Three ways a window can open, and each decides how it seals, how it cleans, whether it passes Landmarks, and what it costs. Which one fits a New York building.
If the building is landmarked, you are getting a double-hung on the street side and this page is about the rear. If it is a rental or new construction and you want the best seal and the easiest cleaning, tilt-and-turn. If it is a house and you want a big clear opening with a modern look, casement. Everything below is the reasoning, and the exceptions.
| Feature | Casement | Double-Hung | Tilt-and-Turn |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it opens | Side-hinged, swings out; crank or push | Two sashes slide vertically | One sash tilts in at the top or swings fully in |
| Seal when closed | Compression on four sides — best | Weatherstrip, sliding contact — weakest | Compression on four sides — best |
| Ventilation | Full opening; catches side breeze | Top and bottom, half the opening at most | Tilt for secure trickle air; turn for full |
| Cleaning from inside | Only if it opens wide enough | Yes with tilt-in sashes | Yes — the sash swings into the room |
| Screens | Interior screen (opens out) | Exterior screen, standard | Exterior; needs a rebate or frame system |
| Air conditioner | No | Yes, sits in the lower sash | No (through-wall unit instead) |
| Landmarks (LPC) on a street facade | Where the original was casement | The usual approval | Rarely on the street; common at the rear |
| Hardware complexity / cost | Middle | Lowest | Highest |
| Typical materials here | Wood, clad, aluminum | Wood, clad, vinyl, aluminum | Aluminum, uPVC |
| Where we install it most | Houses, new builds, upper floors | Landmark districts, brownstones, co-ops | Rentals, new construction, European-style houses |
Double-hung. Two sashes in one frame, sliding vertically past each other on balances. It is the window of the New York rowhouse and the prewar apartment, which is why Landmarks expects it. The design has a structural weakness: the two sashes seal against each other at the meeting rail and against the jambs with sliding weatherstripping, and sliding seals wear. A good double-hung with tilt-in sashes cleans from inside; a cheap one loses its balance and will not stay open.
Casement. One sash hinged at the side, swinging outward on a crank or a push. When it locks, the sash is pulled tight against a gasket on all four sides — compression sealing, the same principle as a refrigerator door — which is why casements test tighter than double-hungs of the same quality. The opening is the whole frame, so ventilation is best of the three, and a casement angled into a breeze scoops it. The cost is that it opens outward: the screen is inside, an air conditioner cannot sit in it, and a large casement cannot be cleaned from inside.
Tilt-and-turn. One sash, hinged at both the side and the bottom, so a turn of the handle either tilts the top inward a few inches or swings the whole sash into the room. It is the European standard and it has the casement’s four-sided compression seal with none of the outward-opening problems: the sash cleans from inside, tilts for secure ventilation, and can carry key-locking handles and limiters for rentals. The costs are the hardware, which is the most complex of the three, and the screen, which has to sit outside in the frame rebate — see screens for tilt-and-turn windows.
On the same frame material and the same glass, casement and tilt-and-turn will outperform a double-hung on air leakage, because compression beats sliding. That gap is larger on cheap windows than on good ones — a well-made wood double-hung with new weatherstripping is a fine window — but it never disappears. The glass matters more than the operating type: a double-hung with the right Low-E coating and an argon-filled unit will beat a tilt-and-turn with clear glass. Choose the glass first and the operating type second.
In a historic district the Landmarks Preservation Commission wants the street facade to match what was there, and in most of New York that was a double-hung. Casements are approved where the building was built with them. Tilt-and-turn is rarely approved on a landmarked street facade because it did not exist when the buildings were built — but it is common at the rear and on terraces, which Landmarks generally does not regulate. That is how one townhouse ends up with Marvin double-hungs on the front and aluminum window walls at the back. Co-op boards often specify a type and a brand; the alteration agreement enforces it.
For a landlord the question is what tenants can break and what management can control. A double-hung has two sashes, two balances and weatherstripping that wears; a tilt-and-turn has one sash, no balances, and a handle that can be keyed so the sash tilts for air but does not swing without management’s key. That is why 1192 Gravesend Neck Road got Cortizo tilt-and-turns with key handles and limiters, with a horizontal bar on the front units so the street still reads them as double-hungs, and why The Elston in the Bronx got twenty-five units of Aluplast tilt-and-turn. On a rental the operating type is a maintenance decision.
Like for like, double-hung is the least expensive of the three, casement next, tilt-and-turn the most, because that is the order of hardware complexity. But the material moves the price more than the type: a uPVC tilt-and-turn is usually cheaper than a wood double-hung. We do not publish per-window prices because the same window costs different amounts in different buildings — access, opening condition, approvals — and we quote from a survey. What drives the cost lists the variables.
Casement Windows Double-Hung Windows Tilt-and-Turn Windows All Operable Types Window Replacement NYC Landmark Windows
About this page. Written by Alex GC Inc. d/b/a Alex Glass Construction and reviewed before publication by Aleksandr Chernovolenko, Managing Partner, with our design and estimating lead and a field foreman. Our foremen hold the NYC DOB Site Safety Training supervisor card and our crews the 40-hour worker card; we are certified to fabricate, install and service Alutech and Everest aluminum systems. Facts are drawn from our own projects, manufacturer test data and the applicable codes; where we are giving an opinion, we say so. Last reviewed September 2026. Credentials
Send a photo of the building and the opening. We will tell you which type the building allows, which we would choose, and why — before anything is quoted.
