Windows and Doors

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

Your window gets shimmed at the hinge and the lock points, and the reveal is checked on all four sides before anything is fastened. The unit is opened, closed and locked before the trim goes on. That takes longer, and it is the difference between a window that still opens with one hand years from now and one you end up fighting.

Cutting a new opening is structural work, so the header is sized and installed for the load above it, which is the part that gets skipped when somebody just cuts a hole in a wall. Either way it is our own crew: the man who pulls the old unit out is the one who sets the casing on it, the same crew that stays on a build from the foundation through the trim, and it goes 100 miles out of Seekonk to get to you. Your estimate names the units being priced, by brand and size, so you are not approving a line that just says windows. No more than a third of it up front, and you can look up Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor 213949 and Rhode Island Contractor GC-51642 before you call.

The order beats 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.

On your house that order is sill pan first, then the unit, then the jambs, then the head flashing, with the house wrap lapped down over the head instead of taped up over it. None of it shows once the casing is on, which is why it is the easiest part of a window job to do badly. The only time anybody will ever see the sill under your window is the hour the old unit is out. If it is wet or rotten, that is when you hear about it, with it sitting in front of you, and it gets fixed before the new unit goes in instead of sealed up behind it.

How the job runs

Measure every opening Houses move: two windows on the same wall are rarely the same size, and ordering from one 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, and nothing is left open overnight.
Look at the framing The moment the old unit is out is the only time anybody will ever see that sill, and if it is rotten you hear about it then, with it in front of you.
Flash bottom up Sill pan first, then the unit, then the jambs, then the head flashing, and the house wrap lapped down over the head so every layer sheds onto the one below it.
Insulate the gap Low expansion foam around the frame, not packed solid, because a frame squeezed by foam does not operate.
Trim, then test Every sash opened, closed and locked with you standing there before the opening is called done.