Double-hung & casement
The bulk of most jobs. Simulated divided lites where the house has them, and matched sightlines so a partial replacement does not read as one.
Windows & doors
Keep the windows worth keeping. Replace the rest.
Full-frame and insert replacement, bay and bow, entry doors and sidelights — and repair of the original sashes worth keeping. On a 1920s colonial the south elevation is usually shot and the north elevation has another thirty years in it. We will tell you which is which.
The decision that sets the price
Full-frame or insert
Almost every quote you receive will be one of these two, and most will not tell you which. The difference is several thousand dollars and about twenty years of outcome, so it is worth understanding before anyone measures.
Insert replacement
A new unit fitted inside the existing frame. Interior and exterior trim stay.
- Faster and cheaper — often several windows in a day, with no plaster or trim damage inside.
- Keeps original interior casings and stools, which matters on a house with good trim.
- Costs a little glass area, because the new frame sits inside the old one.
- Only valid if the existing frame, sill and sub-sill are genuinely sound.
Right when: the frames are solid and you are replacing failed sashes or fogged glass.
Full-frame replacement
Everything out, down to the rough opening. New sill pan, flashing and trim.
- The only way to see and fix rot in the sill, sub-sill and jack studs.
- A proper sill pan and lapped flashing tied into the weather barrier — the detail that stops the next failure.
- Full glass area retained, and the opening can be corrected if it has racked.
- Interior trim is disturbed and needs making good, which is part of our price rather than a surprise.
Right when: there is rot, water staining or draft at the sill, or during a re-side.
How to read a window quote
Ask three questions of any estimate: is this full-frame or insert, is a sill pan included, and who makes good the interior. A quote that is silent on all three is not cheaper — it has simply moved those costs to a change order after the wall is open.
Scope
What we install
Double-hung, casement, awning, bay, bow, fixed picture units, patio and entry doors — in wood, clad wood, fiberglass and vinyl, matched to the house rather than to a supplier relationship.
Bay & bow
Structural as much as glazing. The head and seat need proper support, insulation and a roof detail above — which is where most leaking bays go wrong.
Entry doors
Fiberglass, clad wood and solid wood, with sidelights and transoms. Set on a properly pitched sill pan so the threshold is not the leak.
Period entrances
Portico, fanlight, pilasters and surround on center-hall colonials, repaired or rebuilt in kind rather than replaced with a stock unit.
Matched sightlines, or the whole elevation looks wrong.
Replace six of eighteen windows with a different frame depth and the house tells everyone about it from the street. We match sightline, muntin pattern, glass tint and exterior color across the whole elevation, and we will happily tell you when a replacement window simply cannot match what is there.
Restoration
Some of your windows are better than anything you can buy.
Pre-war sashes are usually old-growth timber — tight-grained, dense, and cut from trees that no longer exist commercially. A sash that is sound apart from failed putty and a broken cord is a repair, not a replacement, and the repair lasts longer than the replacement would.
Sash rebuild
Joints re-wedged, rotten sections spliced with matching timber, new glazing putty and re-cording of the weights.
Weatherstripping
Bronze or silicone-bulb weatherstrip in the jamb. Most of the draft from an old window is around the sash, not through the glass.
Storm windows
A good exterior or interior storm on a restored sash gets the assembly close to modern double glazing, at a fraction of the cost, and keeps the original glass.
Honest triage
Not every old window is worth saving. We will go round the house and tell you which ones are, which are borderline, and which are firewood.
Performance
The numbers on the sticker, in plain English.
Every window carries an NFRC label. Four numbers on it actually matter, and salespeople rarely explain any of them. Northern New Jersey sits in a cold climate zone, which decides what good looks like.
| Rating | What it means | Sensible here |
|---|---|---|
| U-factor | How fast heat escapes through the whole window. Lower is better. | 0.30 or below |
| SHGC | How much of the sun's heat comes through the glass. | 0.25–0.40, higher on south glass |
| Air leakage | Air passing through the assembly, not the glass. This is what you feel as a draft. | 0.20 or below |
| Visible transmittance | How much daylight gets through. Heavy low-E coatings cost you some. | 0.50 or above |
| Frame material | Wood, clad wood, fiberglass and vinyl differ in movement, paintability and life. | Depends on the house |
Questions
Windows, honestly answered
Should I replace all the windows at once?
Usually not. Windows fail by exposure, so the south and west elevations go first and the north elevation is often still fine. Doing the failed elevations properly and restoring the rest is frequently better value than a whole-house replacement — and it lets you spend the difference on full-frame installation where it matters rather than inserts everywhere.
Are old wood windows really worth keeping?
Often. Pre-war sashes are old-growth timber, and the joinery in them is better than anything at a comparable price today. A sash rebuild plus weatherstripping plus a good storm window gets you close to modern performance, keeps the original glass, and is genuinely repairable in another forty years. That said, some are past it, and we will say so.
How disruptive is it?
Insert replacements are usually several windows a day with little mess. Full-frame is a bigger job: the interior trim comes off and gets made good, so plan for dust sheets and a day per room. We never leave an opening unsecured overnight.
Do new windows pay for themselves in energy savings?
On energy alone, rarely within a sensible payback period — the honest reason to replace windows is comfort, drafts, operation, rot and appearance. The heating saving is real but modest, and anyone quoting you a two-year payback is selling rather than calculating.
Can you match the windows on a historic house?
Usually, within limits. Simulated divided lites with the correct muntin width and a spacer bar read convincingly from the street. Genuine true divided lites are available and expensive. What we will not do is put a stock grille between the panes on a house that deserves better and call it a match.
Often done at the same time
Siding
Openings flashed into the weather barrier properly while the wall is open.
Siding →Kitchens
New glazing usually lands in the same rooms as a renovation. One schedule, one crew.
Kitchens →Additions & decks
Sunrooms, dormers and extensions where the glazing is most of the design.
Additions & decks →We will walk the house and tell you which windows actually need doing.
Free, itemised by elevation, with the repair-versus-replace call made in writing.