Replacement windows
This is sash and timber country. Where uPVC is acceptable, a flush casement or sliding sash in a woodgrain finish respects the house; where it is not, we supply timber made to measure.
Double glazing, sash and timber windows in Dorking
Heritage-style windows and doors for Dorking and the Surrey Hills villages, with advice on what a protected landscape allows.
- Sash, timber and flush casement windows
- Dorking, Westcott, Brockham and the Holmwoods
- Our own fitters and a 10 year guarantee
East Grinstead showroom · covering Sussex, Surrey and Kent
10/10 on Checkatrade
From 149 verified customer reviews
Certass registered
Fully insured and SafeContractor approved
10 year guarantee
On every product we supply and install
Family run since 2007
Our own fitters — never subcontracted out
Holtye Windows in Dorking
Period houses in a protected landscape
Dorking sits in the gap the River Mole cuts through the North Downs, with Box Hill on one side and Denbies and Ranmore on the other. The Surrey Hills National Landscape and the Green Belt wrap round the town on every side, and the centre is a conservation area with some of the firmest rules on windows in Surrey.
So windows here are judged on looks as much as on performance. We are fifteen miles away in East Grinstead, and would sooner talk through what is possible than see you set your heart on something the council will refuse.
What we fit
Windows, doors and conservatories for Dorking homes
Supplied, fitted and guaranteed for 10 years by our own team. Nothing is subcontracted.
New doors
Front doors in timber or a period-style composite, and stable doors for the cottages. At the back, bifolds or French doors in a colour that sits quietly against brick and tile-hanging.
Conservatories and extensions
The villages round Dorking are nearly all inside the Surrey Hills, where extensions and conservatories have the tighter permitted development limits. An orangery in keeping with the house, or a warm roof on a conservatory that is already there, is often the realistic route.
Home improvements
Roofline in woodgrain or black keeps a cottage looking like a cottage, and ends the painting.
Homes in Dorking
Timber frames, Flemish-bond brick and Victorian villas
Dorking’s streets are older than they look, and its suburbs are better built than most.
In the High Street and West Street, timber-framed buildings survive behind later render, tile-hanging and brick fronts. Brick is the town’s main material, usually laid in Flemish bond under clay tile roofs, with knapped flint at St Martin’s Church.
South of the centre, a mid-nineteenth-century suburb was laid out on a grid round Howard Road and Arundel Road: Regency-style villas and Victorian terraces in red brick, stucco and painted brick, with flint garden walls. Rose Hill and Cotmandene are of the same quality. All were built with timber sashes.
North Dorking is mostly 1930s and 1950s housing. Chart Downs and Goodwyns, to the south, were built as council estates from the 1950s, and Deepdene’s houses are scattered through woodland on the greensand ridge. In all of these, uPVC casements and aluminium are ordinary, sensible choices.
Our work
The kind of work Dorking asks us for
All our own installations, photographed on site across Sussex, Surrey and Kent. Select a photo to see it full size.
Local planning
Planning in Dorking and the Surrey Hills
Mole Valley District Council, which is based in Dorking, is the planning authority until 31 March 2027, when East Surrey Council takes over.
The Dorking conservation area covers the town centre and the Victorian streets round it. Within it the council has made Article 4 directions on ten groups of streets, among them Rose Hill, Cotmandene and Moores Road, Wathen Road, Church Street and North Street, Dene Street Gardens, and Rothes Road, Hart Road and Jubilee Terrace. In those streets the owner of a house must apply for permission to alter, install or replace any door or window that fronts the road or a public right of way.
The council’s guidance for these streets is blunt. Original doors and windows should be kept and repaired. If repair is impossible, like-for-like replacements should be made. uPVC or aluminium is almost always unacceptable in place of traditional timber joinery, and even timber double glazing may be refused where single glazing is part of the building’s character.
Outside those streets the normal rules apply to houses. Brockham has Article 4 directions of its own. Mole Valley does not offer informal pre-application advice on conservation and historic buildings, so the questions are best settled in the application itself, with drawings that show exactly what is proposed.
The national rules, briefly
- Replacing the windows and doors of a house does not normally need planning permission, as long as the new ones look similar to the old.
- Flats and maisonettes do not have that right, and a listed building needs listed building consent. Check with the council before changing either.
- Every replacement window and external door has to meet Building Regulations. We’re Certass registered, so we certify the work ourselves and you receive the certificate within eight weeks.
- A conservatory or single-storey rear extension is often permitted development too, within size limits that tighten in conservation areas and protected landscapes.
Projects
Recent projects
We haven’t written up a job in Dorking itself yet. These show the standard of work, with photos and the detail of what was done.
Georgian sash windows, doors and rooftrim
Twenty-five white woodgrain sash windows with Georgian bars, three doors, an aluminium bifold and new rooftrim on a detached home.
View project
Whole-house renovation
Windows, doors, a Supalite warm roof extension, kitchen, cloakroom, flooring and decorating — all handled by one team from start to finish.
View project
New windows, driveway and patio
New windows and doors, a gravel driveway, and a garden rebuilt around a sandstone patio and a slate-roofed timber pergola.
View project
Customer reviews
What our customers say
Rated 10/10 from 149 reviews on Checkatrade, where we’ve been a vetted member since 2014.
Where we work
Dorking and the places around it
We cover the whole of Dorking, and we don’t stop at the edge of town.
- Westcott
- Brockham
- Betchworth
- Pixham
- North Holmwood
- South Holmwood
- Westhumble
- Mickleham
- Capel
- Beare Green
- Newdigate
- Abinger
- Wotton
Nearby areas: Leatherhead, Reigate, Horsham, Redhill, Epsom. See everywhere we cover.
Questions
Dorking: your questions
Can’t see what you need? Call 01342 410079 and we’ll answer it properly.
Do I need planning permission for new windows in Dorking?
It depends on the street. Rose Hill, Cotmandene, Wathen Road, Church Street, Dene Street Gardens and several others have Article 4 directions, and there a house needs permission to change any window or door facing the road. Elsewhere in the town, a house can normally replace its windows without permission if the new ones look similar to the old.
What are heritage windows?
It is a loose term for windows that copy the look of traditional joinery: flush sashes that sit level with the frame, slim sightlines, putty-line glazing and proper glazing bars. They can be timber or a well-detailed uPVC, and they are what a period house needs if it is not to look re-windowed.
Can I have double glazing in one of Dorking’s Article 4 streets?
Sometimes. The council’s guidance says even timber double glazing may be refused where single glazing is an important part of the building’s character. Where it is, secondary glazing inside the existing window is the usual answer, and on an unlisted house it needs no permission because the outside does not change.
Do you cover the villages around Dorking?
Yes: Westcott, Brockham, Betchworth, Pixham, the Holmwoods, Westhumble, Mickleham, Capel, Beare Green and Newdigate.
Free quotations
Ready for a quote in Dorking?
Book a free, no-obligation survey at your home in Dorking, or come and see us at the East Grinstead showroom.