A broken pane, a sealed unit that has misted, a sliding door that has stopped sliding, a rotten frame, or a whole set of windows that lets in wind, dust and noise. Send the measurements and a photo of each opening, and you get a free quote with the glass and the frame priced separately.
Window and door work in the Algarve splits into three jobs: glazing, which is replacing broken or misted glass in a frame that stays; repair, which is hinges, rollers, handles, seals and drainage on windows worth keeping; and replacement, where the frame itself has reached the end. Mosquito screens are fitted alongside all three. Handyman Algarve quotes windows, doors and glazing in the Algarve for free, in English or Portuguese.
What comes up most in Algarve homes
Misted sealed units. The seal has gone and the cavity fogs. The frame usually stays and the glass is swapped.
Sliding doors that stick or drag. Almost always the rollers and the track, packed with sand and grit from a terrace, rather than the door itself.
Broken glass. A pane, a table top, a shower screen, a shelf. This is the vidraceiro's daily work, measured and cut to the opening.
Rotten or split wooden frames in older village houses, where a repair to the sill and the lower rail is often possible without losing the original window.
Handles, hinges and locks that have seized in salt air, particularly within a few hundred metres of the sea.
Whole window replacement, in uPVC or aluminium, usually driven by draughts, noise or a frame that no longer closes properly.
Condensation on the glass and a frame that is going soft
Press the lower rail and the sill with a thumbnail. Wood that gives is rot, and rot spreads along the grain rather than staying where you can see it.
Check the drainage slots at the bottom of the frame, inside and out. Blocked slots hold water against the joint and are behind most frame failures here.
Wipe the condensation and note when it forms. Water on the inside of the glass is room humidity meeting a cold pane, which is a ventilation question as much as a window one.
Photograph the frame from inside and outside, and measure the opening width and height, so the quote can say whether it is a repair or a replacement.
Mosquito screens
Screens are fitted as part of this hub rather than as a separate trade, because they are measured, framed and hung the same way a window is. The practical choice is by opening: fixed frames for windows that are opened only for air, roller or pleated screens for windows in daily use, and hinged or sliding screens for doors and terrace sliders. Aluminium frames hold shape in direct sun better than plastic.
In this region the reason to have them is simple: mosquito activity peaks over the same months the house wants to be open at night. INSA runs its national vector surveillance from May to October as the period of greatest activity, and ARS Algarve reports Aedes albopictus, first confirmed in the region in 2018 at Almancil and Quarteira, in ten concelhos of the Algarve. A screen does not replace the maintenance side of that, which is emptying and covering anything that holds standing water, but it is what lets a bedroom stay ventilated in August.
Repair or replace?
The honest test is the frame, not the glass. If the frame is sound and square, almost everything else is a repair: glass, seals, rollers, hinges, handles and drainage are all serviceable parts, and a good repair on an aluminium slider costs a fraction of a new unit. If the frame is out of shape, corroded at the corners, or rotten below the joint, no amount of new glass fixes it, because the frame is what holds the seal against the weather. Age alone is not the test. Plenty of thirty year old aluminium windows here are structurally fine and simply need parts, while a poorly fitted ten year old unit can be past saving.
Which way does the opening face?
It is a question few window quotes ask, and in this region it changes the glass. The climate data used for energy calculations in Portugal is published by region, and the Algarve has its own row.
Is there a grant for new windows?
Not as at August 2026. There is no open Fundo Ambiental application window for windows, insulation, heat pumps or solar in a private home. The Programa de Apoio a Edifícios mais Sustentáveis, known as Edifícios+, did cover replacing inefficient windows with efficient ones of energy class A+, and it last opened to private homeowners between 18 July and 31 October 2023 and has been closed since. Vale Eficiência is a different instrument, a means tested voucher for households in energy poverty rather than a general renovation grant, and applications by beneficiaries closed on 31 October 2024. Source: Fundo Ambiental, notices 05/C13-i01/2023 and 06/C13-i01/2023, read in August 2026. National scope.
What exists for 2026 is a loan rather than a grant. Portaria n.º 442-A/2025/1 of 12 December created a reimbursable credit instrument for home energy-efficiency measures, run by Banco Português de Fomento, to be made available within a year of publication. Its measure list does cover efficient windows of at least class A, along with exterior shading and solar control, insulation of roofs, walls and floors, heat pumps and solar. As at August 2026 no rates, no ceilings and no opening date had been published.
One published condition already settles it for some homes. Applicants in the first four income brackets need no prior energy certificate; every other individual applicant has to hold one already, of class C or lower. For every applicant, a prior certificate of class B or higher makes the property ineligible. Anyone who tells you the Fundo Ambiental will pay towards new windows today is describing a programme that is not open.
The same list of measures covers insulation, which is a different job with its own decision. The wall and roof side is explained on the page for insulation in the Algarve.
What determines the price?
Glazing is priced by the pane: dimensions, thickness, whether it is single, laminated or a sealed unit, and whether it is toughened, which anything in a door or at low level has to be. Window replacement is priced per opening, and what moves it is size, the frame material, the opening type (a fixed pane is the cheapest thing in any catalogue and a large slider the dearest), the glass specification, and the fitting: whether the old frame is removed to the masonry or the new frame goes over it, and how much making good the reveal needs afterwards. Screens are priced per opening too, and the fitting method matters more than the mesh. As of 2026, all quotes are free and given before anything is ordered.
What makes a quote accurate is boring and quick: width and height of each opening, a photo from inside and outside, and whether the wall is masonry or a stud partition. See how it works for the process from request to finished job.
Shutter repair: for the estore, the box above the window and the slats inside it
Carpentry: for repairs to wooden frames, doors and sills worth keeping
Metalwork: for security grilles, aluminium frames and anything welded
Painting: for the reveal and the frame once the fitting is done
Waterproofing & damp: for damp that turns out to be coming through the wall rather than around the window
Insulation: for external wall insulation, which moves the window reveal and is best decided alongside new frames
We reply within one business day, usually much faster.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average cost for double glazing?
There is no single average worth quoting, because a window is priced per opening: the size, the frame material, the opening type, the glass specification and whether the old frame comes out or stays. A run of four identical casements costs far less per window than one large sliding unit of the same total area. Handyman Algarve publishes no euro range for glazing in the Algarve, because the price belongs to the opening, not to a table. Measurements and a photo of each opening produce a real quote, free.
What are the disadvantages of double glazing?
Three worth knowing before you commit. It seals the house, so a home that relied on draughts for ventilation gets more condensation, not less, unless something replaces that airflow. It is not automatically quiet: noise reduction depends on asymmetric or laminated glass, not on there being two panes. And a sealed unit is a consumable, because when the seal fails the unit mists internally and is replaced rather than repaired. None of that argues against it. It argues for specifying the glass.
What is double glazing?
It is one glazed unit made of two panes with a sealed, usually gas filled cavity between them, fitted into a single frame. In Portugal it is called vidro duplo, and it should not be confused with janela dupla, which is a second window fitted inside the first and is still common in older homes here. Vidro duplo works by insulating; a janela dupla works by trapping a layer of air in the room. Both reduce heat transfer, but only the first is a modern sealed unit.
Can a misted double glazed unit be repaired?
Not properly. Misting between the panes means the perimeter seal has failed and the cavity is taking in humid air, and the fix is a new sealed unit. The good news is that the frame usually stays: a glazier measures the unit, orders it and swaps it, at a fraction of the cost of a new window. If several units have misted at once, check the drainage channels in the frames, because standing water at the base of the glass is what kills seals early.
What are the pros and cons of uPVC windows?
For: uPVC insulates better by the nature of the material, needs no painting and, in standard sizes, usually costs less. Against: in large openings it needs internal reinforcement and the profiles get wider, which takes glass area away; a cheap profile yellows and warps in strong sun; and the material is less rigid than aluminium, so a very wide slider needs a system designed for it. The quality of the profile and the hardware decides more than the choice of material.
Do mosquito screens work?
Yes, as a physical barrier they are the most reliable thing available, because they do not depend on a chemical, a repellent or somebody remembering to switch something on. Where they fail is at the edges: a screen with a gap at the runner, a door screen that does not close on its own, or a screen fitted to one window in a house where two others stay open. Fitted properly they let a house be ventilated at night in August, which in this climate is the point.
What type of screen keeps mosquitoes out?
Any mesh fine enough for the insect and mounted so there is no gap around it. In practice the choice is about the opening, not the mesh: fixed frames for windows that are only opened for air, roller or pleated screens for windows in daily use, hinged or sliding screens for doors and for sliding terrace units. Aluminium framed screens hold their shape in the sun better than plastic ones. On a ground floor terrace door, the screen that survives is the one that opens the way the door does.
