What actually happens on installation day

You will have had a technical survey after ordering — a second, more precise visit than the sales survey, where every opening is measured to the millimetre for manufacture. Nothing is ordered until that is done, which is why the gap between order and fitting is usually several weeks rather than several days.

A day or two before, clear a path to each window inside and out. Take down curtains, blinds and poles, move anything breakable off sills, and cut back planting that blocks access outside. We will move furniture away from the openings on the day, but the fewer ornaments in the room the better for everyone.

Teams usually start between eight and nine. The first job is protection: dust sheets on floors and furniture, and a route in and out that does not tread through the house.

Then it runs opening by opening rather than all-at-once. The old frame comes out, the new one goes in, it is packed, levelled, fixed and sealed, and only then does the team move to the next. That matters for a practical reason — the house is never fully open. On a normal day only one hole is uncovered at a time, and it is closed again within the hour.

Removing an old window makes dust, and no amount of sheeting eliminates it entirely — particularly on older properties where the frames are bedded into lime mortar. Expect to need to clean sills and a light hoover through when the team has gone, even after they have tidied.

What should not happen is dust through the rest of the house, debris left in the garden, or old frames stacked against your wall for a week. Everything we take out leaves in our van, and the beds get walked on as little as physically possible.

Someone should be in at the start so the team can talk through access, and at the end for the handover. In between you can get on with your day — you do not have to sit and watch, and our fitters will not need entertaining.

If you are out at work, that is workable provided someone can let us in and lock up. Tell us at survey and we will plan the day around it rather than discovering it on the morning.

Before the team leaves, walk round with them. Open and close every new window and door yourself. Check the operation of the locks, that the keys work, and that the trickle vents open. Anything that feels stiff or looks wrong should be said then, because adjusting it while the team is still on site takes minutes.

Afterwards you should receive your FENSA certificate within a few weeks without chasing, along with your guarantee documents. If anything settles or needs adjusting in the first few months — and occasionally it does, because buildings move — that is a phone call, not an argument.

Worth saying plainly, because it is the part that differs most between companies. Our fitters are employed by us. They are not a subcontracted crew who priced your job that morning and will not be reachable in two years. It is the reason we can promise how the day will run, and the reason the person who comes back to adjust something is often the person who fitted it.