Tony,how about aluminium-faced wooden sash windows - we installed a couple of these from Marvin Architectural (http://marvin-architectural.co.uk), which is based in Brentford. The wood means they look great from inside, and the aluminium means they need no maintenance outside (and look good too). You can also get fly screens for them (which is great in Summer), and as the individual frames can be taken out very easily, it makes it simple to clean the outside if you can't get at it easily.We've also used Henry & Sons from Park Royal (http://www.henryandsons.co.uk) for some aluminium French doors and a sash window, which are also good (they also do other materials, certainly wood and, I think, plastic).I'm not too keen on uPVC, which is banned in some countries because it causes so much pollution in production (and once it is disposed of) - although our neighbours have really nice uPVC sash windows (which I think were also Henry & Sons).HTHDavid
D Fox ● 4471d