When looking at home improvements we might tend to think it is all post war but surprising as it might be the Roman Empire who started the continual trend in property improvement.
According to Wikipedia it was the Romans who found out that insulated glazing (or "double glazing") improved greatly on keeping buildings warm, and this technique was used in the construction of public baths.
As well as brick paved driveways, the Romans also developed underfloor heating, the solar chimney and probably fed over zealous salespeople to the lions!
The idea was more formally commercialised in the 20th century by our chums across the big pond when in 1934 the Thermopane Company created a vacuum between two panes of glass . This the original patent for double glazing
Keeping in mind that even the best ideas do not excel at the time of conception (such as sliced bread) this first double glazing was not an overnight winner as the United States was still coming out of the Great Depression and this was still a costly.
It was after WWII, in the early 1950’s that we started to improve and in the USA double glazing became more economical, and was more widely adopted.
The German's pioneered Germany in developing double glazing as companies like Deceuninck developed a meld of double-glazing and later added PVCu technology from extrusion fabricated into frames
To sell this in the UK and North America it took some overegging of the payback to make it work and the day of the double glazing salesman was born.
I guess someone must have sold this idea to Roman bath owners and I only wonder if the close was so heavy handed as it is now?
For over thirty years these salespeople have become known as unpleasant in some instances and I include a Guardian report
Sales rep was 'frightening'
Two and a half hours after Jenny Bance invited a double glazing salesman into her home, and without ever managing to get him to quote her a price, she finally persuaded him to leave. The experience left her "shaken" and feeling as if she had been "threatened in some way".
Ms Bance, a teacher and single mother of four from Reigate in Surrey, says that until her experience last year, she thought the days of dodgy double glazing sales tactics had long gone. "I didn't think this sort of thing was still happening," Ms Bance says.
"My windows were leaking. I needed them replaced and decided to go ahead and get it done. I didn't need to be sold to," she adds. "I was ready to buy. But the salesman who came was quite frightening. I had spoken to the company by phone and checked that they were bone fide, so thought there would be no problem."
When the salesman arrived he immediately launched into a long spiel about noise from buses in the area, coupled with ramblings about local noise issues, Ms Bance says.
"He just wouldn't shut up. I tried to stop him and asked a number of times for a quote but he just kept going. After about an hour he snapped: 'Don't tell me how to do my job and I won't tell you how to do yours.' He was becoming extremely angry by this stage and I felt very threatened, especially as I was alone in the house with my 12-year-old son."
Eventually, the salesman was asked to leave because he insisted on keeping to what appeared to be a pre-prepared script and refused to answer any questions. However, instead of leaving, he picked up Ms Bance's phone and called his boss.
"I couldn't believe it," she says. "He just picked up my phone and then went on to tell his boss that I had been threatening him! I did eventually put him out of the house and we put his briefcase in the street after him. It was very distressing.
"I just left it at that but found that when I started talking to people about my situation, it seems it is happening all over the place. Lots of people have had similar experiences."
Read the full article
We seek to overcome the need for the over pushy rep by doing all we can online and I hope we can include a method to support the good guys who serve home owners properly. Until then please do let me know your horror stories of pressure selling tactics.
All the best
Richard Williams