Georgian Bar Windows: Replacing Misty Glass Without Losing the Look

Three Different Things People Call "Georgian Bars"

Before anyone can price your window, we need to know which of these you have - they are made and matched completely differently.

1. Internal Georgian bars. Flat aluminium bars inside the sealed unit, in the argon cavity. Most 1990s and 2000s uPVC windows use these. They cannot be touched or dusted, and they are reproduced by building the new unit with the same grid.
2. Astragal or applied bars. Moulded uPVC or timber bars bonded to the outer and inner glass faces, usually with a matching spacer inside. These look far closer to true period glazing and cost more.
3. Run-through or true divided lights. Genuinely separate small panes in individual rebates. Far less common in modern frames but still found on conservation and heritage jobs.

What Matching Involves

To reproduce the look exactly we need four things: the bar width (18mm and 26mm are the common uPVC sizes), the bar colour or foil finish, the grid layout (how many panes across and down), and whether the bars are square-cut or moulded. A single straight-on photo plus a close-up of one bar junction is usually enough for us to specify it.

Leaded designs work the same way. Lead strip is applied to the glass faces in the chosen pattern - diamond, square, Queen Anne, or a bespoke motif - and colour-fired bullseyes or stained inserts can be reproduced where they exist.

2026 Costs for Georgian and Leaded Sealed Units

Fitted into existing frames, on top of standard sealed unit pricing:

• Internal Georgian bars: add £35 - £80 per unit depending on grid density
• Applied astragal bars: add £70 - £160 per unit
• Standard leaded design (diamond or square): add £60 - £130 per unit
• Bespoke or coloured leaded design: add £120 - £280 per unit

A typical 900 x 1200mm misty window with internal Georgian bars therefore lands in the £230-£290 range fitted in 2026. Compare that with the £700-£1,100 a replacement-window firm will quote for a like-for-like Georgian frame.

Can You Drop the Bars While You Are At It?

Yes, and plenty of people do. Removing Georgian bars from the replacement unit costs nothing extra, brightens the room noticeably and makes cleaning easier. The catch is aesthetic consistency - one bar-free window in an elevation of six Georgian windows looks wrong from the street. If you are removing them, plan to do the whole elevation over time. Check your deeds and any conservation area or Article 4 restrictions first.

Do Bars Affect Performance?

Internal bars sit in the cavity and have a very small effect on the centre-pane U-value because the aluminium bridges the gap. It is measurable but minor - typically a few hundredths of a W/m²K. Applied bars sit outside the cavity and have effectively no thermal impact. Modern warm-edge spacers more than offset either.

Photograph These Before You Get a Quote

• The whole window, square on, from outside.
• One bar junction, close up, so we can read the width and profile.
• The frame corner, so we can see the beading type and colour.
• A tape measure laid across the glass for scale.

Send those over and we will price the match without needing to visit first. If you would rather we came out, the survey is free across Essex and East London. For the wider picture on failed units, read how to tell if your double glazing is blown.