One apartment or a whole building. Surveyed, supplied, installed and waterproofed by the same crew — in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.
Replacing windows in New York is not the job it is in the suburbs. The building is occupied, the openings are masonry and rarely square, the old frame may be part of the wall, the co-op board has a form, and if the block is landmarked the Commission has an opinion about what the street will see. Most of what goes wrong on a replacement goes wrong before the window arrives, in the measuring and the approvals. We have replaced windows in single apartments and in whole buildings across the five boroughs and Long Island, and the process is the same at both scales.
We supply the windows, install them with our own crews, and detail the perimeter — the flashing, sealant and insulation around the unit — as part of the job, not as an extra. A replacement window that leaks at the edge is not a window problem; it is a perimeter problem, and it is the part most replacement contractors leave to someone else. See how we install and how we waterproof.
There are two ways to replace a window in a masonry building, and the price difference between them is the first thing to understand.
Brick-to-brick (full-frame) removes the old window and its frame down to the masonry opening and sets a new complete frame, sealed to the wall. It restores the full glass area, lets us insulate and flash the opening properly, and is what the Landmarks Preservation Commission expects on a street facade. It costs more and takes longer per opening.
Pocket (insert) replacement leaves the old frame in the wall and fits a smaller new unit inside it. It is faster, cheaper, and less disruptive. It also shrinks the glass by two frame widths, leaves whatever air leaks the old frame had, and cannot fix a rotted or rusted frame. It is the right answer when the existing frame is sound and the budget or the building rules point that way; it is the wrong answer when the old frame is the reason the room is cold. We wrote about the four dimensions this decision turns on — masonry opening, rough opening, unit size and daylight opening — in a separate article.
Survey. We measure every opening at three points for width and height, check for square with diagonals, and note the sill, the lintel and the existing frame condition. On a whole building this is a day or two of work and it is the day that decides whether the job goes smoothly.
Approvals. Co-op or condo: the alteration agreement, the insurance certificate, the board’s window spec if one exists. Landmarked: the LPC application with profile drawings showing the new window against the old. DOB: only if an opening changes size. We prepare the packages; the timeline is the building’s.
Order. Units are ordered to the survey, not the drawing. Lead times run four to twelve weeks by system — European aluminum at the long end, stock-size uPVC at the short.
Install. One opening at a time: remove, prepare the opening, set and shim the unit plumb, foam and flash the perimeter, seal inside and out, trim. Weather-tight before the crew leaves the room. In an occupied building we work floor by floor on a schedule residents have seen in advance.
Close out. Operation checked on every unit, labels removed, warranty documents and NFRC ratings handed over, site cleaned. For Local Law 97 buildings, the unit performance data goes into the compliance file.
People ask for a price per window and the honest answer is that the same window costs very different amounts in different buildings. The variables, roughly in order of weight: brick-to-brick versus pocket; the system (uPVC, aluminum, wood); the size and shape of the opening (arched and oversized units cost more to make and to set); access (a walk-up with a ladder, an elevator building, or a facade that needs a scaffold, a lift or a rope crew); the number of openings (a building program prices per opening far below a single window); and the approvals, which cost time more than money. We wrote a separate piece on window replacement cost in NYC for the News section. For a number, we survey.
Fogged glass in a sound frame is a glass replacement. A drafty sash with a good frame is weatherstripping and a balance, or a sash replacement. A window that will not stay open is a balance. A leak at the sill is often sealant, not the window. We install replacement windows, so it would be convenient to sell them; it is better business to tell you which of these you have. When it is time to replace your windows lays out the tests.
Brownstone Brooklyn and its historic districts — Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene — are brick-to-brick, Landmarks-reviewed, wood or clad double-hung work: 343 Hoyt Street in the Carroll Gardens Historic District is the model. South Brooklyn is different: condo and rental buildings in Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend and Flatlands want aluminum or uPVC programs, like the Everest package at 2518 Ocean Avenue and the Alutech windows at 408 Lefferts Avenue and 461 East New York Avenue. Manhattan Beach houses get Pella, as at Coleridge Street. Also: Beverley Road, 228 13th Street.
Upper East Side townhouses and co-ops, where the street facade is landmarked and the rear is not, so one building gets two kinds of window: 165 East 64th Street and the Marvin Ultimate double-hungs on East 70th. Prewar co-ops with custom steel replacements, as at 205 East 69th Street. Uptown, the aluminum divided-lite facade at 99 Claremont Avenue in Morningside Heights and the Everest package at 2535 Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem. Upper West Side landmark windows covers the LPC process in detail.
Long Island City and Hunters Point new construction on European aluminum — The Anable and 5-13 47th Road, both Cortizo — and single-family work in the eastern neighborhoods, like the Jamaica Estates sunroom. Queens co-ops in Forest Hills, Rego Park and Jackson Heights follow the same alteration-agreement process as Manhattan.
Multifamily replacement programs are the Bronx work: The Elston at 990 Woodycrest Avenue, 25 units on Aluplast uPVC installed in two phases around occupancy. The same program fits Grand Concourse prewars and Riverdale co-ops.
Our home borough, where the shop is. Single-family and two-family houses from St. George to Tottenville, commercial fronts on Main Street in Tottenville (217 Main Street), and the fastest response in the city because the trucks start here. No scaffold logistics, no alternate-side parking; a Staten Island house is usually a one-day job per floor.
Oceanfront whole-building replacement at Surfview Towers in Long Beach; custom houses on the South Shore and in the Five Towns like Amherst Drive in Woodmere; European aluminum in New Jersey at Monmouth Beach and Lakewood.
Installation Waterproofing Double-Hung Windows Tilt-and-Turn Windows Casement Windows Landmark Window Replacement Energy Performance Storefront Repair
Tell us the building and how many openings. We will survey, tell you brick-to-brick or pocket, recommend the system, and quote from the measurements.
