At the start of the summer of 2019, we were fortunate enough to begin work on the exteriors of the windows at Mount Pleasant Mansion in Fairmount Park. It is a beautiful Georgian style home that was built in 1761. At the time it was built it was one of the finest homes in the Philadelphia area. Over 250 years later, it is still quite an impressive home.

The original owner was a pirate; OK well technically he was a privateer, which is really just a government sanctioned pirate. It is a matter of perspective what you call him then I suppose. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

About 20 years after it’s construction, the notorious Benedict Arnold purchased the home. It seems he was quite busy turning coats at the time and never found the time or funds to actually move in. His plot was discovered not much more than a year after the purchase of this fine mansion.

Now on to the most important part of this home’s history. In 2019, the world renowned restoration company know as Iconic Windows was hired to restore and preserve the exteriors of the historic windows of the main building. The Philadelphia area was in a frenzy at the news of the Iconic crews’ arrival. Even security had to be brought in. Not surprisingly, the Iconic Windows crew deftly restored the windows back to their original splendor.

This was such a fun project and we were so grateful to be involved. The weather could not have been better for it. We even had a nice surprise high atop one of the Palladian windows. Looks like someone named James etched his name into one of the glass panes. What a fun find! Sorry James but we just blew up your spot.

Last fall we started working on a project at Haverford College.  They were planning on renovating and re-purposing their old Ryan Gymnasium.  We were hired to restore all of the existing original windows in the building as well as build a few custom windows to match the original windows exactly. It is now a year later and the project is complete.  We are so glad to have been a part of this project and are very proud of our contribution to the project.  Let’s take a quick look at what was done.

The building was originally built around 1900 as a gymnasium.  On the main floor was the basketball court and main gym floor.  A floor above wrapped around the perimeter of the building was a wood running track.  In the basement at one point, there was a swimming pool.  The pool was at some point filled in and the basement was mostly just locker rooms.  Up until the start of this project, surprisingly few changes were made to the gym.

With newer gym facilities elsewhere on campus, the old gym no longer served a purpose.  So the college decided to convert it to an arts building.  Many changes needed to be made in the process.  Fortunately, the folks at Haverford College understand the value of preservation and they were determined to preserve as much of the historic character of the building as possible.  One part of that was to restore the old windows in the building.  They wanted them to look just like they did when the building first opened.  And that we did!

We removed every window in the building and restored them back at our shop.  All paint and glazing was removed from the windows and all glass was saved and reused.  Most of the windows were large 18 over 18 double hung windows.  There also were some massive 38 over 24 double hung windows.  The upper sash alone was over 8 feet tall!  The windows were a lot of work but they certainly were worth it.  Check out the restored windows on our Portfolio Page

This project also required us to build 7 custom new wood windows to match the existing windows in all respects.  Since the project was a LEED certified project, we were required to use FSC certified lumber for the windows, which left us using poplar.  We built every part of the window sashes and window jambs and casings in our shop in Bryn Mawr.  The window sashes are exact matches of the originals with true through mortise and tenon joints and the exact same muntin profile.  They came out great.  Take a look at a couple photo galleries of the replicated wood windows on our Portfolio Page

This was a really fun project.  It is rare to work on a large construction project and have them value the work that we do as much as they did on this project.  So I would like to express my gratitude to the guys at Whiting-Turner that were managing this project and all of the smart people at Haverford College that had the foresight to know and trust that our services were worth it.  Thank you!

Many of us love the old wavy glass we find in our old windows.  However, we often have a hard time finding old glass to replace the broken panes in our windows.  Often this leads to an all too common act that most of us old house lovers and owners don’t like to admit we do:  dumpster diving.

The first few times you do it, you may have a rush of adrenaline and the thrill of it can be exciting.  Even your righteous self will gladly justify that you are sacrificing for the good of the planet, your home, neighborhood, [insert other token excuse here].  It will even leave you with a strange sense of accomplishment.  Embrace the thrill while it lasts; it is a sort of right of passage really.  There was really no avoiding it.  But one day the glow of adventure may wear off.  That day you may come to realize that you are just a guy in a dumpster.

This post is to remind people that there are often alternatives.  In this case, new glass made to look like the old glass can be purchased.  It is expensive for sure.  But it just may be worth it to not have to climb in a dirty dumpster ever again.

Aluminum and vinyl exterior “solutions” surfaced in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.  At the time, they seemed to be the perfect solution to the homeowner maintenance angst.  These products eliminated the regular maintenance requirement of wood exteriors; they didn’t rot and never needed to be painted.  Sounds glorious.  There is however a major trade-off that most have  (ironically) overlooked:  When they fail (as everything does eventually) and let in moisture there is often no way of knowing until it is too late.  Not only that, they will usually make the problem worse.

All of the “capping” scenarios at some point rely on caulk to keep moisture infiltration at bay.  If you have ever bought caulk, you have seen that they are all rated based on their lifespan (on average 30 years).  So at the end of its lifespan the seal and flexibility fail and water will likely begin to breach the system.  Now you have a worst case scenario on your hands.  It slowly lets water in but it also slowly releases it, if at all.  The moisture is now contained in a dark, windless location.  You now have damp wood with almost no chance of drying out and you would have no idea!  If you wanted to create an incubator for mold and rot, this is the system for you.

Now let’s look at the traditional wood system that your home was originally built with.  Many if not all of your exterior elements were made of wood.  The actual design and construction of this system has been tested and tweaked by skilled craftsman for centuries.  It is safe to say that glitches in the assembly were ironed out long ago.  The only drawback was that it required fairly regular maintenance (which was also factored into the design by the way).  Since wood rots and deteriorates when exposed to moisture and sunlight, your wood trim and siding were covered in paint to protect it.  Just like caulk, paint has a lifespan of its own, albeit shorter (around 10-15 years).  The advantage is that when it does fail you know it and you see it.  The paint flakes, chips and cracks. It is funny that the very thing that people are trying to eliminate could quite possibly be one of its best qualities.

I understand the aggravation of having to paint your home every 10-15 years.  But I suppose I view it as the evil I know.  I much prefer having a system that lets me know how and when it is failing than one that will hide the incidence and extent of its failure.  I can budget and project my maintenance obligations with a painted wood system.  Not to mention I also get to enjoy the superior aesthetic of it and the ability to change my color scheme with every paint job if I so desire.

Now, are you potentially opening a can of worms if you are considering removing an existing capped exterior?  Yes, you do not know what exactly is going on under there and the likelihood of there being problems is high.  However, if there really is a problem under there it certainly won’t fix itself.  Sticking your head in the sand isn’t really a solution. At least you can rest easy knowing that this will be the last time you will have to deal with this uncertainty regarding your exterior.

As I browsed through the comments, I was caught a bit off-guard.  The resounding response went something like this:  “Toss ‘em, no guilt.”  Most alluded to the superior energy efficiency of the replacement window, which is common knowledge of course.  Obviously I am aware that this view exists but for some reason I thought it was an ignorance that was slowly but steadily dying.  I figured many had noticed the variety of lawsuits over the years against window manufacturers over false information regarding energy efficiency.  Or perhaps they have heard commercials from large manufacturers trashing vinyl windows and not daring to touch old windows.  Even better, maybe they read the Consumer Reports article from August 2014, which started by saying “Forget what the ads say.  Saving money on your energy bill is not the reason to replace your windows.”  Clearly, the propaganda from the window manufacturers over the years has proven to be far more insidious and stubborn than I had originally thought.

A few days after reading that blog, I sat in on a historic windows seminar conducted by the folks at Traditional Building.  The two speakers were Robert Loversidge, an architect with extensive experience in historic preservation, and Chick McBrien, the Senior Architectural Project Manager at Marvin windows.  It was a generally decent presentation covering what to do with old windows in old buildings.  At the end I asked a question just to see what response I would get.  I asked, “In terms of energy efficiency, how does a restored and weatherstripped original wood window paired with a new wood or aluminum storm window compare to a replacement double-pane wood window?”  The response from Loversidge I will paraphrase but went something like this:  Obviously we have a wealth of data about new window energy specs but we have only in the past 5 years started to receive information regarding old windows.  But based on my experience and the data I have seen, the original window/storm combo if anything might be more efficient because it has a greater mass of air between the two glass panes than a replacement window.  Chick, the representative from the new window industry, who was surprisingly objective throughout the seminar did not argue and remained silent.

Why is the truth so much harder to spread?  There is a dearth of evidence out there refuting the energy efficiency myth but very little seems to be getting through.  I try my best to stay partial when discussing the replace/restore dilemma with people.  I generally feel that if it is their home then they should be able to do what they want with it.  But I will not stand by while people make decisions based on false or misleading information.