The detail that matters
Nearly every rotted window opening we open up failed the same way. Not because the window was cheap — because water was stopped with sealant instead of being given somewhere to go.
Caulk is a consumable. It has a service life of a few years, it fails invisibly, and when it does, the water that gets past it has nowhere to drain and no way out. A flashed opening assumes water will get in and moves it back outside.
Same window. The difference is entirely behind the trim.
Two ways to do it
Every window job is one of these, and the difference is the single biggest factor in what it costs — and in whether you find out what's behind the trim.
The new window goes inside the existing frame, which stays in the wall. Faster, cheaper, less disruption inside. You lose a little glass area to the extra frame, and — critically — nobody ever sees the rough opening, the sill, or the framing behind it.
Fine when the existing frame is sound and dry. We'll tell you when it is.
The old frame comes out entirely, back to the rough opening. Sill and studs get inspected and replaced where they're gone, a sill pan goes in, the opening gets flashed and integrated with the water barrier, then the new unit is set.
More work and more money. It's also the only version where the failure that killed the last window gets corrected instead of covered.
If a company quotes a window without opening anything, they're quoting the window. Nobody can price what's behind the trim from the driveway.
How it goes
Every opening gets checked, not just the one that's obviously bad. A moisture meter and an awl tell us more than a visual. You get an assessment showing which openings need full-frame work and which don't.
Windows are made to your openings and take weeks to arrive. We measure, order, and only schedule the work once units are physically in hand — so your house never sits open waiting on a delivery.
Old unit out, opening exposed. This is where we find out what the wall has been doing. You get photographs of every opening before anything goes back — including the ones that turned out fine.
Rotted sill, studs or sheathing replaced. Sill pan installed with a back dam and sloped to drain, jambs and head flashed, everything lapped into the water barrier so water runs down and out rather than in.
Unit set plumb and square, shimmed at the load points, low-expansion foam at the perimeter. Interior casing and exterior trim to match what's there — or to correct it if what's there is what caused the problem.
Also doors
| Entry doors | Rot at the jamb bottoms and a threshold that's been shimmed rather than replaced is the usual condition. Sill pan under the new threshold, jambs flashed, and the framing behind checked before the unit goes in. |
|---|---|
| Patio & sliding | Wide openings with a long sill mean a lot of water crossing one line. These get pan flashing without exception, and the header above gets verified — sliders are frequently installed under headers sized for a window. |
| New openings | Cutting a new door or widening an existing one is framing work: temporary shoring, a properly sized header, king and jack studs, then the opening built and flashed from scratch. |
| Egress | Bedrooms and finished basements have minimum opening requirements for escape. If we're replacing windows in a finished basement or a converted attic, we check this — it's a common violation people inherit unknowingly. |
| Storm damage | Impact and blown-in units, usually urgent. We can secure an opening the same day and do the permanent repair once a unit arrives. |
Related