Older Aluminum Single-Pane Aluminum Windows.

Removed without disturbing any of the original interior wood surrounds or interior trim materials.

And replaced with Vinyl Windows.
Unfortunately, we had your stereotypical hard-drive meltdown back around the time of this job.

We lost some of our photos and all the digital copies of the original paperwork.

So not only do we not have a reference to identify the BRAND of Vinyl windows we used, but I lost the photos that would have shown…

…the “before” and “in-process” photos of our having built this bay window structure in its entirety. We did the drywall & the siding work as well.

Previously, this opening consisted of a simple aluminum XOX Sliding Window Assembly that sat flush against the wall, as do all the other windows you see here.

If you are thinking we showed this exact same house in another project or two, you are correct. We did, among other projects, a rather custom Vinyl window installation on a certain part of the house back in 2007.

It is hard to know whether or not these single-pane putty-glazed 1 3/8 inch thick wood casement sash windows are original to the house or not, but we know that they are very old, cold and drafty.

Some of the other windows have been replaced with vinyl windows. These are among the last to be upgraded. They had been weatherstripped and they had roll-screens installed to the interior.

Nonetheless, cold air still radiated off the single-pane glass, according to our clients. We have here your stereotypical XOX assembly in the living room.

And another identical window assembly in the dining room. Both facing the street.

Our technician Brandon Todd goes about removing the nailing fins for the retrofit application into the original wood jambs.

The original sash are removed from the jamb assemblies.

And the new Huttig Brand vinyl windows are installed. Amazingly, having vinyl jambs installed into the original wood jambs has not translated into much, if any loss of what they call daylight-opening. To check out Huttig brand windows yourself, go to huttig.atriumwindows.com

Obviously, the casements were replaced with Single-Hung Windows. The BENIFITS of insulated glass and the latest weatherstripping technology, not to mention the expert installation, were reported to us by our clients as having been felt immediately.

The main living quarters were noticeably warmer as soon as we were finished installing the new windows.

Time for a Garden Window Upgrade.

Removal

Removed

Installation

Installed

Client with early 20th century bungalow wants to turn some of the living space…

…into sleeping space.

As most people know today, current building code requires sleeping quarters to facilitate…

…a minimum opening for fire egress. And yes, we did the excavation, the concrete cutting & the laying of the blocks. The whole enchilada.

A Bull Mountain Villa with weather exposure befitting a mountain named bull.

Early vinyl windows facing the dominate wind flows of the region have leaked for years.

Water Damaged MDF surrounds. The client didn’t really like the internal grids anyway, so since we were going to be pulling siding to find where the flaw in the flashing system was located…

…they figured it might be a good time to upgrade the windows with the latest technologies, and to get rid of the internal grids.

Jeld-Wen makes a fine Vinyl product.

A North Portland House of Masonry construction in the Kenton Neighborhood. Almost castle-like. As you might be able to tell if you enlarge the photo, it’s a very old home. And as you might rightly suspect, it has very old wood windows with single-pane glass, and most of them are covered with aluminum storm windows probably from back in the 70’s during the first American energy crises.

Back when PGE was offering l0 year low interest loans to upgrade your homes energy efficiency, and numerous storm-window companies sprang up and made small fortunes for about a decade. Above we have BEFORE shots of the two mulled kitchen windows & a shot of two corner bedroom windows.

If you click on this collage of close-up photos (enlarge it), it should give you an idea of how long it had been since these windows had received any type of maintenance, and why attempting to rejuvenate them would truly have been a silly exercise in futility and wasted resources.

Our client had an elderly mother living in that corner bedroom and using that kitchen, and we probably needn’t have to tell you what the winters were like in that stone structure with those single-pane, dilapidated wood windows…aluminum storm-windows or not.

The above photo shows that the storm-windows, the original window-sash & much of the exterior trim and associated wood components have been removed. The openings have been cordoned-off from the interior with plastic to keep the lion’s share of dust and debris from accessing the interior. Note the saw on the window sill.

The above photo is a close-up of that same kitchen window after the exterior-most portions of water-damaged window sills have been carefully cut-off and some self-adhesive flashing membrane material has been applied over the stone-work, beneath where the new spliced-in wood sill material will go.

This photo shows the new Vinyl Double-Hung Window Assemblies Retro-Fitted into the original jambs, and set upon the newly augmented wood sills.

One of the two corner bedroom double-hung windows after the new exterior wood trim has been applied, primed & caulked. These are Cascade Vinyl Windows. To learn more go to; http://www.cascadewindows.com/

The two mulled kitchen double-hung windows after all the exterior wood trim materials have been installed and meticulously caulked and primed.

This close-up shows the clean transition from the wood components to the Vinyl windows. When you aren’t in the industry, it probably sounds strange to hear someone get excited about such things, but the dynamics related to the stark contrasts our clients likely experienced between the years of leaky, difficult (or impossible) to operate windows to the latest technology in thermal-glass, the latest weather-stripping products, and easily operated window-sash…really floats our boat.

An old farm house in what is now known as Northeast Portland.

Original putty-glazed single-pane wood windows do not offer much in the way of insulation.

Especially when the house itself lacks any modern day levels of insulation in the walls, floors or ceilings.

The custom aspects of these windows come in two forms.

The first is the unusual configuration. Picture over awning over picture.

Due to the shelving structure that was to sit to the interior side, the operable windows had need to be somewhat elevated.

The second somewhat unique quality of these windows comes in the form of the MIRROR-GLASS, sometimes referred to as one-way glass. It pretty much makes it impossible to see in from the exterior during the daytime.

Although it still allows a view from the interior. For those who have need for the privacy and/or security, this can be a nice, albeit somewhat expensive option.

One of the byproducts of the world-wide web is that we have seen an increase in what you might call absentee landlords now able to contact contractors from afar and employ their services to work on their properties when they’re not even in the state or region.

In this case, our client lived in Radcliff, Kentucky and had found us online. Her tenant had filed several complaints regarding the condition of several windows in this Southeast Portland house.

As you can see, the glass in the top sash had already fallen out and the remaining sash components were barely holding together.
Just a wee bit drafty I would say.

But the original window jamb was in fine enough condition to merit being reused in a retrofit application wherein a new single-hung vinyl window assembly is retro-fitted right into the original wood window jamb assembly.

As most folks know by now, this is a very common and economically popular solution for these older era homes.
Although there are those who scorn the practice, and consider it a downgrading of the homes character and integrity.

This was another window that was targeted for replacement.

These basement in-swing awning casement windows were extremely common in these vintage of homes.

And changing them out to a Vinyl Slider is now just about as common.
I know there are those who might question our choosing to include a project like this in our portfolio, but there is a…

…substantial segment of potential clientele in our community, whom I want to know that these jobs are as much our “bread and butter” as any so-called high-profile, high dollar projects.

Time to upgrade those old cold, drafty, moisture condensing aluminum-framed windows.

Field technician David Castro goes about showing us how it’s done. Cut back the siding to make room for the composite exterior trim that not only looks nice around the new vinyl windows…

…but also facilitates the proper flashing of the new windows into the moisture barrier that exists beneath the siding. So the aluminum windows are then removed…

…and the new Mercer Vinyl windows are installed. If you look back at the first couple photos, you may be able to notice that the original windows here were non-operable picture windows, and yet the windows David is installing are single-hung windows.

If you enlarge the above photo by clicking on it, the INSET photo shows that these windows sit fairly high above a stairwell. So typically, there would be no reasonable way to reach operable windows. However, given the ease with which these Mercer Single-Hung windows slide up & down, we were, at our client’s bequest, able to devise an attachment on the end of a pole (doweling) that allowed the operable sash to be easily pushed up or pulled down from below if the windows were left unlatched.

Another requested change came in the form of wanting a little more ventilation in the master bedroom. So the former octagon-shaped picture window was changed from a non-operable opening to a crank-out awning window. Bruce is one of our drywall artisans, among many other skill-sets.

Brandon is shown here putting the finishing touches on the sliding patio door we replaced. What exactly is he doing? He’s tooling the caulking. Notice the paper-towel in his hand, and the blue-masking tape on the opposite side of the opening? Some folks may find it interesting to note that regardless of the technical aspects of installing a door or window correctly to ensure years of hassle-free operation and an adequate barrier against moisture infiltration into our client’s walls…it’s the “detail-work,” either good or bad, that most people will notice when a contractor is finished with a project.

The back of the house.

One of the sides.

And the front.

We’re calling this project “Generic Vinyl,” because the windows were provided by the client.

“Before Shot” They may be a line of Loewen Vinyl windows, we’re not certain, because our paperwork didn’t record the brand.

“In Process Shot” We did do the “MEASURE” on this job for the client, but he procured the windows himself, so by the time we got around to putting this on our web-site…

“After Shot” …we had no reasonable way to trace back to find what brand they were.

“After Shot”

“Before Shot”

“After Shot” Here’s an example of how to dress-up some of those drab split-level front entryways. No, the color-scheme was not our idea.

“Before Shot”

“Before Shot” Every window in the house was replaced.

After Shot…You can see the time it took to order the windows from the time we measured for them…look at the garden.