Fixed Lights or Dummy Sash?

When designing your windows, it is important to understand the difference between a window with a fixed light and a window with a dummy sash. In the world of bespoke products, simply saying that you don’t want a particular window to open may not result in what you really want…

Standard Fixed Light

In the picture below, you can see a composite wooden-aluminium window with beveled glazing bars (commonly known in this configuration as Georgian bars). The window pictured has two side hung openers either side of a fixed light.

In this case, the centre fixed light is direct glazed in the frame. As you can see, the window has a step down on the centre pane, which you may or may not find attractive. The advantage of this configuration is that they are cheaper to produce – as there is no central sash and the resultant pane has more glass and less frame. This will be more airtight also.
In our Hampshire Major Home Renovation with Danish Windows and Minimalist Cotswold Cottage Renovation galleries, our clients used fixed lights to keep costs down.

Dummy Sash

The alternative to this is a dummy sash, also known as a false/fake sash. Appearance-wise, this is almost identical to an opening casement. The only real difference, apart from the fact that is doesn’t open, is the lack of a window handle.

Price-wise, a standard fixed light will almost certainly be cheapest. There will be a step up to have a dummy sash and, finally, an opening casement will cost the most money to manufacture.

For the majority of customers, this comes down to personal preference. You may look at both photos and instantly know which you prefer. If you don’t mind either way, we will recommend a standard fixed light. Partly for the cost benefit, and also for the slightly improved glass area.

Dummy sashes are used to great effect in our Modern Executive House Refurbishment and Sleek, Modern and Uniformly-Designed Leicestershire New Build galleries.