Window repair
Window Repair
Sash that will not stay up, windows painted shut, locks that no longer pull tight. One component failed. The window did not.
- Typical visit
- One to three hours
- Coverage
- Both peninsulas
- Estimate
- Free, fixed in writing
- We sell
- Repairs only
Start here
The five questions people call us with
Short answers first. The detail is further down if you want it, but most people only need what is in this grid.
Is my window finished?
Almost certainly not. A window is six systems and usually exactly one has failed. The frame is rarely the problem.
Why will the sash not stay up?
A cord has parted, or a balance has lost tension. Routine, and neither needs a new window.
Why is the room cold when the window is shut?
The lock is not pulling the sashes tight against the seal. Usually a keeper adjustment, not new hardware.
Should I just replace them for the heating?
Not first. Air sealing a sash costs a fraction and does most of the work in a Michigan winter.
When should I book it?
Thermal work before October. Screens and openable sash in spring. The calendar further down sets this out.
The detail
Six systems, one failure
A window is a frame fixed into the wall, one or more sashes carrying the glass, a glazing system holding that glass into the sash, a mechanism that lets the sash move and hold position, a lock, and a weatherseal. Any one can fail while the other five are perfectly sound.
Michigan housing makes the arithmetic especially lopsided. Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw and a hundred smaller towns are full of homes built between 1900 and 1950, almost all glazed with wood double-hung sash running on cords, weights and pulleys. Those windows were designed to be taken apart and serviced, and the parts that fail cost very little.
The later stock — post-war ranches and the suburban build-out around every Michigan city — runs balances instead. Different mechanism, same principle: a replaceable component inside a frame that is usually fine.
Two peninsulas
The same window, two different climates
Michigan spans roughly four hundred miles north to south, and a window in Marquette and a window in Monroe are not having remotely the same experience.
North & the snow belt
Marquette to Traverse City
- Snow load and drifting against sills for months
- Deep frost moving openings out of square
- Lake-effect snow driven horizontally into any gap
- Hardware that must work at genuinely low temperatures
- A short window for exterior work — roughly May to October
Southern Lower Peninsula
Detroit, Grand Rapids and south
- Longer heating season than most of the country, but milder
- Humid summers that swell sash shut
- Heavy road salt tracked into sills and tracks
- Older urban housing with original weight-and-pulley sash
- A longer working season, so planned work is easier to schedule
We work both, and we plan routes rather than treating distance as a surcharge. What changes between them is the parts we carry and the time of year we recommend booking.
The Michigan year
When to do what, and why then
Michigan gives you a short exterior season and a long heating one. Working with that calendar costs nothing and saves a great deal.
| When | What to do | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| March–April | Free the sash that are painted or swollen shut | Before you want the windows open, and while we are not yet into the summer rush. |
| April–May | Screens, before the bug season | Blackfly and mosquito season arrives quickly and is short. A torn screen gets noticed in week one. |
| May–August | Glazing, putty and any timber repair | Needs dry, warm weather to cure properly. This is the only reliable window for it in Michigan. |
| August–September | Weatherstrip, locks and keepers | The highest-return work on this page, and much easier to arrange before everybody else remembers winter exists. |
| September–October | Storm windows down and working | If they are jammed, now is when it matters. By November a seized storm is a cold room for five months. |
| November–March | Emergencies and interior work only | We still come out, but exterior glazing and timber work genuinely should not be done in a Michigan January. |
Seasonal properties
If you own a cottage or a seasonal place
Northern Michigan is full of properties that sit empty for half the year, and the window problems that come with that are specific.
What a closed winter does
An unheated building swings through enormous humidity changes. Sash swell, joints open, and anything already loose works looser. Most cottage window faults are discovered in May and were created in February.
Spring opening
Book it before you arrive rather than after. Painted-shut sash, seized storm windows and torn screens are all much easier to deal with on a planned visit than on the first warm weekend when you want the place usable.
Autumn closing
The cheapest hour you will ever spend on a seasonal property. Confirming every sash closes and locks, that the storms are down and that the drainage is clear stops most of what otherwise develops over the winter.
Access and scheduling
We work a long way north and we plan around it. Tell us when you are up, or arrange access, and we will fit the visit to the property rather than the other way round.
Michigan conditions
What Michigan does to a window
Lake-effect snow, deep frost, heavy salt and a great deal of pre-war housing.
Lake-effect snow, driven sideways
The west and north of the state sit in genuine snow belts, and lake-effect snow does not fall so much as arrive horizontally. It finds every gap a seal has stopped closing, and it packs into tracks and channels in a way ordinary snowfall does not.
Road salt, not sea salt
Michigan has no ocean coast, but it uses an enormous amount of road salt. It comes indoors on boots and settles into sills and tracks, where it corrodes hardware and holds moisture against metal. It is the main corrosion mechanism in this state.
Deep frost and the movement that follows
Michigan frost goes deep, lifting steps, porches and the openings above them. A window that has fitted for decades can bind on one side after a hard winter and partly recover by June.
A great deal of early-century housing
Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw and the smaller industrial towns are full of homes from the first half of the twentieth century. Weight-and-pulley sash, putty glazing and openings that have been settling for a hundred years.
Questions
Window repair questions
Do you sell replacement windows?
No, deliberately. It is the whole reason our recommendation about repairing yours carries weight. When replacement genuinely is right we say so and send you elsewhere.
My windows are original to a 1920s house. Worth keeping?
Usually, yes. The sash were built to be serviced, the timber is denser than modern stock, and the parts that fail — cords, keepers, weatherstrip — cost very little.
My windows are painted shut.
Very common in Michigan's older housing. Scoring the paint line carefully releases the sash without damaging the glazing or the trim.
Will you come up north?
Yes. We work both peninsulas and plan routes around distance rather than charging for it. Seasonal properties are a normal part of the week.
Is weatherstripping really worth doing?
In a Michigan winter it is the highest-return item we offer. A sash lock pulling tight against fresh stripping does more for a cold room than most things costing ten times as much.
Can you work in winter?
For emergencies and interior work, yes. Exterior glazing, putty and timber repair genuinely should wait for weather that lets them cure.
Coverage
Window repair across Michigan
A mobile service covering both peninsulas. Pick your town below, or call and we will come to you.
Window Repair Across Michigan
Related
Other repairs we handle
Windows and doors are the whole business, so whatever has failed, it is on this list.
Next step
Tell us what the window is doing
Free estimates across both peninsulas, with a fixed written price before anything is touched.