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By Kathleen Fisher
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Replacement sash kits are a less messy solution than full tear-outs.
Kolbe & Kolbe offers custom sashes with either 9/16" or 7/8" insulated
glass and exteriors either primed for painting or clad with their "K-Kron" topcoat. Hardware is another decision you'll have to make in buying windows. These kits offer locks in white, beige, or brass.
Photo Courtesy of Kolbe & Kolbe
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If eyes are the windows of the soul, windows are the soul of a house. Old windows can be beautiful without a mountain or water view, stained glass, intricate leading, or gothic arches. There is nothing so pleasurable on a spring morning as gazing out my old double-hungs with their shapely muntins and wavy glass. So for as long as I possibly can, I'll putty and paint their divided lights, fill any rot with epoxy, and replace broken panes with old glass rescued from architectural salvage.
But situations arise when you need something new. Perhaps you're building an addition. Maybe your house has been remuddled with cheap aluminum windows that you simply can't look at any longer, or a tornado has ripped out an entire wall. What are the options?
The first contractor you call may push for vinyl replacements as though there is nothing else available. Not all historic districts require wood for every window. True, historic landmarks may demand not merely wood for every window but a certain shape and size of muntins. But residential historic districts may specify wood only for the first storey or for the windows facing the street. Don't let contractors kid you though. Nearly all big-window manufacturers offer wood windows with true divided lights.
Andersen, for example, this year has introduced a "Woodwright" collection of double-hungs in 99 different sizes, with the option of ordering custom sizes. "We're seeing a lot of interest in traditional home design, in both the new and renovation markets," says Paul Landgraf, an Andersen home improvement marketing manager who developed the Woodwright series. Andersen has given their sashes mortise-and-tenon joints (rather than mitered joints), a taller bottom rail than found on most off-the-rack windows, and a chamfer along the check rail—all with an eye to making the windows look more like they belong in an old house.
The windows also have a wood jamb liner—the strip that runs up the side of the window pocket. Nearly all wood windows today have vinyl jamb liners that visually shout "new!" although Marvin Windows and Doors, for one, has recently narrowed its liners. Andersen's new line also offers true divided lights with several choices in the width of muntins.
Even buyers who opt for windows that are vinyl-clad outside want rich wood inside. You can now get interior finishes from Weather Shield in oak, mahogany, oak, maple, cherry, and fir.
No Mere Beauty Contest
These architectural choices are only the beginning when window shopping. As long as you're spending a lot of money—from hundreds to thousands of dollars per window—what else would you like to achieve? Is it mostly energy efficiency? Do they need to be easy to clean, block out sunlight that will damage furniture and carpet, or silence traffic noises?
If you have to replace a beloved old window, you have three choices: a full tear-out, a sash-pack kit, or an insert. A full tear-out means removing every part of the window—its mouldings, jambs, and sill—all the way back to the wall. It will be a messy and expensive process that damages wallpaper and plaster, so it may not be the best idea unless you're gutting your walls for other reasons. It may be one you want to consider, however, if your windows have been shrunk or moved by misguided remodeling, so that they are out of proportion historically or to the rest of your house's architecture. A sash-pack kit will give you new sashes and jambs (generally vinyl), while an insert is literally that—new sash inserted into your old wooden jambs.
In old houses, which are unlikely to be perfectly square, sash-pack kits can create problems with air tightness, says Tom Patterson, president of The Window Man franchise in Fairfax, Virginia.
He's a strong advocate of saving old wood windows and improving their energy efficiency and acoustics with storm windows (See "The Perfect Storms" page 85.) As to sash-pack kits, he says, "If there is the slightest crown in the sill, you can have such a bad fit that you can see daylight off both ends." He thinks Trimline, a lesser-known window company, is ahead of the pack with its sash-pack kits because they have a more rigid frame, a noncompression jamb, and a caulkable window.
An insert is more likely to provide a good fit, he says, but you may have to forfeit a bit of glass in fitting the new window into its hole since you have to take the weight pocket into consideration.
You can get replacement kits with tempting modern features including tilt sashes for easy cleaning and low-E glass for energy conservation from large manufacturers, such as Weather Shield, or specialists, such as Bi-Glass. If the tilt-in option is tugging on your heartstrings, you can buy special hardware called pivot sash.
Finding standard window sizes with any of these options is difficult for houses built before World War II, after which windows began to be sized in standard increments of 4" rather than half inches. Many big manufacturers routinely offer custom sizes, but it costs more.
If you need special sizes and shapes, don't be afraid to shop the custom market, such as millwork companies. Blair Lee, president of Allegheny Restoration in Morgantown, West Virginia, says that while the company's custom sashes are a bit more expensive, they can actually be less costly when you need a specialty window involving something like curved glass. Allegheny has done jobs as far away as Massachusetts and Georgia.
A Comely Glass
OK, you've figured out jambs, check rails and bottom rails. Now on to glass. Low-E glass, which reduces ultra-violet light and heat loss through conduction and radiation, has been a standard offering since 1981, but not all low-E glass is equal.
When you're buying new windows, you're likely to see a sticker from the National Fenestration Rating Council, which measures energy performance with three decimal numbers: the U-factor (the amount of heat that escapes), the solar heat gain coefficient (the blocking of sunlight), and visible transmittance (how much visible light comes through). You want the first two numbers to be low to save on heating and cooling costs. The third indicates more light coming through as it approaches 1.0.
These are good measures of "static thermal performance," says Patterson, but there is also an American Architectural Manufacturers Association rating, often used by wood-window makers. Their system looks at structural performance, air infiltration, resistance to water damage, and to forced entry. If you live someplace like the Gulf Coast, you'll need to factor in the extra cost of hurricane glass.
In addition, some low-E glass has a tint that clearly marks it as not historic. You can also choose a glass called heat mirror, which has a thin coating of silver, gold, or titanium to block the sun. Some people think it's more efficient, but it will be even more apparent visually and is inappropriate for a historic look.
If noise is a problem, you should ask about the acoustics of your glass. The numbers can be a bit tricky since they are exponential. One rated at 40 is more than twice as good as one rated at 20. Glass in the low to mid 20s range is average, but if you get one rated 56, it will be the sound-dampening equivalent of a 12" masonry wall.
If you want old, wavy glass, you can still get it. Patterson's dealership displays a window with old glass, which he says raised the price $300 per window. If your window wood is rotten but your glass is sound, consider having the old glass set into custom frames.
Millwork companies can also laminate tempered glass to old glass to make it less prone to breakage. Blair Lee of Allegheny Restoration cites studies showing that laminated glass has an insulation value as high or higher than insulated glass. "It has almost the same safety factor and sound properties, and that way you don't have to retrofit. You will have to upgrade your window weight system due to the added weight."
There's a world of windows out there. Don't settle for something less than your house deserves.
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The Perfect Storms
Can't decide whether your old windows can be saved? The National Park Service has a useful document on repairing wooden windows.
You can access it at www2.cr.nps.gov/tps/briefs/brief09.htm.
Maybe your beautiful old windows don't look bad, but you need better sound or weather proofing. Tom Patterson the Window Man in Fairfax, Virginia, urges most owners of historic houses to consider storm windows instead of replacements. "No windows being made today are as good as the old windows," he says. "For one thing, they were probably made of old-growth wood, which has tighter grain and is going to weather better." In addition, the rope-and-pulley assembly of an old window and the small divided panes are easier and less expensive to replace. The air space between an old window and a well-installed storm window creates better weather insulation than the argon or krypton in a double-paned new window, and Patterson notes that you can buy any thickness of glass in a storm window that you might purchase for a new window to reduce noise.
Mon-Ray offers four standard colors (cream, white, brown, and silver) and two profiles, so you have some options for a more historical look. Other makers offer more colors, or you can pay a premium price for a custom color.
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A Well-Done Muntin
Even more than old glass, a well-proportioned muntin is the holy grail of old-house owners seeking to match windows. "Where can I get TRUE divided lights in Washington, DC?" a reader recently asked. If you can't get them in the big city, indeed, where can you?
Muntins, of course, are the grid of narrow wood bars that traditionally divided the small panes of glass that were homeowners' only options when window glass was first manufactured. (As opposed to mullions, which are the vertical posts that separate entire windows.)
The number of panes in windows decreased during the years as technology improved and larger expanses of glass could be made, but only in recent years, as year-round climate control led to permanently shut double- or even triple-thick windows, did single panes become the rule.
Depending on the age and location of the house, window sashes divided by wood muntins above, below, or both were long the rule—thus architectural terms such as "three-over-one" or "six-over-six." Now manufacturers are trying to mate consumers' desire for traditional-looking windows with their demand for the energy efficiency of double-thick glass. So far, manufacturers don't seem able to develop muntins that pass visual muster.
Instead they give us what they call grilles—patterns of wood strips that may be between the glass panes, or snapped inside and removable for cleaning. Double-pane windows with true-divided lights have aluminum or plastic between the muntins so that they lack the visual depth of old wood windows. Many manufacturers have simply given up and only offer true divided lights with single panes. This is just another factor to consider when shopping for replacement windows.
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