gun metal grey and soft natural green. We can also match to exacting colour requirements but this will have an effect on lead time and costs.

Finesse Windows are proud to manufacture our windows and doors in our Kings Norton, Birmingham factory. This single facility covers both the show area, where people can see our work in action and experience various materials and techniques to assist in making a decision of their own, and also the manufacturing area. We really do it all under one roof! There, customers can see first-hand just how much care and effort goes into every project that we undertake and even get to know the people that will be responsible for making their home improvement dreams into a reality. From our windows to our UPVC doors in Birmingham we’re proud to do every step.

If you are having new windows installed upstairs and downstairs we would always prefer to start on the upstairs windows first and then work our way downwards. We would always advise against fitting new windows downstairs and then ripping out windows above them – because of the danger of dirt falling downwards on to the newly fitted windows

If you are having Roofline (fascias & soffits) installed as well as new windows – we would always try to fit the roofline first for the same reasoning as the explanation above for the windows

We will always seek to work with our clients to make sure that we follow a convenient route around their home if there is a particular requirement. e.g. If you prefer that we start in a bedroom first thing to allow you to use an office space in the morning – or if you want us to avoid a kitchen area at lunch time – just ask us and we will do our utmost to accommodate.

A Veranda and Terrace Canopy are two words implying the same thing; An extension to a house covering an outside area. Or a roof supported by two posts, made of aluminium with a polycarbonate roofing.

A glass room refers to an 'uninsulated' house extension in the shape of a terrace canopy or veranda equipped with (glass) (sliding) doors so that the area can be fully closed. Architecturally, a glass room is not part of the house.

A glass room looks like a conservatory, but the main differences is that a conservatory refers to an insulated extension of the house. So this is an actual part of a house, making it more expensive and complicated to buy and install a conservatory.

Finesse Windows are able to supply terrace canopies, verandas and garden rooms.

You will only need planning permission if your Veranda Glass Room is over 3m  in height, or is located on the roof of your home or it will be larger than 50% of the land that the original house covers.

A veranda allows you to create a covered outside area. In addition to being a beautiful addition to your house, it also allows you to find shelter from the sun, or to sit outside in rainy or cold weather. In addition, it also allows you to better protect your garden furniture against weather influences.

• Aluminium verandas are generally cheaper than veranda's made from different materials.
• An aluminium veranda offers a strong construction that will last for many years.
• Aluminium requires little maintenance. It is a metal that doesn't corrode or rot like timber.
• Aluminium verandas have a longer lifespan, meaning that you just have to invest once, and can enjoy the veranda for many years, without having to  replace it.
• Choosing Finesse Windows gives you peace of mind that you have chosen the best company for your Home Improvement project.

Adding a glass door system to an existing canopy at a later moment is no problem at all. 

A Veranda requires little maintenance. We do recommend however to clean the Veranda about twice a year. In addition to the fact that your Veranda looks better without dirt, it also increases the lifespan of the Veranda. 

When cleaning your Veranda, we recommend using a sponge or a soft cloth. You can easily clean the aluminium frame with water and a neutral soap.

The polycarbonate roofing can be cleaned in the same way, but be extra careful. Don't forget to frequently keep the gutter free from leaves and dirt to prevent the water drain from getting clogged.

A great looking Veranda Glass Room installed on a property could add anything between 5% and 15% to the overall value of your home. (Source: Estateagentnetworking.co.uk)

The full height of most of our Veranda Glass Rooms is likely to be approximately 2.7m at its highest point. This is well within the 3m height you are allowed to use up in your permitted development rights. 

Yes we do provide a silicone seal where required e.g. where the side frames touch the house walls. The main reason for these seals is to ensure the finish is aesthetically pleasing. It's rare for a house wall to be perfectly straight so it's important to use a seal which takes up the small gaps between the wall and the aluminium frames. The seals will help to keep draughts out too however it's beneficial from a ventilation point of view for these spaces not to be completely sealed. 

The lip under the sliding doors is approximately 25mm tall, with a requirement that the track which the doors sit on must be level. In most instances the patio that we are bolting onto is not perfectly level. The first step is to effectively pack and raise the track in any low areas of the patio base to ensure you get a decent level of protection from water running into the veranda. We then apply a trim over this packaging to ensure it looks ascetically pleasing. It is common for a patio to intentionally slope with a fall way from the home to the garden.

Yes, we can do this using our conservatory design software (which we are currently developing). It will give you a good impression & help you to visualise the space - but it's not 100% true to life unfortunately .
 

We guarantee all verandas for 5 years. This includes all product & workmanship and is also insurance backed. Meaning that if anything was to happen to our company within the 5 year guarantee period - and you needed our help with anything - the 'Homepro' insurance policy would kick in and they would find another company who could rectify the problem at no expense to you. Please note that the only thing we do not guarantee is broken glass. This is true for all of our products (Windows, doors, etc) as we can't be held responsible for glass being broken after we leave the site. 

Naturally we have all the statutory liability insurance in place as you'd expect. The reality is that we work in and around approximately 25 homes per week - and have done so for over 40 years. Sometimes things do go wrong and we always endeavour to put it right.