CHEAP WINDOWS AND FLOORS

Te Ao Hou, October 1958, Page 47

CHEAP WINDOWS AND FLOORS We bought our steel windows with frames at a second-hand scrap-metal yard in the city. Old buildings are constantly being demolished, with perfectly good steel windows discarded as scrap. In each case, the windows for the whole house cost £7 per house, compared with frames and sashes in wood which would have cost £124 plus cartage. The steel windows, with sashes glazed, cost in cartage £3, so we saved considerably in this respect. Steel doors also were used, and these were included in the price of £7 for the windows. Doors and windows came from demolished banks and churches. The Gothic arches of the church windows were discarded and the bank windows no longer look grim and formidable. They are high and broad, and take up much wall space, letting in plenty of winter sun, and allowing us to open the house wide in the summer time. Windows and doors were set into the walls of the building as construction proceeded, and were tied into the concrete construction. A minor amount of scraping and new paint made them as good as new. The children broke a few panes of glass in the windows, but stern measures resulted in less repair in later days.