About Augusta Window Replacement
Chris Pinkham came to windows from finish carpentry, and we price no opening before he has measured it three ways and put an awl to its sill.
Chris lives in Sidney, a short drive up the Kennebec from our office on Western Avenue in Augusta. We replace windows and entry doors, and the patio door a job sometimes needs, in Augusta and 21 towns around it.
- Windows and entry doors, nothing else
- Free estimate requests
- 22 Kennebec Valley towns, Augusta to Wayne
What Did Finish Carpentry Teach Chris About Windows?
Finish carpentry taught Chris Pinkham that the opening decides how long a window lasts. On the Kennebec Valley crews he joined in 2002, his days went to casings, stair treads and window trim fitted to walls that were seldom plumb.
Casing is the trim that frames a window, and it gives away every fault in the opening behind it. A gap that widens from the top of the casing to the bottom means the frame is out of square, and covering that gap with caulk leaves the fault in the wall.
The older houses on those jobs added their own lessons: sash weights hanging in hollow pockets beside the frame, sills worn thin under coats of paint, and plaster that cracks when old trim is pried off in a hurry.
What Turned a Finish Carpenter Into a Window Installer?
Openings that kept failing behind good trim turned Chris from a finish carpenter into a window installer, and from 2016 he has worked on windows and entry doors only. That narrow trade is the reason this company replaces nothing else.
His rule became ours. An insert (a replacement unit fitted into the existing frame) goes only where that frame is still square and solid, and a soft or racked frame comes out for full-frame replacement, stripped back to the rough opening (the framing around the hole).
On a full-frame opening, the sill pan (a formed pan at the base of the opening that turns leaks back outside) goes in first, and flashing tape laps into the house wrap, every upper layer over the lower one. The Department of Energy's window replacement checklist asks for that same shingle-style lap and notes that many existing windows went in without pan flashing.
What Does Chris Check Before a Window Is Priced?
Before a window is priced, Chris measures its opening at the top, the middle and the bottom, runs a tape corner to corner both ways to check it for square, and pushes an awl into the sill (the bottom rail of the frame, the part rain and meltwater soak first). Soft wood under that awl means full-frame, whatever the glass looks like.
He also asks what you have noticed, because your words point at the cause. Fog trapped between the panes points to a failed seal in the insulated glass, a sash that won't stay up has a broken cord or balance, and ice forming on the inside of the glass in January is room moisture meeting a cold pane.
Lead paint comes up in any house built before 1978, since EPA's lead rule reaches every window replacement in those houses, however few windows are involved. Before anyone starts, ask the installer whether the firm holds EPA's certification, and ask for EPA's Renovate Right pamphlet as well.
What Holds True on Every Job We Take?
Windows and entry doors are all we replace: vinyl, fiberglass or wood-clad windows, set as an insert or full-frame, in the double-hung, casement, picture or egress style each room needs, plus the patio slider or French door a job calls for. Single-pane glass repair, storm windows on their own, roofs, siding, gutters, decks, kitchens, baths and additions all go to other trades.
Maine licenses plumbers and electricians but has no license for general contractors, which means a window installer here carries no state license number at all. Where a town requires a permit for window or door work, we ask its code office before any old window is pulled and file it, and approving it stays the town's decision.
Every price is written before work starts. Maine's 10 MRSA ยง1487 requires a contract in writing, signed by you and by us, whenever a home construction job runs past $3,000, and the down payment at signing can be one third of the price at most.
How Does a Job Run Once the First Window Comes Out?
Once the first window comes out, the job moves through the house opening by opening, and every new unit is set, sealed and trimmed before the next old one is touched. No room is ever left open to the cold, which counts for a lot in a Kennebec Valley November.
Only low-expansion window foam fills the gap around each new unit, since foam stops air and leaves the water to the pan and the tape. If rot shows at a sill or a header once the old window is out, work pauses while we show it to you and write the repair up as a change order, which Maine's Attorney General says both sides sign.
We haul the old units and the cut-off scraps away when we go. Then Chris walks the house with you and tries each new window and door with you beside him, and at a camp that closes for the winter he sets that walkthrough before you shut it up for the season.
When Can Chris Measure Your Openings?
Call us, or fill in an estimate request with your town and the windows or doors in question. Chris sets a time to measure each opening, and the price for every one comes to you in writing.