Tarzana Windows & Doors, Older Houses
Fiberglass frames, low-e glass and restored wood sashes for older Tarzana houses, chosen to stand up to hard sun while keeping the original trim.
On an inland valley lot, a window on the sunniest wall takes hard sun, and fiberglass is the frame we suggest for it in Tarzana. The material expands at close to the rate of glass, so the seal around an insulated pane stays tight as the frame warms and cools, and its painted finish resists the chalking that sun brings to vinyl. Its profile can be slim enough to echo an old wood sash, and the casing stays as built.
Glass that handles glare
Low-e coatings cut the heat passing through a pane while letting daylight in, and the coating can be picked wall by wall: a lower solar gain figure where the sun hits hardest, a clearer one where the house sees little direct light. Argon fill between panes slows heat flow further. On a house whose original wood windows stay, interior storm panels with a low-e coating add much of the same benefit and leave the old glass, with its slight ripple, visible from the street. Those panels clip in from inside and come out for cleaning.
Paint, putty and wood that last
Strong sun is hard on exterior paint and glazing putty, so a restored wood sash gets its own finish schedule. Bare wood is primed with an oil-based primer, putty is left to skin before painting, and fresh paint overlaps the glass by a sliver, sealing the putty edge. Light colors absorb less heat than dark ones, which slows checking on sunny sills. Where a sill is replaced, we use a rot-resistant species and back-prime it before installation, so every face is sealed against moisture.
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Keep a wood window when its joints are tight and the rot is limited to the surface of the sill or bottom rail. That kind of damage can be cut out and filled with epoxy or a wood dutchman. Replace it when the frame has twisted, the sash has lost its glazing shoulders, or the sill has rotted below the paint.
We start from the originals: the height of each meeting rail, the slim width of the stiles and how deep the sash sits behind the casing. New fiberglass or clad units are ordered to those lines, with simulated divided lites where the old windows have them. The casing and sill nose stay in place when they are sound.
LADBS covers Tarzana, a City of Los Angeles community, so it issues the permit and sends the inspector. At final, that inspector reads the energy sticker on each new unit and checks that glass near a door or low to the floor is tempered, which is why the stickers stay on until the visit. We book that inspection and are there for it.
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Send the details and we will set up a walk-through and a written scope.