The British Wood Working Federation and Wood Window Alliance chairman have responded to acerbic criticism of wooden sash windows from Top Gear presenter and journalist Jeremy Clarkson.
In his weekly column in the Sunday Times Review section, Mr Clarkson tackled the topic of consumers opting for products on the basis of perceived good taste instead of actual performance. As a result they spurned everything from Quavers and Sandwich Spread to plastic windows.
He said that the perception of anything made from PVCu is the “last word in retirement-home settee terribleness”. But this was popular prejudice and, when it came to windows, took no account of how the product actually works.
His own wooden sash windows, said Mr Clarkson, “rattle when there is a breeze, leak when there is rain and jam solid when there is sun”.
“They are beautiful to behold, but they are almost completely useless, so give me one good reason why [I shouldn’t] replace them with something cheap in long-lasting plastic,” he said. “Fitting any other sort of window to your house is madness really.”
In response BWF director and managing director of Boyland Joinery Cliff Thrumble said Mr Clarkson’s windows were “probably Victorian”.
“They are not only over 100 years old, they’re clearly not designed for modern thermal performance,” he said. “He could get modern sashes that would not only look superior to plastic, they wouldn’t leak, jam or be draughty.”
WWA chairman Sean Parnaby said Mr Clarkson “could easily get his beautiful wooden windows repaired, replicated or replaced with new wood windows that would outlast even his [professed] love of Quavers”.
“His preference for installing cheap plastic windows in his manor house would be the equivalent of putting a plastic dashboard into an Aston Martin DB9,” he said. “As he would say, this isn’t just a matter of taste, it’s a matter of fundamental human sanity.”
