Spraying vs replacing your windows

A full house of new windows or a respray in any colour you like? We compare cost, disruption and lifespan honestly.

If your windows still open, close and seal properly but the white plastic has gone chalky yellow, you have a cosmetic problem, not a window problem. Replacing eight frames to solve a colour issue is an expensive way to redecorate.

The cost comparison

• New uPVC windows, typical three-bed semi: £5,000–£9,000, more in anthracite or a flush-sash style.
• Spraying the same frames, inside face and out: £1,400–£2,600 including doors and a garage door.
• Time on site: two to five days for a fitting team versus one to two days for spraying.
• Disruption: no frames out, no plaster damage, no sealant to redecorate around.

When replacing is the right call

We will say it plainly, because turning work away once is cheaper than a complaint later. Replace the windows if the units are blown and misted, if the frames have dropped so the sashes catch, if the hinges and locks are failing across the house, or if you want a real improvement in heat and noise. Paint does nothing for any of that.

When spraying wins easily

Spraying wins when the frames are sound and you want a different colour — anthracite grey, black, cream, or a colour matched to new composite doors. It also wins for conservatories, where replacement is disproportionately expensive, and for landlords who need a tidy, uniform look across several properties quickly.

The same house, sprayed anthracite: one van, two days, and about a fifth of the cost of new frames.

Does it last?

Done properly, yes. The frames are washed, degreased, abraded, masked and primed with a uPVC-specific adhesion primer, then finished with a two-pack polyurethane. That is the same family of product used on commercial cladding and vehicles — not a brush-on plastic paint from a DIY shed. We guarantee our uPVC work for ten years against peeling and flaking.

The two things that ruin a spray job are skipping the primer and spraying in the wrong weather. Both are process problems, which is why we control them rather than rush a job to fit another one in.

What the day looks like

We sheet the surrounding brick, glass and ground, mask precisely to the glass line, prep every frame by hand, then spray. You keep the house wind and watertight the whole time. Frames are touch-dry within an hour and fully cured in a couple of days, and we clear all the masking away before we leave.

Which colours actually work

Anthracite grey (RAL 7016) is easily the most requested finish in the West Midlands, usually to match new composite doors or grey cladding. Black, cream, and off-white refreshes are the next most common, and we can colour match to any RAL reference if you are trying to tie in with something existing. One tip: if you are spraying frames dark, consider doing the garage door and the gutter fascia in the same pass — the mismatch is what people notice, not the frames themselves.

What we can and cannot spray

• Yes: uPVC window frames, sills, doors, garage doors, conservatory frames, cladding, fascias and soffits.
• Yes: aluminium and powder-coated commercial frames, with the appropriate primer.
• No: frames with blown or misted double-glazed units — replace the units first, then spray.
• No: frames that are cracked, split at the welds or with mechanically failed hinges.

Living with sprayed frames

Maintenance is a wash with warm soapy water twice a year, same as unsprayed uPVC. Do not use abrasive creams, jet washers up close or solvent cleaners on them. If something does get chipped — a ladder knock, for example — the colour is on record and a touch-up is straightforward, which is not the case with a replacement frame in a discontinued shade.

Landlords and portfolios

If you own several properties, spraying is the only realistic way to standardise the look on a schedule and a budget. We can work property by property between tenancies, one to two days each, with the same colour reference across the portfolio and one invoice.