This first update brings some news of an addition here at County Village that has been a little while coming – the installation of a new Black Diamond door.

The Black Diamond is the flagship of our composite door range, and the display model we have gone for, with the sandblasted sidelight, looks fantastic.

In terms of features, benefits, design and security, this is an unrivalled product. Its uniquely contemporary/traditional aesthetic will also provide an outstanding look to your home.

These UK manufactured doors are independently tested to ensure long term performance, meaning you can treat your new Black Diamond as an investment and part of any energy saving concept, with a u-value 5 times higher than a timber door.

The sidelight displayed here was made in-house, and the same (or similar) can be done for you. In fact, we pride ourselves on being able to deliver almost any standard or customer designed idea in our glazing.

If a new front door is something that your are thinking about, pop in and have a look at the vast range of options we have available. And whilst here, take a look at the Black Diamond. It may just impress you.

Thanks for reading.

County Windowers vs Badger Farm FC

1st half- The first half started off really well, seeing us dominate the opponents and having a shot on every attack. We were passing well with great movement but we always seemed short in defence with the opponents hitting us on the counter attack.
We dug deep until the end of the first half where a sloppy bit of defending left a man free who took his chance and scored… we were 1-0 down.

2nd half- Again we were dominating possesion having shots from all over the pitch. During the middle of the second half we had a debatable goal disallowed cause we took the free kick to quickly for the referees liking which made our heads drop abit.
Towards the end on the second half we started to push harder on attack and we scored a fantastic goal which started with us passing it out of defence. When the ball reached Chris Dicks he took it round an opposing player and ended up one on one with the keeper, but he tucked the ball in the bottom corner which made it 1-1.
After the goal we could of gone on and won the game, having many chances but just couldn’t seal them.
The game ended 1-1

Great performance from the team and were unlucky not to go on a win

Man of the Match- Chris Dicks

League position 4th

Report by Jamie Hamilton.

Traditional or contemporary, our expanded range of composite doors is the preferred choice for the 21st century.

Our multi-ply, super secure, yet aesthetically pleasing range of doors and frames are constructed to give exceptional weather performance, with a u-value up to 5 times greater than timber.

Available in a wide array of styles, colours, glazing options and woodgrain finishes, each door is made to measure specifically for you.
Beautiful, affordable, guaranteed for 10 years and suitable for both the front and back, a new composite door will be the perfect addition to your home.

Please Contact Us with any questions you may have, or visit the Website for more information

Jamie on how it began: “The team basically started as a random idea, we thought how can we get back into to football? There was an advert for a 6 aside league in Winchester, so we decided to join as a group of friends from school and eventually, brought in a few other players who some of our friends knew. We initially named our team Sporting Slough for a laugh and played a season under that name. Over time, we were getting more involved so we decided to get ourselves a sponsor, which brought County Windows to mind through a family connection.
As a result of this partnership, we changed our name to County Windowers Fc!”

Match Report- RTS Europe Vs County Windowers Fc.
1st half got off to a good start with the team passing the ball and playing well on the attack. We had a few shots on goal but towards the end of the first half got caught out by a through ball and conceded 1-0.
2nd half again started strong, having a few efforts on goal and we possibly should of brought it level, but had trouble beating the goalkeeper.
We were given the chance to draw by winning a penalty but we hit the post which dampened the sprits. We still kept good possession and towards the end of the 2nd half went on the offensive, but again we got caught out by a long through ball and finished 2-0 down.

Man of the Match- Ben Stanbrook

Team scoring list throughout season so far:

Ben Stanbrook 15

Jake Joslin 4
Dan Dixon 2
Jim Dicks 2
Chris Dicks 2
Jamie Hamilton 1

Current league position 4th

Just a quick blog to let you know that we now have a new Testimonials page on the website. The idea is to get something clean and functional there that we can now update regularly and give you some choice feedback from our many satisfied customers. Your opinions of our sales team, products and installers are incredibly important to us. So when you take the time to let us know how and why we did a good job, then its our pleasure to share it with the world. And as the introduction to the pages says, we hope to add your comments soon.
Thanks so much for reading.

To this end, we are now offering a FREE upgrade on all new window orders to ECO-KLEAR.

ECO-KLEAR is our own specially formulated to aid in your energy conservation. Some of the benefits of this product are:

• More energy efficient than a standard unit

• Extra solar gain through the glass

• Natural heat from the sun

• Reduction in energy bills

• Less heat loss through the glass

• Visibly clearer than most modern thermal glass

So please feel free to Contact Us today to find out more about this offer and our other energy saving products.
Thanks for reading.

]]> http://www.county-windows.com/general-news/10-reasons-to-choose-county/feed/ 0 http://www.county-windows.com/general-news/our-process/ http://www.county-windows.com/general-news/our-process/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:48:45 +0000 andy http://www.county-windows.com/?p=1236 One of our goals this year was to add transparency to the process of making a purchase from us. It seems that , possibly from the outside at least, the process of deciding upon, and then buying windows, doors, conservatories or other products can have a lot of murky corners that customers want to avoid. Unfortunately, there have been all too many examples of companies out there chasing the money at the expense of everything else.. mostly, customer satisfaction.

Along with buying a house, a family holiday or a car we understand that many of our installations represent a substantial purchase for a variety of customers. Even a single window or door can, and often does, require a good deal of decision making,  and this is something else that County is very mindful of.

The first fact that we want to re-iterate to our customers, or potential customers, is that our sales team are salaried and non-commission. This means that, whether you are after that one window or a house full plus a conservatory, our guys are never chasing a percentage. Being a family company, we are far more concerned with the customer experience being a positive one.

To add the transparency I mentioned, you will now find a new area on our website all about OUR PROCESS.

What this shows you is that, in 5 simple steps, you can have the product you desire installed to the highest standards. Follow the link and take a look.
When you reach the Our Process page… if you click anywhere on the diagram shown, it will enlarge and fill your screen, giving you an overview of how we work so you will know ahead of time and there will – most importantly -  be no mysteries. Also, for us, there is a process we must deliver to every customer every time. And that is what we intend to do.

Please Contact Us any time with any questions you have.

Thanks for reading.

After a bit of a chat, he asked the question which was ‘can I have a door please?’ Now, this is a question usually asked by customers or potential customers and it often ends in a transaction. But Paul was asking if we could donate a door – any door – to the radio station.

The back story is along these lines:  Winchester Hospital Radio had been occupying a rather old but spacious building on the edge of the hospital site, near the university. This building (which I later got a tour of) contained various studios, server rooms, a record library and storage areas. And indeed, just about everything in there was donated. Charities like this rely on donations of every kind.
The problem was that these old cabins were scheduled to be toppled, and on the site would be one of a number of new university buildings. As a result, the station had to move to a new residence which would need to be converted into a studio. The reason Paul wanted a door was that. The live room would need to be relatively sound proof(ish) so the door would be included in this partition which would be tailored to the door’s dimensions.

At the County Group, we are really proud of our associations with our chosen charity, Naomi House and it’s not often we expand our focus from that. But for good and unfortunately, not so good, reasons, we all may have experience of a friend or loved one under the care of the staff at this city’s hospital. And the radio is very much part of the fabric of that service. We were more than happy to help out.  As luck would have it, we had an older UPVC door with a frame and intact double glazing gathering dust in our stores. I know not what this door’s history was, but somehow it was spare and had been kept. After a chat with the MD, Ian Hamilton, who kindly agreed to donate the door, I was able to deliver it to Paul.

This was quite a while ago now as the process of moving and installing has been a long one.  But last week, I was lucky enough to visit the brand new studio, meet the team and see the old door now fully installed.

There is nothing in this simple and elegantly functional space (lovingly named the ‘Shoo-cupboard’) that would suggest that everything in it was either recycled or donated, and that’s a credit to the small team of four involved. The builders who gave up their time have created a partition wall around the dimensions of our door and also included a large double glazed window. This separates the ‘live’ part of the studio from the workspace. Ron Venturi, who is coincidently the dad of one of my oldest friends – and it was good to bump into him, has seamlessly installed the IT systems and other solutions around the rooms.  This includes the couple of hundred hours of MP3’s that keep the sounds on 24 hours per day.

The station is on live for the two hours after visiting times end (8-10pm) and this is where the charity comes into its own. Sometimes they broadcast from particular wards, playing requests and talking with patients, but always, the station is there to provide music and comfort when loved ones have gone home. Long may it continue.

Winchester Hospital Radio is always looking for new volunteers.  They have lots of roles: presenting, ward visiting, fund raising, engineering etc. Anyone interested can get in touch via their website:   www.whr.org.uk

To help you along with you along, we have put on two very special offers for this season, which you may have seen in our local press ads across Hampshire and Surrey already.

Firstly, for anyone purchasing a new conservatory, you can upgrade your roof to solar controlled glass for no extra cost at all. The benefits of this glass are proven and indeed, we are now working with a new double glazed unit combination which can block up to 72% of the suns heat. The benefits of this in the short and long term are many, and with the outer pane being a self-cleaning glass too, it means less climbing on the roof. Call and ask for more details.
Unfortunately, we are not currently offering this on Polycarbonate installations.

The second offer is for anyone looking to fit a window of any size.
You can upgrade your glazing to Self-Cleaning for no charge what so ever. That means, free!
Our self cleaning glass works on the same principle as the conservatory roof units. A coating on the glass reacts with sunlight which makes dirt and grime less adherent. When the rain comes, as it often does, the dirt flows away.
This fantastic product saves on hassle and resources, so please mention it at the time of your consultation and our non-commission sales team can give you more information.

Pop in or contact us at with our Winchester or Woking showrooms. We look forward to seeing you.
Thanks for reading.