A Guide to Popular Window Styles
When it comes to renovating your home with window replacement in mind, there are two main priorities. The first priority you’ll want to consider is the monetary factors. The second priority is the aesthetic.
For some people, those priorities may be switched. For others, working within a strict budget comes first. However, even the strictest budgets have plenty of room to work with aesthetics due to the vast amount of options we offer here at ClearMax®.
Your remodeling budget isn’t the only monetary factor involved in window replacement either. An important reason for window replacement is to increase the value of your home in anticipation of putting it out on the housing market. Replacing the windows in your home is one of the most important and useful ways to increase the market value of your home.
Whether you are replacing your windows for purely aesthetic reasons, financial reasons, or a combination of the two, the number of choices is vast. Therefore, we’ve put together this guide on window styles to help you out when it comes to making a decision on replacing the windows in your home.
Picture Windows (Fixed)
Fixed windows are windows that are designed to never open. These windows are at the top of the market when it comes to energy efficiency. Because these windows never open, they are completely sealed, which means that they have very strong and powerful insulative properties.
That means with these windows, your energy bill will be significantly reduced during the months that you’ve got the air conditioning or heater running, because all of that air that is at the optimal temperature won’t be able to go anywhere.
Fixed windows are also a great window for customizing the size and shape of your windows. Because they will never have to be opened, you can essentially make the size and shape of your windows whatever you want them to be.
This means that they have huge potential to create various aesthetic styles for your home both on the interior and the exterior. Along with their highly insulative properties, fixed windows have great potential to increase the market value of your home significantly.
Single and Double Hung Windows
When you hear about single hung vs. double hung in the context of windows, it can be confusing at first to know what people are talking about when you hear these terms. This confusion stems, in part, from the fact that despite the two names seemingly referencing a singular vs. a plural amount of windows, both styles involve two sets of window panes.
These two types of window styles are remarkably similar to one another. Both styles involve two sets of window panes that are on sashes that hang when open, and they open on a vertical, up-and-down axis.
The main difference is that with single hung windows, only one of the two window panes opens, with the other window pane being fixed in place. The fixed window is usually the top window, although this is not necessarily always the case. With double hung windows, the top and bottom windows open and close, which allows you to let hot air escape by opening the top window, or let cool air escape by opening only the bottom window.
Sliding Windows
Sliding windows that slide open and close on a horizontal axis come in a range of sizes and various styles come with various means of opening and closing the window. One of the most popular forms of sliding windows are doubled in terms of their functionality because they also serve as doors.
Sliding glass doors can come in a wide variety of styles involving anywhere from one to four separate window panes that can be customized in terms of which ones are fixed and which ones slide. Sliding glass doors are a wonderful option for any home because they increase the natural lighting of a room, and their floor-to-ceiling nature allows for breathtaking access to outdoor views.
Additionally, by nature of not opening and closing on a swinging hinge, they increase the amount of available space in a given room.
Sliding windows that don’t double as doors are great for rooms like the kitchen, typically right above the sink, or in the bathroom, but they also look great pretty much anywhere you place them. Sliding windows can be customized to open in a handful of various ways, from sliding on glider tracks or operating with a hand-crank system.
They can further be customized to come with various locking mechanisms, however when it comes to the customization of their shape, most sliding windows are typically limited to being a square or rectangle shape.
Conclusion
While there is still a huge variety of window styles that we offer here at ClearMax®, we thought we would provide you with a primer on the three most typical and popular styles that we work with. If you’re thinking about replacing any of your windows or doors in your home, please get in touch with us right away! We would be happy to provide an estimate of the cost of your project completely free of charge.
Also, remember when you get in touch with us to ask us about some of the other window styles that we offer that weren’t covered in this article! We look forward to doing business with you!
