Steel windows from Crittall have made a welcome return to Dumbarton Court in Brixton Hill, London, following an external refurbishment scheme that included window replacement. The company supplied its Homelight windows to the properties on the development, as well as a range of Corporate W20 doors.

The programme was arranged by Lambeth Living, the organisation that carries out the management for the London Borough of Lambeth social housing stock. Dumbarton Court was originally constructed in 1939 and steel windows were part of the design specification. Subsequent refurbishment saw aluminium replacing steel, but following discussions and testing by main contractors, Keepmoat (Apollo Group) and consultants Pellings LLP, Crittall Windows was commissioned to provide its modern Homelight profiles.

Homelight profiles are ideal for the residential market, as the very slim sightlines allow maximum daylight to enter the property. Each window is hot dipped galvanised and finished with an in-house applied Duralife polyester powder coating for a minimum maintenance service life. The client specified 16mm glass, with flat cosmetic bars in an H pattern for optimum visual impact. In addition, both the windows and the doors meet the criteria for the police initiative, Secured by Design.

The window replacement is part of a major programme to regenerate the exterior of Dumbarton Court, which comprises nine blocks of flats, with new windows, roofing, doors and facade.

As the Court borders on a conservation area, we wanted to replicate the original steel windows in order to help the properties retain their original appearance, comments Dave Bates, site manager for Keepmoat. The Crittall solution suited the purpose perfectly as the modern profiles also include security in their design which was an important consideration.