Home › Office News › Andersen 400 Series, black and white
Andersen 400 Series Double-Hung Windows — Black Outside, White Inside, and Packed Better Than Anything Else We Unbox
What This Page Is
An Office News note on a delivery that went out this week: another project supplied with Andersen 400 Series windows. We are writing it up for two reasons. The windows are good-looking, and the way they arrive is worth describing, because packaging is the part of a window order nobody thinks about until something turns up scratched.
The Windows
The 400 Series is Andersen’s long-running wood window: a wood frame and sash, protected on the outside by a vinyl cladding so the weather never reaches the timber. This order is the double-hung, one sash over one, in the combination customers ask us for more than any other at the moment: black outside, white inside.
From the street the black reads as a crisp, dark outline in the masonry. It sharpens old brick, it suits new construction, and it makes the glass look larger, because a dark frame recedes while a white one draws a border round the opening. Indoors the same window is white: clean against painted trim, bright in the room, and neutral enough for any wall color the owner chooses later. You get the modern exterior everyone wants without a dark frame taking light out of the interior.
The proportions help. A double-hung has a horizontal meeting rail across the middle and slim, even margins all round, so a pair set side by side, as in the photograph below, gives a balanced, traditional rhythm that looks right on a brick house. Both sashes move, and they tilt in so the outside of the glass can be cleaned from indoors.
How They Arrive
In our experience this is the best packaging of any window manufacturer we handle. It is worth listing what is in the box, because each item prevents a specific kind of damage.
- One carton per window. Every unit is packed individually in its own heavy cardboard carton, labeled with the product and marked for which way up it travels. Nothing rubs against the next window in the truck.
- Foam corners inside. The corners of a window are what gets hit when a carton is set down hard. Foam blocks hold the frame clear of the cardboard at each one.
- Protective film. The glass and finished surfaces carry the standard plastic protection, which stays on through installation and plastering and peels off at the end.
- Temporary sash locks. The sashes are held in place for shipping so they cannot slide up and down in transit or while the unit is being carried. They come off once the window is set.
The result on site is simple: cartons can be distributed to each opening, stacked safely, and opened only when the installer is ready. On a job with other trades working around the windows, that matters as much as the product.
The Trim Comes With It
The order includes the interior and exterior trim needed to finish the installation, so the installer is not left to source matching pieces:
- Black L-shaped trim for the perimeter. This closes the joint between the window frame and the masonry on the outside, in the same black as the window.
- A U-channel for the middle connector. Where two windows sit side by side, the channel covers the joint between them, so the pair reads as one unit from the street.
- White molding for the interior. Casing to finish the room side, matching the white interior of the sashes.
Having the trim arrive with the windows, in the factory colors, is what gives the finished opening its clean look: the black outside is one continuous black, and the white inside is one white.
Do They Tilt? A Question We Were Asked This Week
Yes. This is the Tilt-Wash double-hung, and both sashes tilt into the room so the outside of the glass can be cleaned from indoors. Unlock the window and raise the lower sash a few inches, release it from the side tracks using the wash assists in the jamb liners, and swing the top of the sash toward you; it pivots on pins at its bottom corners. Then lower the upper sash and tilt it in the same way. To close, return the upper sash first, then the lower, pressing each back into the tracks until it clicks, and lock the window.
A helpful video we found showing the tilt. It is not our video; watch it on YouTube. Andersen’s own instructions are here.
Who This Suits
Black-and-white double-hungs in this series suit brick row houses and semi-detached houses, renovations where the owner wants a traditional window with a current look, and new houses where the budget does not stretch to custom steel or aluminum. If you are comparing options, see our pages on double-hung windows and casement, double-hung and tilt-and-turn windows compared.
Related Pages
Andersen windows · Double-hung windows · Material supply · All Office News
Want the Same Windows?
Send us the opening sizes, or a photograph of the existing windows with rough dimensions, and tell us the colors you want inside and out. We will quote Andersen 400 Series, with the trim, supplied or supplied and installed.