Windows and Doors

A window that sticks after a few winters was almost always installed out of square.

We shim at the hinge and lock points, check the reveal on all four sides before we fasten anything, and operate the unit before the trim goes on. It takes longer and it is the difference between a window that works for twenty years and one that does not.

Cutting a new opening is structural work. We size and install the header for the load above it, which is the part that gets skipped when somebody just cuts a hole in a wall.

Rough opening framed and headered for a large window — Rough opening, headered and square

Framed openings through an interior wall — Openings framed

Both of these are our own framing, showing the openings we set units into. We have not photographed a finished exterior window or door installation yet, so there is not one on this page.

The order matters more than the sealant

A window does not leak through the glass. It leaks at the head, and it leaks because the layers were put on in the wrong order at some point years ago. Water runs down. Every layer has to shed onto the one below it, the way shingles do. Get that backwards and the tape you paid for becomes a shelf that holds water against the sheathing.

The sequence we follow on every opening. A drawing, not a photograph.

1Sill pan firstBefore the window goes anywhere near the opening. Corners turned up, back dam at the inside edge, so anything that gets in is carried back out over the face of the wall instead of running into the framing.
2Set, shim, checkShimmed at the hinge and lock points, not just the corners, then checked for square, level and racking before a single fastener is driven home. A unit forced into an out of square opening will never close properly and no amount of adjustment later fixes it.
3Jambs nextTape down both sides, lapping over the sill pan, never under it.
4Head last, wrap over itHead tape on top of the jamb tape, then the house wrap lapped down over the head. This is the joint that decides whether the wall stays dry, and it is the one most often done backwards.

How the job runs

Measure every opening, not one of them. Houses move. Two windows on the same wall are rarely the same size, and ordering from a single measurement is how a job ends up with a gap packed out with foam.

One opening at a time. Out, flashed, in and trimmed before the next one is touched. Nothing is left open overnight.

Look at the framing while it is open. The moment the old unit is out is the only time anybody will ever see that sill. If it is rotten you hear about it then, with it in front of you.

Flash in the order above. Pan, unit, jambs, head, wrap.

Insulate the gap properly. Low expansion foam around the frame, not packed solid, because a frame squeezed by foam does not operate.

Trim, then check it works. Every sash opened, closed and locked with you there before we call the opening done.

What the job includes

Replacement and new construction windows

Entry, patio and interior doors

New openings with correctly sized headers

Sill pan, flashing and air sealing

Interior and exterior casing

Hardware, locks and weatherstripping

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Other Services

One crew from the foundation to the final piece of trim. See everything we do.

Windows and Doors