Window tinting in Chatswood: offices, apartments and homes
Chatswood has office floors over the station, apartment towers around them, and Federation and inter-war house streets behind. Each asks for a different film, and a different person signs off before it goes on. We measure all three, pane by pane.
The glass we look for in Chatswood
Two Chatswood homes in three are flats or apartments, so most of the glass here is in apartment buildings. The house streets are fewer, and the older ones still have their period fronts.
Office floors and practices
- Tower windows behind desks, where afternoon sun heats the floor and washes out the screens
- Consulting rooms at street level that look onto the footpath
- Glass meeting room walls that need a frosted band or a full frost
- Glass doors and partitions people walk into, which need markings they can see
Apartments
- Balcony doors and living room glass facing west over the towers
- Bedrooms that look straight across at the next building
- A study corner by the window, where the screen fights the light
- Corner units with glass on two walls, so the sun reaches the room from two sides
Houses
- Federation and inter-war fronts: bays, sashes, leadlit top lights
- Sidelights and a fanlight around the front door, often obscure or coloured glass
- A renovated back with sliding doors onto the garden
- A study window that sits behind or beside the screen
Mostly units, over a core of houses
At the 2021 Census, 6,442 of the 9,524 occupied homes in Chatswood were flats or apartments. That is the towers around the station and the blocks over the shops, and it means a strata committee or a building manager is part of most jobs here.
The 2,660 separate houses, a little over a quarter, include the older streets of North and South Chatswood, which look nothing like the view from the station. Next door, Chatswood West is almost all houses.
In Chatswood, about half the people in work did it from home at the 2021 Census. A unit with a desk by the balcony door is a glare job as often as a heat job.
| Chatswood, occupied homes | 9,524 |
|---|---|
| Chatswood, share that are flats | 67.6% |
| Artarmon, share that are flats | 68.4% |
| Roseville, share that are flats | 28.5% |
| Chatswood West, share that are flats | 0.6% |
| Chatswood, worked from home | 49.9% |
Source: ABS Census 2021 QuickStats for Chatswood, Artarmon, Roseville and Chatswood West. Homes are occupied private dwellings; flats include apartments.
Who signs off before the film goes on
In Chatswood the question is often not which film but who has to agree to it. It is a different person for each kind of building.
| Building | Who to ask | What they look at |
|---|---|---|
| Office tower | The building manager, through your landlord or fitout contact | How the glass reads from outside, the contractor rules, lift and loading dock bookings |
| Apartment | The owners corporation or strata committee, and your landlord if you rent | Your scheme's by-laws, and whether the film changes how the building looks |
| House | Willoughby Council, for a heritage-listed house or one inside a conservation area | The street front and how the house sits in the streetscape |
What your schedule gives them
- Every pane by floor, room and side
- The 3M film chosen for each pane
- How it looks from outside
- Which face each sheet is fixed to, and that it can be taken off again
We never tell you a film is approved or needs no approval. That answer belongs to the committee, the building or council.
How a Chatswood job runs
A tower job and a house job use the same three steps. What changes is what goes on the schedule before anyone cuts film.
Measure
Every pane gets a line: where it is, what glass it is and why it bothers you. In a tower we also note the building's rules, where we can park and set up, and the lift.
Cut
Film is cut to the schedule, a 3M film chosen for each pane rather than one roll for the job. Coated, laminated and double-glazed panes are matched to a film that suits them.
Fit
You, and the building or committee, agree the install time before it is booked. Edges finish clean to the frame on every pane.
Where a Chatswood job goes wrong
One mirrored unit on the tower face
A reflective film on one apartment shows from the street and from the next tower. It is the kind of change a committee gets asked about.
Film on before anyone asked
Installed ahead of the by-law question or the building manager's answer, it may have to come off again.
The band at the wrong height
A frosted band set for people walking past, in a room where everyone sits down. We set the height with you, in the room.
A dark front on a Federation house
A deep tint makes an original street front read differently from its neighbours. The front gets low-reflective film.
Chatswood's house streets
Two of the twelve heritage conservation areas in the Willoughby council area carry the suburb's name: North Chatswood and South Chatswood. Their streets are mostly single storey houses from the Federation and inter-war years.
Council says development consent is required for most changes to buildings in its conservation areas. If your street is in one, or your house is on the heritage list, talk to council before the front changes. Film leaves the original pane where it is: it sits on the room side, and it can be removed later.
We check leadlight and textured panes in person on the measure. Whether film suits one depends on the glass, so nothing is promised for them before we have seen it.
A South Chatswood house, on a schedule
- W1Street side, front bay, three sashes: Keep the look
A low-reflective film here, chosen so the bay looks unchanged from the footpath.
- W2Street side, bay top lights: Glare
Leadlight: we look at these panes on the measure. Film is not promised.
- W3Garden side, sliding door: Heat, Fade
Chatswood questions
Does my strata committee need to approve film on my unit?
It depends on your scheme's by-laws and on how the film looks from outside, so ask the committee first. You get the schedule to hand over: each pane, its film, and what the building will look like from the footpath once it is on.
I rent my apartment. Can I have film put on?
Ask your landlord or agent first, and they will usually need the strata committee's view too. Half the homes in Chatswood were rented at the 2021 Census, so this comes up often. We can send the schedule to whoever needs to see it.
How is a Chatswood job priced?
From the schedule, after the measure. The written quote names every pane and the film for it. What moves the figure is how many square metres of glass there are, which film goes on each pane, and how hard each one is to get to. A meeting room wall behind a fixed boardroom table, or a unit window above a stair void, takes longer than a balcony door.
Can the office stay open while you install?
The schedule lets the work go room by room. We settle the timing with you and the building manager ahead of booking, so it fits around the people at their desks.
Our office glass already has a tint. Can it take more film?
Often, but tower glass is sometimes coated or laminated, and the film has to suit it. We note the glass of every pane on the measure and tell you if one should be left alone.
We only want the bedroom that faces the next tower done.
That is a job we take. A single pane is measured and scheduled like any other, and the film is chosen for that room.
Near Chatswood
Reference
- Heritage conservation areas, Willoughby City Council. The number of conservation areas in the council area, and when development consent is needed for changes in them.
- Strata renovations, NSW Government. How work inside a unit is sorted into cosmetic, minor and major, and who approves each.
- Census QuickStats, Australian Bureau of Statistics. Dwelling, tenure and working from home figures from the 2021 Census.