There's a casement in half the triple-deckers on Grafton Hill that hasn't opened since the Carter administration. You spin the crank, the crank spins back, and the sash just sits there like traffic at Kelley Square.
That's most of my week. We replace casement windows across Worcester and out through Shrewsbury, Auburn and Holden, and we're fussy about the parts nobody ever sees: cedar shims instead of whatever's in the truck, flashing lapped the right way, low-expansion foam so the frame doesn't bow and bind the crank two winters later.
Here's the promise. No nine o'clock appointment that shows up at three. No pressure, no talking down to you, no voicemail maze, and no old sash left leaning against your fence.
Below I walk through how the job actually runs, what changes the price on a window casement, the styles worth their own section, and the questions I get asked most. Read on, then call me at (508) 406-9528 and I'll come measure.
Kitchen Casement Window
Over the sink is the window you actually touch every day, and that's why a kitchen casement window earns its spot. You lean across eighteen inches of wet counter, give the crank two turns, and the whole sash swings out. Do that with a double hung and you're scaling the countertop like you're going over the Green Monster.
Two details decide whether you love it in five years. A folding handle that lays flat, so your blind still closes over it. And hinges sized to the sash, because a 34 inch wide unit on light hardware sags by the third winter and starts dragging on the frame.
Then there's grease. Kitchen air films the operator arm and it stiffens. We hang Andersen 400 Series casement windows and Marvin casement windows in these openings, and both want a wipe and a dab at the gear once a year.
French Casement
A French casement is two sashes hinged on opposite jambs that swing out and meet in the middle with no post between them. Open both and the whole hole is yours, glass to glass, which is why people put them where a view actually matters or where a bedroom needs egress width it can't get any other way.
The catch is that the opening has to be right. Two sashes have to land on each other within about an eighth of an inch, and if the jambs aren't plumb you'll feel January coming through the meeting stile by Thanksgiving. We shim, check, and check again before the hardware goes on.
Figure most of a day per opening. We hang french casement units from Marvin casement windows and other lines, and the hinges get sized for the sash weight, not guessed at.
Exterior Window Casement
The outside of a casement gets ignored until it leaks. That exterior window casement work is the brickmold, the drip cap, the sill nose and the seal where all of it meets your siding, and on a Worcester triple decker that joint has been taking wind driven rain off the west side for eighty years.
Here's what we do. Cut the old casing back, check the sheathing for soft spots, run flashing tape over the head, then set the drip cap so water sheds out instead of tracking behind the clapboard. Backer rod first, then sealant. Caulk alone is a band aid, and band aids fall off in February.
We cap in aluminum or run new PVC trim depending on your exterior. Figure an hour or two per opening for the outside once the casement windows are set and squared.
Single Casement
A single casement is one sash, one hinge side, one crank, and it's the workhorse of the whole category. Stair landings, pantries, the odd gap in a triple-decker on Vernon Hill where nothing else fits. The decision that matters is handing. Left or right hinge sounds trivial until the sash swings open over your back steps or smacks the grill every July. We stand in the room with you and figure out which way that window casement wants to go.
Bedrooms are the other catch. If the single casement is your egress, the clear opening has to hit 5.7 square feet, and a narrow unit with a fat frame won't get there no matter how nicely it cranks.
Install runs about an hour or two per opening. Andersen 400 Series casement windows, Marvin, Pella, all similar labor.
Energy Efficient Casement Windows
A casement seals tighter than any double hung, and the reason is simple: the sash cranks in and pulls against the frame the way a refrigerator door does. Nothing slides past anything. No gap, no whistle at two in the morning when the wind comes over Newton Hill.
That only holds if the frame goes in square. Shim it lazy and the compression seal never fully touches, and now you own energy efficient casement windows that leak like a screen door. We foam the perimeter with low expansion foam, because the high expansion cans will bow a jamb and bind the crank by January.
For our climate zone, you want a U-factor near 0.27 or lower, argon fill and a low-E coating. Andersen 400 Series casement windows and Marvin casement windows clear that easily, and Pella casement units do with the right glass package.
Bathroom Casement Window
A bathroom casement window earns its keep on a January morning, when the fan is losing and the mirror is fogged solid. Crank it two inches and the steam is gone in a minute.
A few things I insist on. Any glass within 60 inches of the tub floor gets tempered, no exceptions. Obscure glazing, satin etch or a rain pattern, so you get light without giving the neighbors a show. Stainless or coated hardware, because plain plated operators pit and seize in that damp air within a few seasons. And I set the crank where you can reach it without climbing over a full tub.
I'll steer you off a bare wood casement on a shower wall. Vinyl or clad frames shrug off the moisture. Swapping one small unit is usually a morning's work, trim and all.
Wood Casement
Wood still looks right inside a Worcester three decker, where the casings are chestnut and a vinyl frame sticks out like a Yankees cap at Polar Park. Most wood casement units we hang now are clad: pine or fir on the inside, extruded aluminum on the weather side. Marvin casement windows and the Andersen 400 series casement windows both work that way, and it is the honest answer to New England, because bare wood on the exterior wants a fresh coat every three to five years, sooner on a south wall that bakes all summer.
Where wood fails is the bottom of the sash. Water sits in that corner, the finish opens up, and by the third or fourth winter you have soft grain and a sash that will not seal.
Interior species and finish are yours to choose. We spray or leave primed.
Casement Window Crank Replacement
A crank that spins and spins without moving the sash isn't a broken window. It's a stripped operator gear, usually nylon teeth that gave up after a decade of you leaning on the handle to get the sash past a swollen frame. Casement window crank replacement is one of the few jobs where the fix is smaller than the symptom.
I pop the operator cover, slide the arm shoe out of its track, back out four screws, and set the new operator in with white lithium grease on the track. Twenty minutes a window, most days.
What moves the number is whether the hardware is still made. Pella casement and Andersen 400 Series casement windows parts are easy to source. Older Marvin casement windows and off brands sometimes need a universal operator, which means matching arm length exactly or the sash never seals.
Triple Casement Windows
Three sashes in one opening, usually a fixed picture unit in the middle with an operating sash on either side. That's the layout I put in most living rooms on the west side, where a triple-decker has one big front opening looking out at the street.
The part that matters is the mull. Factory-mulled triple casement windows come out of the plant joined and reinforced. Site-mulled units, stuck together on a sawhorse in the driveway, are the ones I get called back to when the center sags and the flankers stop latching a few winters later. Andersen 400 Series casement windows and Marvin casement windows both mull properly at the factory, and I spec it that way.
A unit that wide is a two-person lift, and the header above it has to actually be carrying the load, not just filling the gap.
Hinged Casement Window
Everything on this page hangs off one simple idea: a casement swings like a door instead of sliding like a guillotine. The sash is hinged on one side, the crank pushes it out, and when it closes the whole perimeter pulls tight against the weatherstrip. That is why a well hung window casement beats a double hung on a gusty night off Newton Hill.
The hinges do the heavy lifting, so they matter. A wide sash on undersized hardware starts to droop within a couple of winters, and then you get the tell: the corner scrapes, the lock lever fights you, and daylight shows along the top. We size the hinge track to the sash weight and check the reveal is even all the way around before we set the trim. Pella casement and Andersen 400 Series casement windows both come with hardware rated to the sash, and we keep it that way.
What the job involves
Measuring comes first, and on the old triple deckers around Grafton Hill and Burncoat that means measuring the opening in three places, because almost nothing built in the 1910s is still square. We pull the old sash and frame, check the sill for rot, and put down flashing before anything new goes in.
Then the setting. Shims until the frame is plumb within about an eighth of an inch, low expansion foam only, and the crank operated through its full swing before we trim anything.
Rush that part and the sash drags on the hinge by January, the latch misses, and you get a whistle every time the wind comes off the hill.
A single opening runs about two hours. A full house of casement windows, Andersen 400 Series or Marvin, is usually two days.
What it costs
Here's the part everybody scrolls straight to, so let's not be coy about it.
Installed, most casement windows in Worcester land somewhere between $600 and $1,050 apiece for a solid vinyl unit in an opening that's still square. Move up to clad wood, something like Marvin casement windows or Andersen 400 series casement windows, and $850 to $1,350 each is the honest neighborhood. Labor by itself runs $125 to $325 per window, and it climbs the second we pull trim off a triple decker and find a sill that's been drinking since the Blizzard of '78.
Size, glass package, hardware and how many we do in one visit move that number more than the brand badge does. A casement window crank replacement is a much smaller conversation.
Call me at (508) 406-9528 with your rough opening sizes and I'll give you a real range, not a guess off a photo.
Why choose us for this
You've got a casement that won't crank shut, or a room off the back of the house that turns arctic every January when the wind comes off Lake Quinsigamond. You don't want a hobby. You want to hire somebody once and stop thinking about it.
So here's what we won't do.
No growing number: what's written on the quote is what lands on the invoice, unless you change the order.
No disappearing crew: your casement windows get finished before we open a job on the next street.
No pressure to sign tonight: the quote doesn't expire at midnight like a bad infomercial.
No mess left behind: old sash, wrappers, sealant tubes and offcuts go out in our truck.
We're not the cheapest quote you'll get, on purpose. And the estimate costs nothing with no obligation to book.
Frequently asked questions
Is it worth replacing 20-year-old casement windows?
Usually, yes. Twenty Worcester winters is enough to blow the seal between the panes, and once that goes you get permanent fog no amount of Windex touches. Wood casement sashes soften at the bottom corners where meltwater sits. If the frame is still solid and only the hardware is tired, I'll say so.
Do I need a whole window, or just a casement window crank replacement?
Often just the crank. Operators and hinge arms give up somewhere around the 10 to 15 year mark, and if the sash still pulls tight to the weatherstrip we swap the parts in under an hour. Rot, fogged glass or a sash that won't square means replacement.
How do we get started?
Call me at (508) 406-9528 and we'll set a time to measure. Most houses take about 45 minutes to walk.