For Mount Sinai's postwar streets of ranches, splits and colonials, honest about when the comfort problem is really the attic.
Mount Sinai is largely postwar and later suburban building, whole streets of ranches, splits and colonials put up within a few years of each other. That means whole streets of original or first-generation replacement windows are failing at close to the same time, and it also means the draft or the hot upstairs room a homeowner blames on the windows is sometimes only partly a window problem.
When a neighborhood goes up in one push, the windows in it do too, and they wear out together. If a neighbor a few doors down just replaced their windows, or is fielding the same drafts and fogged glass you are, that is not a coincidence, it is the calendar catching up to a whole street at once. It is also a fair reason to get an honest look at your own windows now rather than waiting for the failure to get worse, since the signs, condensation trapped between the panes, a draft you can feel at the frame, a sash that will not stay up, tend to show up on schedule across a block like this.
Houses from this era commonly have soffit vents that were adequate when the house was built and have since been covered over, usually by blown-in insulation added later to help with heating costs. When the soffit intake is blocked, the attic cannot draw air properly, and that shows up as comfort problems inside the house that get blamed on the windows: an upstairs room that stays hot well into the evening in summer, or a chill near the ceiling in winter that feels like it is coming through the glass. Sometimes it is the windows. Often it is a mix of both, and an honest inspection tells you which. Our Mount Sinai service area page covers this ventilation issue in more depth, since it affects the roof as much as it does comfort at the window.
Saying that plainly, rather than selling a full house of windows to fix a problem partly caused by the attic, is the point. If new windows will genuinely fix what you are feeling, we will tell you that. If part of it is airflow, we will tell you that too.
On houses this age, the honest signs are usually one or more of: fog trapped between the panes, which means the seal on the glass unit has failed and cannot be cleaned out; a draft you can feel with a hand near a closed frame on a cold day; a sash that will not stay up without being propped; or, on the oldest original units, single-pane glass doing almost nothing to hold heat regardless of storm windows added later. Our window replacement page covers the full list and what full-frame versus insert replacement means for a house like this.
If the inspection finds blocked soffit intake behind the insulation, that is worth addressing at the same time as the windows rather than as a separate project later. It is a smaller job while other work is already underway, and it is the difference between windows that actually fix the comfort problem and windows that only fix half of it.
Full-frame or insert, correct shimming, flashing at the head and sill, and sealing built for wind-driven rain rather than straight-down rain. Our window replacement page walks through each of those in full, and our window replacement cost guide covers what typically drives the number for a house this size.
An inspection of both is the honest way to find out. Signs that point to the windows are drafts at the frame or fogged glass. Signs that point to the attic are a room that heats up regardless of the windows being open or closed, or soffit vents you can see are blocked from inside the attic. Often it is a mix, and we will tell you the actual split rather than defaulting to selling windows.
Not on its own. Ice dams are almost always a ventilation and insulation issue, warm attic air melting snow that refreezes at the cold eave, and windows do not change that. If ice dams are a recurring problem, that is an attic conversation, separate from whether your windows themselves need replacing.
Some do. Not every original window on a postwar street is failing at the same rate, and if yours are still sealing well and operating smoothly, we will tell you that instead of recommending a replacement you do not need yet.
These are the reviews our customers left on Google. There are nine of them, we publish all nine, and we do not post a star rating we cannot verify.
Frank was excellent to deal with. I am doing my roof, siding and windows. We went through all the materials being used in great detail. He provided samples so I can see, touch and feel them for myself. He was not pushy or aggressive to sell me this job.
They are courteous and professional and they get the job in the time they tell you that they are gonna get done. Overall, very satisfied with my window installation and porch renovation!
I would like to give a huge shout out to Coast 2 Coast Roofing & Exteriors! They did such an AMAZING job on our home. Please see our before and after pictures of our vinyl siding. They also did outdoor lighting and some home improvements. This company was reasonable, reliable, knowledgeable, efficient, clean and organized, and most of all great customer service! I highly recommend this company
Start with the free inspection. You will get photos of what we found and a written scope you can read line by line, whether or not you hire us.
