Gosh! Turns out I'm a bit nervous about posting - never having done it before - but I really hope that some of you lovely people can help me. Please be patient if I don't give all the right info! 🙂 Basically, my husband and I have a tiny cottage built around 1650. It is not listed. The current windows are UPVC double-glazed units (without trickle vents). Ever since we moved in 20 years ago, we've longed to be able to replace the windows with timber windows that would be more in keeping with the cottage, but we simply couldn't afford it. Now at last we can, but now trickle vents are required by building regs and I hate them with a passion (as well as not really wanting to pay the additional cost of having them). Even our local conservation officer agrees that they are utterly unnecessary for a cottage like ours, given that it's very old and very draughty, but building regs aren't very nuanced and they state that all replacement windows have to have them! If our cottage was listed or in a conservation area we would be OK, but it isn't either of those things and my husband is dead against listing it. So here's the question - is there any way we can avoid the dreaded trickle vents without going rogue and falling foul of the building regs? Or are we doomed? Any advice/help would be very welcome. Thank you!
