Hertfordshire
Windows and doors in Hemel Hempstead, our home town.
Hemel Hempstead is where we are based, so it is the town we know street by street. Old Town frontages, Boxmoor villas, New Town estates — each one needs a different answer.
Hemel Hempstead is where Dukes Windows is based, so it is the town we know in most detail — which estates were built to a common plan, and which corners of the Old Town need a more careful hand. The town holds a medieval High Street, Georgian and early Victorian frontages, Victorian and Edwardian houses out at Boxmoor, and an entire post-war New Town laid out around them from 1947 onwards. There is no single Hemel Hempstead window. We fit uPVC, aluminium and composite windows and doors, along with conservatories, roof lights and lanterns, porches and secondary glazing, and we specify each job against the house, not a catalogue. The double glazing that suits an Adeyfield terrace is not what suits a Boxmoor villa, and treating them as the same problem is how a street quietly loses its character.
Which Hemel Hempstead homes do we fit windows for?
Effectively all of them, because Hemel's housing runs from medieval to last year and we work across the whole range. The Old Town High Street carries Georgian and early Victorian frontages, where openings are tall and narrow, reveals deep, and the original glazing divided into small panes. Get the proportions wrong there and the whole elevation looks off. Boxmoor is a different problem: it was largely left alone while the New Town was built, so its Victorian and Edwardian houses have kept their bays, decorative brickwork and original window rhythm.
Then the New Town itself, designated in 1947 and master-planned by Geoffrey Jellicoe, whose ambition was not a city in a garden but a city in a park. Adeyfield was the first neighbourhood completed, and Bennetts End, Warners End, Chaulden, Grovehill, Highfield, Gadebridge and Leverstock Green followed. These houses were built in runs to standard designs — useful, but the original steel and timber frames were sized to tolerances no modern unit matches, so we measure every opening individually rather than assuming the terrace.
South of the town, Apsley and Nash Mills sit on old paper-mill land along the Grand Union, where converted mill buildings, canal-side flats and newer housing meet. Woodhall Farm and the newer edge developments bring larger openings and wider spans — frames that need to hold heat rather than history.
Do you need permission to replace windows in a Hemel Hempstead conservation area?
Sometimes — it depends on whether your street falls inside a conservation area boundary and whether an Article 4 direction applies to your particular property. Dacorum Borough Council has twenty-five conservation areas across the borough. The Hemel Hempstead conservation area covers the Old Town and was first designated in October 1968, with an amendment adopted in January 2014. Piccotts End sits immediately north, Winkwell lies west along the canal, and Water End, Kings Langley, Bovingdon, Flamstead and Potten End cover the surrounding villages. Boxmoor, despite its period housing, is not itself designated.
Dacorum's published Article 4 list names properties in Berkhamsted, Northchurch, Tring, Ringshall and Little Gaddesden. None is currently listed in Hemel Hempstead itself. Directions can be added, though, so check with the council whether one applies to your street before you commit to anything.
Dacorum's guidance is blunt about what spoils a historic street: unsuitably designed replacement windows, particularly uPVC frames with stuck-on glazing bars and large flat sheets of glass. The diagnosis is fair. Where a period elevation is involved we specify timber-effect uPVC in a flush sash design, with woodgrain foil and correctly proportioned bars, so the sightlines sit closer to the original.
Where in Hemel Hempstead do we work?
Everywhere in it. Hemel Hempstead is our home town, so no address here is more than a short drive, and a follow-up visit is easy to repeat if something needs a second look. We have no showroom, deliberately. Judging a window under retail lighting tells you almost nothing about how it will read in your own reveal on a grey February afternoon. We bring the samples to the house instead, and leave you with an itemised written quote.
Questions, answered.
Can you match the original sash profile on a Victorian terrace in Hemel Hempstead?
Closely, yes. What gives most replacements away is a sash standing proud of the frame. A timber-effect uPVC flush sash finishes level with it, and with a woodgrain foil and correctly proportioned bars the elevation reads as it should. We will hold the profile against your window first.
Is Boxmoor in a conservation area?
No. Boxmoor is not one of Dacorum's twenty-five designated conservation areas, so the extra controls that apply in the Old Town do not apply there. Plenty of its houses are genuinely Victorian or Edwardian and deserve the same care, though, and individual properties anywhere can be listed.
Do you carry out home design visits in Hemel Hempstead?
Yes, free of charge. We come to the house, measure every opening individually, look at the elevation from the pavement as well as from inside, and talk through what will genuinely suit the property. An itemised written quote follows. No call centre, no hard sell.
What does the ten-year guarantee cover?
It is a written ten-year guarantee on the installation, honoured directly by Dukes rather than handed to a third-party insurer. If something needs attention you call 01442 600 101 and we come back out. Being based in the town makes that a short drive, not a negotiation.
Our New Town house still has its original metal-framed windows. Can you replace those?
Yes, and it is routine work across the older Hemel estates. Steel frames from that period usually need the opening making good once they come out, because the original tolerances rarely match a modern unit. We survey for that at the visit, so the quote reflects the real job.
How quickly will you get back to me?
Within two business hours, between 8am and 7pm Monday to Saturday. Call 01442 600 101 or leave your details and we will ring back inside that window. If you are ready to book a home design visit then, we will arrange one.
Is there an offer on at the moment?
Yes. Right now there is £500 off your first installation of £5,000 or more — the full terms are on our special offer page.
Book a home visit.
Book a home visit and we'll talk through your project at your house — no call centre, no hard sell. We call back within two business hours, and you'll get an itemised written quote.