Worcester Double Hung Windows

Double Hung Vinyl Windows

Most of what goes into the triple deckers around Vernon Hill is double hung vinyl windows, and there's a good reason for that. A fusion welded frame with chambered extrusions doesn't rot, never needs paint, and it takes January single digits and a July that sits in the nineties without complaint.

What I look at is the corners. All four welded, not screwed together with a gasket praying for the best. Block and tackle balances instead of spiral, so the sash still holds at half open in year six.

Where these go wrong is the install. A lazy measurement leaves a fat gap, somebody packs it with fiberglass batt, and you get a cold corner and condensation by Thanksgiving. Low expansion foam, properly shimmed, or don't bother.

One thing to know: vinyl is the color you pick. It isn't getting painted later.

Double Pane Glass Repair

That milky haze between the panes? No amount of Windex is touching it. The seal on the insulated unit has failed, the argon has wandered off, and the little desiccant beads inside the spacer have given up holding moisture. On a lot of double hung windows the fix is not a whole new window at all. We pull the sash, measure it to the sixteenth, and order a replacement glass unit built to match.

Double pane glass repair goes wrong when somebody guesses the glass thickness, puts the low-E coating on the wrong surface, or cracks the glazing bead prying it out in January cold.

Turnaround is usually a week or two for the glass to come in, then well under an hour per sash on install day. Size, tempering, and grids between the panes are what move the number.

Double French Doors Exterior

An exterior pair of French doors is really two doors arguing over one opening, and that argument gets settled at the threshold, not the glass. Water comes in under the sill. So every double french doors exterior unit we hang goes on a sill pan, gets back-caulked, and the threshold gets shimmed dead flat before a stick of trim goes on. Then I check the astragal reveal top to bottom. If that gap wanders even a little, the doors bind by March and you're shouldering them shut.

Out-swing takes a windy deck better than in-swing, which matters if your back slope catches everything blowing in off the hill.

Most swaps are a one day job. Widening a header to fit a six foot pair where a run of double hung windows used to sit adds a second day, plus the framing work.

French Double Door

A french double door is really two doors pretending to be one, and everything that goes wrong with them comes down to that seam. The active leaf swings, the passive one sits on flush bolts behind the astragal, and if the pair isn't shimmed dead plumb you get that uneven reveal at the top that drives you crazy every time you walk past it.

We set them on a proper sill pan, plumb both jambs before a single screw goes in the hinges, and check the swing with the multipoint lock thrown, not just latched.

A straight swap runs a day. Rot at the sill or a header that's sagged over the years, and it's two.

Done right, the doors close the same in a damp August as they do in a January cold snap. Done fast, they don't.

Double Hung Window Replacement

Double hung window replacement is really two jobs stacked on each other. First we get the old unit out without cracking your plaster, and in a Worcester triple decker that usually means opening a sash weight pocket packed with hundred year old rope, cast iron weights and the occasional mouse condo. We fill those cavities with insulation before anything new goes in. An insert that skips that step leaves a cold chase running straight up the wall, and you'll feel it in January.

Then comes the fit. Most double hung windows go in as pocket inserts, shimmed square, leveled on both jambs, and sealed with low expansion foam only. Overfoam a jamb and by August the sashes bind so hard you're lifting like you're clearing the boards at the Palladium.

Eight to ten openings is typically a single day, weather cooperating.

Double Front Doors With Glass

Double front doors with glass are really two doors pretending to be one, and the middle is where they go wrong. One leaf is active, the other sits still on flush bolts into the head and the threshold, and if the astragal isn't set dead true you'll feel February coming right through that seam. So we shim both leaves plumb, check the reveal top to bottom, and set the sill in a full bed of sealant before a single screw goes in.

The glass itself is insulated and tempered, and on a west-facing entry up on the hills I'll push you toward low-E so your hallway isn't a greenhouse by four o'clock.

Figure a day for the swap, two if the sill framing is soft from years of runoff. Unlike double hung windows, a door swings thousands of times a year, so cheap hardware tells on itself fast.

Pre Hung French Doors

Pre hung french doors show up as one piece: two doors already hanging in their jamb, hinges set, astragal on, brickmold attached. The fussy part happened on a flat bench in a shop instead of on your back deck in a March wind, which is exactly why I like them.

The catch is always the opening. Plenty of the triple deckers around Vernon Hill have rough openings that stopped being square around the time the streetcars quit, and a pre hung set only stays true if the sill sits dead level and the hinge jamb gets shimmed solid behind every hinge. Skip that and the doors quit meeting in the middle by August, when the humidity swells everything shut.

We pan the sill, shim, then foam with low expansion only. One day for a straight swap, two if the framing needs work.

Casement Double Window

Not every opening wants a double hung. A casement double window is two hinged sashes side by side, cranked open with a handle instead of lifted, and when you close it the sash pulls tight against the weatherstrip like a car door. That's why people put them over a kitchen sink they can't reach across, or in a bedroom that needs a bigger egress opening than a window double sash arrangement gives you.

What goes wrong is almost always hardware. Crank gears strip, hinge arms get gritty and bind, and a sash left open in a March gust off the hill can bend an arm in one shot. We grease the tracks and set the operators square so they don't fight you.

Size, egress requirements, and whether we mull the pair into one frame move the price most.

Pre Hung Exterior Door

A pre hung exterior door is the one job where the opening matters more than the door. That back door off your deck has been drinking snowmelt every March, and nine times out of ten when we pull the old unit the sill plate underneath is soft as a bread bowl. We cut that out and sister in new framing before anything else goes back.

Then a sill pan, shims behind every hinge, low expansion foam only, and casing last. Rush the shimming and the door sticks by August and swings open on its own by January.

Most single side entries take us four to six hours. What moves it is the slab, steel versus fiberglass versus wood, whether you want a sidelite, the jamb depth, and how much rot we find once the old frame is out.

Double Screen Doors

Screens get treated like an afterthought, and then it's the last week of June, the black flies are up off the pond, and the door won't latch.

A pair of screen doors is fussier than a single one. You've got two leaves meeting in the middle, so if the opening is out of square by even a quarter inch, one leaf drags and the astragal never closes clean. We check the jamb first, shim where it needs it, and hang on three hinges per leaf instead of two, because a screen door swinging in a gusty afternoon off Wachusett puts real load on the top hinge.

Mesh matters too. Standard fiberglass tears the first time a lab leans on it, so on double screen doors with dogs in the house we run pet-grade mesh and a heavier bottom rail.

Wood Double Front Doors

Wood is the material people fall in love with and then forget to feed.

A pair of mahogany or sapele slabs looks incredible on a Victorian off Salisbury Street, and it will keep looking that way as long as you keep a finish on it. Marine spar varnish on a west-facing entry with no overhang wants a maintenance coat roughly every two years here. Skip it, and the sun and the freeze-thaw lift the finish, water gets into the stile, and the door swells and drags by March.

We hang wood pairs on a solid astragal with a real adjustable threshold, and we set the hinge screws long into the framing so the passive leaf does not sag. Sun exposure, species, glass, and whether you want a factory-prefinished slab or site-finished are what change the job. Double front doors with glass need the stops bedded properly or the panel weeps.

What the job involves

Most of the double hung windows we pull out of Worcester triple deckers still have sash cords and cast iron weights sitting in the pockets, and those pockets are empty air behind your plaster. That's half the reason your radiator runs all February.

So a proper double hung window replacement starts with measuring the opening in three spots, top, middle and bottom, because a hundred year old frame is never square. We take the sash and stops out, stuff the weight pockets with insulation, set the new unit on shims, check it opens with one finger, then foam the gaps with low expansion foam. High expansion stuff bows the jambs and the sashes bind by July.

Figure 45 minutes to an hour a window once we're rolling. Skip the foam and the shim check and you've bought a drafty window that sticks.

What it costs

Straight answer, since that's what you came for.

Around here a standard double hung window cost lands between $600 and $1,050 installed for a vinyl unit in a normal opening. Step up to a better glass package, a triple lock, or a custom size and you're looking at $850 to $1,350. The labor slice alone runs $125 to $325 per window, more when the frame underneath has been drinking meltwater for a decade and needs rebuilding before anything new goes in.

What moves your double hung window replacement cost is size, glass, how many, and what we find when the old sash comes out. Second floor over a driveway with no room for staging bumps it too.

Call me at (508) 406-9528 and I'll measure and give you a real figure, not a guess.

Rotten sills are the surprise nobody budgets for. Better to know in October than in March.

Why choose us for this

You've got sashes that stick, a rope that snapped years ago, and a storm window you stopped opening in 2019. You want it handled once, by someone who leaves.

So here's what I won't do.

Quote low and true it up later: the number I give you for double hung window replacement is the number on the invoice unless you change the order.

Vanish mid job: my crew finishes your openings before starting anyone else's.

Push you to sign today: no expiring discount, no clipboard theater at the kitchen table.

Leave a mess: old sashes, wrappers and stray fasteners go out with us, and we run a magnet over the driveway.

I'm not the cheapest quote you'll get. Flashing, foaming and trimming each opening properly takes time some crews skip, and it's the difference between a window double checked and one that leaks by February.

The estimate is free, and there's no obligation to book.

Frequently asked questions