Very stressed

[Roger465]

The window in my living room was 30 year old mahogany frame (approx. 6’ x 6’), which was rotting, so I saved up and got a new uPVC replacement put in yesterday.

Possibly too much information, but I suffer from a kind of PTSD, and find things like this very difficult and stressful. Anyway, job got finished eventually, and looked good, so I spent a good part of yesterday and today cleaning the room, moving stuff back in etc.

Later, I sat down for the first time with a cup of tea, and sat looking at the nice new window… and thought the two middle members (whatever you call them) seemed to be bulging ever so slightly into the room. I put a straight edge against them, and sure enough, they’re both slightly curved – convex with respect to the room.

You probably wouldn't notice if you didn’t know, but I’m hypersensitive to things like that.

I then went and checked another room that they did a couple of years ago, and it’s the same, maybe even a bit worse. I never noticed it before, as that room is a workshop, and I work with my back to that window.

I've added a photo so you can see what kind of window it is, but you can't see the curvature.

So my question… does this suggest badly made units, or could it have been something about the fitting? Are there any potential consequences, or is it just a question of how much it annoys me?

I don’t see an easy solution – having to go through fitting windows in two rooms again would probably finish me off. So I guess, initially, what I need to know is what I’m dealing with.

Thanks everybody

PS I Googled this before posting, and everything I could find concerned walls sagging on top of the units etc. This house was built in 1994, brick, decent quality I think, and if my attempts to drill above one of the windows to put rawl plugs in for curtains is anything to go by, has proper lintels.

 

[Roger465]

Then I read that there can be internal and external lintels, so thought I'd better go outside and check that there's something above the actual windows... does this look like a steel lintel to you?

 

[blup]

I'm no expert but the lintels look fine, no sign of cracking on the brickwork. I would expect the glass units to have cracked under the pressure required to bow the frame members.

Blup

 

[Odds]

No worries.

 

[pcaouolte]

Maybe take down the first pic, though. Part of your car #plate is on display.

What's the problem with that? All of it is on display every day when it is on the road or parked on the drive.

 

[Odds]

What's the problem with that? All of it is on display every day when it is on the road or parked on the drive.

Yes, i understand that.
But this is the internet.
Just sayin'.

 

[pcaouolte]

Yes, i understand that.
But this is the internet.
Just sayin'.

It was a genuine question. I really don't understand what anyone on the internet might do with 4 characters from someone's car registration plate.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

No worries.
Maybe take down the first pic, though. Part of your car #plate is on display.

WTF? Get real!

 

[Odds]

WTF? Get real!

Fair enough.
A tad paranoid, what-what?

*post removed.

 

[Munroast]

It was a genuine question. I really don't understand what anyone on the internet might do with 4 characters from someone's car registration plate.

they could use them in an armed robbery or terrorist attack!

Criminal masterminds have not figured out that they could simply head up to the city bypass and glean 1,000 reg plates and car types per hour, so they often lurk mysteriously on internet forums, often disguised as a french-man, and there they steal reg plates for their miscreant ways

 

[Odds]

 

[Roger465]

they could use them in an armed robbery or terrorist attack!

Criminal masterminds have not figured out that they could simply head up to the city bypass and glean 1,000 reg plates and car types per hour, so they often lurk mysteriously on internet forums, often disguised as a french-man, and there they steal reg plates for their miscreant ways

Actually, what they do here in N Ireland is for crooks from Eire to get number plates made with typical random NI numbers, stick them on their builders’ vans etc in Dublin, speed freely, park in disabled spots, and drive through tolls without paying.

So, I might choose TRZ4988, at random – turns out it’s a Toyota hybrid, but the plates will typically be stuck on a white van belonging to a dodgy builder, or one which does a lot of fly tipping.

When the van is photographed doing 60 in a 30, the southern authorities can’t be bothered to check the DVLA website to see that it’s obviously a fake, so summonses are then sent from Dublin to the owner of the actual car in the North.

Of course, that’s like getting a summons from the French police – it has no authority. But you may well find yourself “darted” if you drive across the border and are spotted by a police car with ANPR.

I could do the same with an English number – let’s use mine, with my postcode for the missing characters: BT15 LZO. Turns out my little red MG is a black Vauxhall.

Anybody know anything about windows?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Do you think your silly alarmist posts assist our PTSD suffering OP?

 

[diy_fun_uk]

If there's any way for you to put a straight edge / level on one of the 'middle members' as you call them and take a pic from sideways on, it'll give you (and folk on here) a better idea of just how bad the bow is.

 

[Notch7]

It’s quite a tall window, I wonder if the upvc profile is changing shape slightly due to temperature differential between inside and outside. You could have 20deg inside and maybe 2 deg outside.

how much bow are we talking - 5mm or so?

the window has tall mullions, they would be quite flexible at that height.

It wont be anything to do with load from above - your windows would have been made small than the opening and then wedge up - if the bow is caused by compression it could be it was fitted with wedge packers and somebody put some right above the millions and hammered them in too hard.