Classic Chris Craft

Window Boards are Increasingly Popular In Architecture Design and Building Renovation

As the saying goes, "everything old is soon new again" and it appears that the axiom is as true for modern window design as much as anything else. As economic trends continue to emphasize trends in home renovation and as buyers become more deeply involved in home design details developers and builders are finding that consumers are making more and more classically aesthetic design choices. Debate rages as to the root cause of this growing interest with 'homes of days gone buy' with one camp pointing to the factor of comfortable nostalgia in unsure times while another view claims choices, now being more plentiful than ever are revealing long-held notions of quality of design and the most pleasant aesthetics.

Whatever the cause windows are becoming as highly stylized as they are technologically advanced. Windows as they are built today far surpass the standards of minimal environmental insulation provided by their predecessors. When to Romans first created glass windows in 100 AD they meant to keep the hoary chill of the Aegean in winter out of their stately Alexandrian homes, indisputably these crude, barely translucent experiments - while state of the art - could not even begin to compare with the insulating properties of today's most advanced sound-proofed, multi-paned, triple glazed top of the line windows available today.

Advancement, however comes with a price. The overall thickness of today's modern 'stormproof window' - while steadily decreasing - is still many times that of windows in vogue only thirty short years ago. A common problem with renovation of older homes springs from this difference of thickness. Homeowners looking to install the most ecologically-minded windows find it necessary to completely reframe and upgrade the quality of the window casings in older homes. Until recently renovators had limited choices when it came to the merger of classical design features such as window boards, set mullions, and other architecturally integrated features such as decorative sills and shutters.

With the materials best suited to economy, ecology and mass production being metallic and plastic in nature many renovators spent an excess of time and money crafting their own solutions to the challenge of hiding or disguising modern window fixings to suit a classical design aesthetic.

In the area of new home construction, builders - familiar and proficient in the installation of many types and designs of advanced technology and modern-featured windows - have recently noticed a demand for windows of the same technological benefits but in a design form more accustomed to the periods prior to modern window construction. Customers began to frequently request features not in common use for decades or more - such as window board - in an attempt to capture what soon became dubbed the 'classical home feel'. Again, adapting the modern window to the classical home design was a job often left to the creative workmanship of the builder.

Now however window fixings manufacturers have caught up with the trend and modern fixings manufactured to meet the specifications necessary for the proper installation today's modern technologically advanced windows while being suitable and adaptable for classical design choices are becoming commonplace and preferred. Using the most advanced manufacturing practices, window fixing companies now produce fixings of a previously unimaginable variety of practical design implementations.

Reduction of cost is of course foremost in any good manufacturers mind, and window fixing manufacturers are no exception to this rule. By creating fixing solutions to order through a quick assembly line factory practice, inexpensive fixings are available for almost any design use with all the modern technological benefits and at a speed suited to the pace of modern home construction.

About the Author

Chris Coxon writes articles for Cavalok, a supplier of window board receptions designed to create neat finishes at the joints between window frames and internal boards. Cavalok supplies window fixings with strong steel strap compatible with all window types and are one of the few designed specifically for wider cavity sizes. The company has also developed flag windows cavity closer window template that are increasingly being used in new build properties.

Migis's vintage Chris-Craft returns to Sebago after her winter restoration