Window and door repairs in Leeds.

Emergency repairs

A door that won't lock or glass that's gone through is urgent – call 07889 242453 and we'll get you secure again. Locking, hinges, adjustments and reseals.

Repair or replace?

Sometimes a repair is all it needs, and we'll say so. When a frame is past saving, we'll tell you that too, and quote it properly – with our 10-year guarantee on the new installation. Not sure which way it'll go? Run through the checklist further down this page.

Misted double glazing: we replace the unit, not the window

Misted double glazing rarely needs a new window – Wortley Windows & Doors replaces the sealed unit inside the frame and leaves the rest of the window alone. Condensation between the panes means the unit's edge seal has failed and moisture has crept in; no amount of wiping will shift it, because the mist is inside the glass. The frame itself – uPVC, timber or composite – is usually fine. So we measure the unit, order a matching one and swap it, with the frame, handles and openers staying put. Sealed unit replacement is quicker and far cheaper than a whole new window, and it's the double glazing repair we do most across Leeds.

What has actually failed in a misted unit

The seal round the edge of the unit has gone, and the drying agent hidden inside the spacer bar between the panes is full. That agent is there to mop up the small amount of moisture sealed in when the unit was made, and it only holds so much. Every sunny afternoon warms the air trapped in the gap and every cold night shrinks it back, and that daily breathing works away at the sealant year after year until it gives. From then on the unit draws in damp air from outside each time it cools.

Blocked drainage finishes it off. Those small slots along the bottom of the frame are there to let rainwater back out, and once they silt up the unit sits in standing water instead of draining. Tired sealant, wet bottom edge, saturated drying agent: the fog forms on the inner faces of the glass, where nobody can reach it, and it comes and goes with the weather from then on. So when you ring and say the windows have gone cloudy, the lads already know what they're looking for. Which units have failed, whether the frame is draining, and whether the rest of the window is worth keeping.

Condensation: only one kind is a glazing fault

Where the water sits tells you which of three different problems you've got. Try to wipe it. If it clears, it was sitting on a face you can reach and the glass hasn't failed. If it won't shift from either side, it's sealed inside the unit, and that's the only one of the three a new unit puts right. Worth working out which you're dealing with before anyone quotes you for anything.

Not sure which you're looking at? Take a photo on a cold morning, one from inside and one from out, and ring 07889 242453. It's usually obvious from the picture, and it saves you paying for the wrong fix. If it's a failed unit, we'll come and measure it. If it's the room rather than the window, we'll tell you that instead and you can keep your money in your pocket.

uPVC door won't lock? It's usually the mechanism, not the door

A uPVC door that won't lock is nearly always a repair, not a new door. The usual culprit is the multi-point locking mechanism – the gearbox inside the door wears or jams and the hooks stop throwing. If it isn't that, it's the cylinder, a drooping handle, or dropped hinges pulling the door out of line so the locking points miss their keeps. Each one is a repair in its own right. The lads handle uPVC door lock repairs across Leeds – realignment, a new gearbox, a new cylinder, new handles – and the door itself stays exactly where it is. Can't lock the door? Ring 07889 242453 and tell us what's happened – we'll ring you back within one working day and tell you what it needs.

Repair or replace: the honest checklist

Repair or replace comes down to the frame. If the frame is sound, a repair usually wins; if it's gone, replacing is the honest call. The checklist we use:

We'll have a look and give you an honest answer – a repair if a repair will do, or a replacement covered by our 10-year guarantee if it won't. Ask for a free quote and we'll tell you straight.

When it isn't a straight repair-or-replace call

Some faults sit outside that question altogether, and the honest answer is to look before anyone quotes. Cracked brickwork above the opening, a frame pushed out of square, a bay that has dropped, a lintel nobody can account for: that's the building moving, not the window failing. Fit a new frame into an opening like that and you've hidden the symptom and left the cause exactly where it was. So the structure gets checked first, and if it wants another trade in before ours, we'll say so rather than take the job.

Two more worth knowing. In a conservation area, or on a listed building, there are rules about changing how a window looks, so check with Leeds City Council before deciding that replacing is simpler than repairing. And where an older installation has several things going at once, ask us to quote both routes: what it takes to keep them working, and what replacing them actually changes. Better you compare the two than take our word for it.

Replacing the glass and replacing the frame are different jobs on paper

Swap the glass in a frame you're keeping and it counts as a repair. Take the whole frame out and it becomes building work. That line is drawn by the Building Regulations, not by us: as the rules stand today, a new sealed unit or a new door slab fitted into a frame that stays put isn't a controlled fitting, so the energy requirements in Part L don't apply to it. Lift the frame out and the same opening is notifiable work, which has to meet the current standard for heat loss and ventilation and has to be registered once it's finished.

That's the real reason we diagnose before we sell anything. The two jobs differ in what gets done, what it costs you and what paperwork the house ends up holding: only the replacement produces a certificate for the file. So we work out which one you're actually in, then quote that one. If the frame is sound, you get the smaller job.