Kelley Square got rebuilt and people still argue about it. Old single-pane windows are the same story around here: everybody has an opinion, nobody wants to deal with it until the first real February night rattles the sash.
That's most of what we do. We fit storm windows on triple-deckers, capes and Victorians all over Worcester, plus Auburn, Holden and Shrewsbury when the schedule allows. Exterior storm windows let you keep the original wood and lose the draft, which matters in a city full of houses older than the highway.
What we won't do to you: turn up late, talk down to you about u-values, push a product you didn't ask about, or leave your yard full of screws and old caulk.
Below you'll find how the work actually goes, what moves the price, doors and glass, and the questions people ask before booking. Read on, then call me at (508) 406-9528 and I'll come look.
Black Storm Door
Black is the finish everybody wants right now, and I get it. It looks sharp against white trim, gray clapboard, a red three decker, anything.
One thing to know before you order one. A black storm door facing north is a non issue. Point that same door south or west, into the afternoon sun off Pleasant Street, and the aluminum face can run past 150 degrees in July, with the air trapped between the storm and your entry door hotter still. That's what warps a dark fiberglass slab, and a lot of entry door warranties spell it out in the fine print. So we spec vented or self storing glass so the heat has somewhere to go, and you swap to screen by mid May.
Get a powder coated finish too. Scratched paint shows raw aluminum underneath, and there's no hiding it.
Exterior Storm Windows
Exterior storm windows are the right move when the original sash is worth keeping, and on a Worcester three-decker or anything up in the Crown Hill historic district, it usually is. We hang triple-track aluminum storm windows off the blind stop, seal the head and both jambs, and leave the bead at the sill open so water that gets behind the panel can drain back out. Skip that one step and you've built a nice little bathtub against your sill. Give it three winters and you're paying a carpenter, not me.
Low-e coated glass turns plain storms into energy efficient storm windows, and you notice it in January on whichever couch sits under the window.
Most houses take a day. Odd sizes and arched heads need custom panels, so figure a couple weeks from measure to install.
Storm Door Replacement
Most storm door replacement calls start the same way. The closer let go in a January gust off Salisbury Street, the door swung past ninety degrees, and now the top hinge rail is pulling out of the trim.
Here's how we do it. I measure the opening in three places, width and height, because the jambs on a Worcester triple decker are rarely square after a hundred winters. Then I check the sill and the brick mold for rot before anything gets screwed into it. Fastening a new door to soft wood is how you end up doing this again in two years.
We hang Andersen windows 3000 series storm door units and similar full frame models, set the expander tight to the sill, and fit two closers plus a wind chain. A locking storm door needs the strike shimmed properly or it will bind by August.
Most swaps take us two to three hours.
Storm Door Glass Replacement
Two things break storm door glass in this city. A March gust off the hill catches the door, whips it open, and drives it into the porch rail. Or a kid in the driveway finds out that a soccer ball does, in fact, go through.
Neither one means you need a new door. Storm door glass replacement is a sash job: we pop the panel, peel back the vinyl glazing bead, measure the daylight opening, and order tempered safety glass cut to fit. Panel size, clear versus low-e, and whether the corner keys or retainer strip snapped with the pane are what move the number.
Here's where corners get cut. Plain annealed glass is cheaper and sitting on the shelf, and it breaks into blades instead of pebbles.
On an Andersen windows 3000 series storm door, the frame usually outlives three panes.
Front Glass Storm Door
A full-view storm is the one people picture: a front glass storm door with glass top to bottom, a screen panel you swap in around Memorial Day, and daylight in a hallway that never had any. I like them on entries that face the street. I'm careful with them on entries that face south.
Here's why. Trapped heat between the storm glass and a dark fiberglass door can climb past 140 degrees on a July afternoon on Grafton Hill, and that's how finishes blister and door warranties quietly evaporate. So on a sunny exposure I'll spec a ventilating full-view or low-E glass, like the Andersen Windows 3000 Series storm door, and I'll set the closer and wind chain so an April gust off Newton Square doesn't fold it back on the siding.
Figure most of a morning, plus expander and drip cap fitted tight.
Provia Storm Doors
ProVia is the door I put on my own place, which is about the most honest endorsement I can give you. The frames are heavy gauge aluminum wrapped around a wood core, so they don't oil can and dent the way hollow rollformed doors do the first time a hockey bag clips them.
Every one is built to the opening we measure, which matters on a three decker off Vernon Hill where the jamb hasn't been square since Eisenhower. What moves the price is the line you pick, the glass, whether you want a retractable screen, and the color, since anything outside the standard powder coats is a custom run.
Install runs two to three hours. The step people skip is the wind chain, and without it one good March gust off 290 turns your closer into shrapnel and takes the top hinge with it.
Mobile Home Storm Doors
Mobile home doors don't play by the same rules as the rest of the house. A manufactured home opening is usually 32 by 76 or 34 by 76, often outswing, and the frame is thin aluminum wrapped over wood that's had thirty New England winters to soften up. That's why mobile home storm doors come in their own sizes, and why the fastening matters more than the door does. Screw a full-view unit into a hollow frame and the first real March gust will pull the top hinge clean out and leave the glass swinging like a saloon door.
So we check the jamb for rot first, add solid backing where there isn't any, then hang a locking storm door with a closer and a wind chain that stops it short. Two hours, give or take.
Aluminum Storm Windows
Walk any triple-decker street on Vernon Hill and the storm windows already hanging there are aluminum, because the stuff earned its keep. A mill finish or baked enamel frame won't swell in July, won't rot, and stays light enough that a triple track sash still slides after twenty winters of getting yanked open every April.
Here's the part that gets botched: the bottom rail. Those little slots in the sill expander are weep holes, and every so often somebody runs a fat bead of caulk right across them. Now the meltwater off a February thaw has nowhere to go, it sits on your wood sill, and two springs later you're calling a carpenter instead of me. We seal the jambs and the head and leave the weeps alone.
Measured right, a whole house of aluminum storm windows goes in inside a day.
Energy Efficient Storm Windows
Storm windows won't turn a 1910 triple decker into a passive house, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something. What they do is trap a pocket of still air in front of your old sash, and still air is a shockingly good insulator. Add a low-E coated pane and energy efficient storm windows will knock down the heat pouring out through single glazing on a January night, plus the draft that sneaks past a worn meeting rail.
The part crews skip: the weep holes at the sill. Caulk the top and both sides, never the bottom. Seal all four and you've built a little terrarium that rots the wood sill from the inside while you congratulate yourself on the drafts you fixed.
Fit matters more than the glass. Racked openings need scribing, not shims and hope.
Security Storm Doors
A security storm door isn't just a heavier version of the screen door your grandmother had on the porch. The real ones use a steel or reinforced aluminum frame, welded corners, a keyed deadbolt with a multi point strike, and hinges that can't be popped from the outside. Tempered or laminated glass, not the thin stuff.
Here's where a locking storm door usually goes wrong: the strike goes into soft casing instead of framing. Three inch screws into solid wood or it's decoration. On the older triple deckers around Main South, that casing is often punky behind the paint, so we cut it out and replace it before the door ever hangs.
Half a day per opening, usually less. What moves the price on security storm doors is frame gauge, glass type, and whether the opening is square to begin with.
Storm Room Door
The door into a back sunroom or an enclosed porch gets more abuse than your front one ever will. It's the door the dog hits, the door the kids leave swinging in a March gust, and it's usually hung in an opening a previous owner framed on a Saturday without a level. So we check the jamb for plumb and square first, shim it right, and set the sweep to the sill's pitch so meltwater runs out instead of pooling against the threshold.
Two things fail on porch doors. A closer with no wind chain, which is how a gust rips the top hinge clean out of soft pine, and a latch that isn't a real locking storm door when the porch is where the bikes live.
An Andersen windows 3000 series storm door on a clean opening runs two to three hours.
What the job involves
Here's what an install day actually looks like at your place.
First, measuring. I take the width and height at three points each and go with the smallest number, because almost nothing on a Worcester triple decker is square anymore. Then I check the blind stop and the sill slope, since that's what the frame has to sit against.
Fitting is screws into solid wood, not nails, then caulk up both sides and across the head. The bottom stays open. Seal the sill and you've built a little bathtub that rots the wood underneath in about three winters, and that's the mistake I fix most often on exterior storm windows somebody else hung.
Most homes run six to ten openings in a day. Aluminum storm windows go faster than a custom color order, which takes a few weeks to arrive.
What it costs
Straight answer: storms are the cheap seats. Around here, professional window installation runs $125 to $325 per window, and a full replacement unit averages closer to $477 once you count frame and glass, so exterior storm windows do a chunk of that work for a fraction of it.
What moves your number is size, count, and access. Standard aluminum storm windows on a first floor are quick. Custom sizes for those tall Victorian sashes on the West Side, or anything above a porch roof, take longer and cost more. Color other than white adds too. A storm door replacement sits higher than a window because of the closers, the sweep, and the locking hardware.
Most houses are a one day job. Call us at (508) 406-9528 with your opening sizes and we'll get you a real figure, not a guess.
Why choose us for this
You've got rattling sashes, a whistle at the meeting rail, and one job you'd like to hand off and never think about again. Not supervise. Hand off.
So here's what we won't do to you.
No sign-tonight discount: the number we give you Tuesday is the number Friday, and the one after that.
No half-finished house: once we start setting your exterior storm windows, we're on your place until the trim's caulked and the ladder's off your lawn.
No surprise on the invoice: if we find rot under the stop, you hear it that morning, not at the end.
We're not the cheapest quote in Worcester. We measure every opening individually because nothing on a 1910 three decker is square, and aluminum storm windows cut to a guess will bind by January.
The estimate costs nothing, and you're not obligated to book.
Frequently asked questions
Is it worth putting storm windows over 20-year-old sash?
Often, yes. If the frames are sound and you're just fighting drafts and rattle, exterior storm windows buy you a dead air space and cut the wind without touching the original wood. Rotten sills are a different conversation, and I'll tell you straight which one you have.
When is the cheapest time of year to do this work?
January through March. Nobody's calling in a Worcester deep freeze, so lead times shrink and scheduling is easy. What moves your number is size, glass package, custom color and whether we're building energy efficient storm windows to fit odd openings.
How do we get started?
Call me at (508) 406-9528. I measure every opening myself, usually 30 minutes for a whole house, and you'll have a written scope before anything gets ordered.