Some of our work
Every photograph here is a job we did.
What we do in Smethwick
Repairs
Something's broken or stuck
Emergencies
Broken glass, made safe
Glass cut to size
Supplied, and fitted
Windows & doors
When repair isn't the answer
How it works
Tell us what's happened
Ring and describe it, or send a photo and rough sizes. Most jobs in Smethwick can be given an indicative figure from a photograph before anyone comes out.
We come and measure
Free, with no call-out charge and no obligation. Glass is measured off the pane rather than the frame, and the specification is settled at that point rather than on fitting day.
Made safe if it needs it
Where an opening isn't secure the glass is cleared out of the frame and it's boarded properly, so the property is sound while the replacement is made up.
Fitted, and the frame stays
In the great majority of jobs the window, the hinges and the handles stay exactly where they are and only the glass changes. Nothing to make good afterwards.
Get a price for your job in Smethwick
Free quotes, no call-out charge and no obligation. Ring us and describe the job, or send a photo and rough sizes and we'll come back to you.
Chance Brothers, and what it left in the windows
Chance Brothers worked at Spon Lane for well over a century and supplied the glass for the Crystal Palace in 1851 as well as the lenses that went into lighthouses around the world. That is the town's history rather than ours — we fit glass, we do not make it. But an industry that size on the doorstep meant patterned and textured glass ended up everywhere locally, and a lot of it is still in the bathroom windows, door panels and fanlights of the older housing here.
Obscure patterns can usually still be matched
This is the thing people get wrong. When one obscure pane breaks in a run of them, the assumption is that the pattern is long discontinued and the lot will have to be changed to something modern. In practice a good number of the old textured patterns are still made, and where the exact one is not, there is normally something close enough that it will not stand out beside the others. The patterns all have names, but nobody expects you to know them — a clear photograph of the glass with a light behind it is enough for us to identify it.
Every kind of housing in a small area
Smethwick packs a lot of different property into not many streets: dense Victorian and Edwardian terraces near Cape Hill, interwar semis out towards Warley and Bearwood, and postwar flats and maisonettes in between. It means nothing can be assumed from the postcode — what is in the window has to be looked at rather than guessed, particularly the glass specification in doors and low-level panes.
The everyday work
Misted units, broken panes, hinges, handles, locks and draughts. All of it is done without replacing the window in the great majority of cases.
Common questions
One of my patterned bathroom panes is broken. Can the pattern be matched?
Very often, yes — a lot of the older obscure patterns are still made. Take a photo with a light behind the glass so the pattern shows clearly and we will identify it or find the nearest match.
Does bathroom glass have to be a particular type?
It has to be obscure enough for privacy, and if it is low down or in a door it has to be safety glass as well. Both are sorted at the measuring stage.
Which parts of Smethwick do you cover?
Smethwick, Bearwood, Cape Hill, Warley, Langley, Rood End, Soho, Uplands and across to Oldbury.