Wichita Window Replacement: Windows, Patio Doors and Entry Doors
Expert residential and commercial window services. We quote from the age of the opening, not from a catalogue, and the estimate is free.
- Licensed building contractor through MABCD
- General liability and workers compensation on file
- Every opening dated and measured before it is quoted
- Repair priced beside replacement, in writing
Our Window Services in Wichita, KS
Energy-Efficient Glass and Low-E Coatings
Wichita sits in the ENERGY STAR North-Central zone, which asks a window for a U-factor of 0.25 or lower and a solar heat gain coefficient at or under 0.40. Almost nothing already hanging in this city's walls comes close to either number.
Vinyl Windows and Insert Frames
Vinyl is the right product for most of Wichita and the wrong product for a specific part of it, and we will tell you which side of that line your house is on before we quote anything. Getting that wrong is not a small aesthetic quibble.
Fiberglass Windows and Narrow Sightlines
Fiberglass earns its price in one situation that happens to be common in Wichita: an old masonry opening originally glazed in steel, which now needs a modern unit that does not announce itself as one. That is a narrow case, and it is worth paying for.
Clad-Wood and Divided-Lite Windows
Wood is what a good deal of pre-war Wichita actually had, and if your house still has a stained interior trim package that nobody has painted, it is usually the only material that keeps the room intact. Everything else in the room was built to match it.
Aluminum Windows and Mid-Century Sash
Aluminium is a material we install far more often on commercial openings than on residential ones in Wichita, and the reason is a number rather than a preference. The label on the unit usually settles the argument before we do.
Double-Hung Windows and Tilt Sash
Double-hung is the window most Wichita callers ask for by name, and in roughly half the houses we visit it is not what the opening in front of us was designed to hold. Wanting one and needing one are different things, and worth separating early.
Casement, Awning and Steel Sash Windows
This is the page that matters most in the older half of Wichita, because the steel casement is what people call about after two other companies have told them nothing can be done with it. There is almost always something that can be done.
Horizontal Sliding Windows
The horizontal slider is the correct answer for a large part of Wichita, and it is correct for a reason nobody mentions in an advertisement: it is the only common window shape that matches what the postwar builders framed. That match is not an accident and it is worth preserving.
Bay and Bow Window Conversions
A bay or bow in Wichita almost always begins as something else entirely: the flat picture window in the front wall of a ranch house, which is the single most converted opening in this city. It is also the one most likely to be quoted badly.
Picture and Architectural Glass
The fixed lite is the cheapest glass in any window and the most expensive mistake, because when a large one fails there is no sash to pull out and no hardware to blame it on. Everything about a large fixed lite has to be right the first time.
Basement Egress Windows and Wells
Egress is the one service on this site where the rules are not a matter of opinion, and where the local permit exemption that covers ordinary window swaps stops applying entirely. This is the page where we quote the code and mean it literally.
Laminated and Security Glass
Wichita is not a coastal market and we are not going to sell you hurricane windows. Laminated glass is still worth buying here, for reasons that have very little to do with what is printed on the brochure.
Patio Sliding Doors
Nearly every ranch house in Wichita has one, and it is always in the same place: a six-foot opening in the rear wall onto a concrete patio, filled with an aluminium slider from the 1960s or 1970s that nobody has ever touched. Fifty years is a long run for rollers.
French Doors and Swing Patio Units
People convert sliders to French doors in Wichita for the look of the thing, and the arithmetic of that swap is the part worth understanding before an order goes in. The look is a legitimate reason to buy, provided the numbers are on the table too.
Entry Doors and Sidelites
The front door is the opening where the two halves of Wichita differ most, and where an order placed off a standard size list goes wrong more often than anywhere else in the house. The size on the tape and the size in the catalogue rarely agree in this city.
Window Screens and Insect Frames
Screens are the smallest line on a window quote and the thing people ask about most, usually because the ones they already own do not match anything sold in a store. Custom fabrication is a routine job for us rather than a special order.
Glass Replacement and Insulated Units
Glass replacement in this city is decided by one measurement almost nobody takes: how deep the rebate is that the new glass has to sit inside. That measurement decides what is possible, and it decides it absolutely.
Commercial Storefront and Curtain Wall
Commercial glazing in Wichita runs from the brick warehouse blocks of Old Town to the metal buildings along the aviation corridor, and the two ends of that range need completely different work from completely different trades. A tenant fit-out and a warehouse elevation are not the same trade at all.
Wichita Window Replacement installs replacement windows, patio sliding doors, French doors and entry doors across Wichita and the towns around it, and repairs glass, insulated units, screens and hardware on the units already sitting in your walls. Vinyl, fiberglass, clad wood, thermally broken aluminium and steel-profile casements, specified, measured and priced one opening at a time rather than sold by the houseful.
The starting point on every job is what is being removed. A rolled steel casement bedded in putty behind a half-inch sightline needs a different frame, a different installation method and a different price from a 1958 aluminium slider sitting in a wide ranch opening. Both are common in this city, and they are not the same problem wearing different clothes.
So we date the opening before we name a product. That means measured openings and diagonals, NFRC numbers written on the estimate, glass packages matched to the ENERGY STAR North-Central criteria that apply in Kansas, and a clear note on every opening where repair beats replacement. Residential and commercial, from one fogged unit to a full building of storefront.
What Wichita Customers Say
Two other companies quoted the same vinyl insert for the whole house. These guys walked the outside first, told me the front four openings were original casements set in brick with nothing to fasten an insert to, and quoted those separately as full-frame. The back of the house got the cheap units and I am glad somebody explained the difference.
Our 1929 house had steel windows nobody would touch. They repaired six of them, replaced the three bedroom units with something that actually matched the sightline, and made interior screens for the whole lot. First summer in nine years we could open the windows without bugs coming in.
Called about a fogged picture window. He measured, said the sash and frame had twenty years left, and replaced only the glass unit for a fraction of what I had been quoted elsewhere. Came back a month later and did the patio door properly with a sill pan. Straight answers both times.
We were finishing a basement bedroom and had already framed it. They ran the egress numbers, showed us the window we picked would have failed on clear height, and redesigned the opening and the well before the drywall went up. Saved us tearing it back out after inspection.
Why Wichita Chooses Wichita Window Replacement
- ✓We identify the era of the existing frame before we name a product, because a steel casement and a postwar slider are not the same job
- ✓We tell you when the existing sash is worth keeping, and we price the repair so you can compare it honestly
- ✓We run the emergency escape arithmetic on every sleeping room rather than assuming the rough opening is sufficient
- ✓We put NFRC U-factor and solar heat gain numbers on the quote instead of describing glass as high performance
- ✓We decline jobs where a stock insert would ruin a masonry opening, and we say so on the first visit
- ✓We fabricate interior-mount screens for casement openings that no retail shelf carries
About Wichita Window Replacement in Wichita, KS
Wichita Window Replacement is a glazing and window contractor working Wichita, Sedgwick County and the towns around it. We install replacement windows, patio and French doors, entry doors and commercial storefront, and we repair glass, insulated units, hardware and screens on units that do not need replacing.
The way we quote comes from the way this city was built. Roughly a quarter of Wichita's housing units date to 1949 or earlier and the 1950s produced more units than any other decade, so most walls we open belong to one of two clearly different eras. Reading which one you have is the first thing we do, and it drives everything after.
We are not the right call for everyone. If you want the cheapest possible number on a whole house, or you want a company that will install a stock insert into a masonry casement opening and call it done, we will lose that bid and we would rather. We are also a poor fit if you want the work started this week, because we measure and order rather than fitting from stock.
How It Works
- 1
Date the opening before pricing it
We look at the frame material, the rebate depth, the sightline and how the unit is anchored to the wall. That tells us whether the house belongs to the pre-war masonry belt or the postwar tract belt, and the two get different products, different install methods and different numbers.
- 2
Measure net clear opening, not nominal size
Every sleeping room gets the emergency escape arithmetic run properly: net clear area, clear height, clear width and sill height above the floor. We measure diagonals on every opening as well, because a settled Wichita house is rarely square and a unit ordered off a nominal size arrives wrong.
- 3
Quote repair and replacement side by side
Where the existing sash is sound we price reglazing, sill repair, hardware and screens against a new unit, and we show both. On a good deal of pre-war stock the repair genuinely wins, and you should be able to see that before you commit to a whole-house number.
- 4
Install to the wall you actually have
Full-frame into masonry means a new sub-frame, backer rod and tooled sealant at the brick, and a head detail that sheds water. Pocket installs into sound wood jambs get the cavity foamed and the interior air-sealed. Patio doors get a sloped sill pan with turned-up ends, every time.
Commercial storefront, industrial steel sash and building glazing
Wichita's commercial glazing splits the same way its housing does. Downtown and Old Town are masonry buildings with punched openings and, in the older industrial blocks, original multi-light steel sash covering whole elevations. Retail frontage, office parks and the buildings along the aviation corridor are aluminium storefront and curtain wall. We work both, and we survey a building before quoting it so the elevations costing real money get phased first.
- ✓Aluminium storefront framing in 1-3/4 by 4-1/2 and 2 by 4-1/2 inch profiles, clear and dark bronze anodised
- ✓Thermally broken storefront sections with polyamide struts to stop winter condensation dripping inside entries
- ✓Industrial steel sash repair: rust treatment, section straightening, reglazing and stay replacement across tall elevations
- ✓Tempered and laminated safety glazing everywhere the code calls a hazard location, which on an entrance elevation is most of it
- ✓Insulated storefront glass with low-emissivity coatings for west and south tenant frontage
- ✓Accessible entrance doors, closers adjusted to required opening force, and panic hardware where the occupancy calls for it
- ✓Same-day board-up with permanent glass measured on the same visit
- ✓Whole-building surveys for property managers, itemised by elevation and phased to a budget
Service Areas
Wichita Window Replacement serves Wichita, KS and surrounding communities including:
Recent Projects Across south central Kansas
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a permit to replace windows in Wichita?
Under the Wichita and Sedgwick County unified building and trade code, replacing windows or doors with units the same size or smaller, where no structural member is removed, cut or altered, is exempt from permit. The moment you widen an opening, cut a foundation wall for an egress window, or change a header, that exemption ends and a permit is required. We pull it rather than hope.
My house has old steel casement windows. Can they be repaired?
Often yes. Sound sections can be stripped, treated for rust, primed and re-glazed, and friction stays and cam handles for common profiles are still made. What repair does not change is the thermal performance, because you keep a conducting frame and a single pane. We usually recommend repair on halls, landings and street elevations, and replacement on bedrooms.
Why can't you just put a double-pane unit in my steel casement?
The glazing rebate in a rolled steel section is roughly half an inch deep and was built for a single pane bedded in putty. A standard insulated unit is physically too thick to seat in it. The real options are a single laminated pane or a thin stepped-edge sealed unit made for shallow historic profiles, and we will tell you which the frame will take.
What efficiency rating should a window meet in Wichita?
Wichita sits inside the ENERGY STAR North-Central climate zone, where the current criteria call for a U-factor of 0.25 or lower and a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.40 or lower. Ask for the NFRC label rather than a marketing figure. A lot of what gets quoted in this market, particularly non-thermally-broken aluminium, does not reach it.
Is vinyl a bad choice for an older Wichita house?
Not bad, but frequently wrong. Vinyl needs bulk to stay stiff, so the frame and sash together take roughly three inches off each dimension. In a wide postwar ranch opening that is invisible. In a narrow pre-war masonry opening that once held a half-inch steel sightline, it removes a noticeable share of the daylight and changes how the house reads.
My basement bedroom window looks big enough. Does it meet code?
Size on the wall and net clear opening are different numbers. The requirement is 5.7 square feet net clear, 5.0 at grade level, with 24 inches minimum clear height, 20 inches minimum clear width and a sill no higher than 44 inches. Because a slider or double-hung only opens half its area, plenty of large-looking windows fail. We measure before you frame anything.