Lift Out Secondary Glazing London

Every opening mechanism introduces a joint, and every joint is a potential sound path. A lift-out panel is a single sealed unit compressed uniformly against the frame gasket, so it achieves the full laboratory-rated performance of the glass and cavity combination — up to 54dB with 10.8mm laminate at a 150mm air gap.

A typical panel glazed in 6.4mm laminate weighs 12-18kg and is comfortably handled by one person. Larger panels in 10.8mm laminate can exceed 25kg and should be treated as a two-person lift, which is worth factoring in before specifying lift-out on a large window.

We supply protective edge pads and can fit a discreet in-reveal storage bracket so panels are not leant against a wall.

Where a window is a designated means of escape, a lift-out panel must be openable without a key or tool. Our quick-release turn catches satisfy that requirement, but on habitable rooms above ground floor level we normally recommend a hinged or sliding unit instead.

A lift-out panel has no track, no meeting stile and no moving parts, so there is no path for sound to leak around the edge. The panel is compressed uniformly onto a continuous gasket by cam catches, which is acoustically the same principle as a hinged unit but with even less frame in the sightline. On rarely-opened windows this gives the best combination we can offer: up to 54dB reduction in suitable configurations, with a frame you stop noticing within a week.

It is also the option conservation officers query least. Because the whole panel comes away in seconds and the fixings are limited to the reveal or architrave, the installation is fully reversible and leaves the historic joinery untouched — which is precisely the test applied to listed and conservation-area windows.

Lift-out is right where the window is opened seasonally or not at all: stairwell and landing windows, fanlights and over-door lights, bathroom and box-room windows, formal front rooms in Georgian terraces where ventilation comes from elsewhere, and any window behind a radiator or fitted furniture where a sliding track would be unreachable.

It is the wrong choice where the window is a daily ventilation route or a designated means of escape. A panel that has to be lifted down and stored is a panel that eventually stays down. For those openings we specify sliding secondary glazing or hinged secondary glazing instead, and it is common for one London house to end up with two or three opening styles across different rooms.

Panel weight is the practical limit. A 10.8mm laminate panel over about 1.2 x 1.2m becomes a two-person lift, so above that size we either split the opening into two panels or move to a hinged unit.

Installation is quick — typically under two hours per window — because there is no gear to commission. The sub-frame is fitted and levelled, the gasket is run continuously around all four edges, and the panel is set with cam catches at the head and cill. We hand over with a demonstration of the lift-out sequence and, where the panel will be stored seasonally, a felt-lined storage clip fitted somewhere sensible in the same room.

For consent-sensitive addresses this specification is delivered through our heritage and listed building glazing service, which includes drawings, a written reversibility statement and liaison with the conservation officer where the local authority asks for it. Panels carry the 10-year standard warranty, or 25 years on Premium and Heritage builds.