It has become common practice to opt for replacing original wood windows with modern solutions such as vinyl or aluminum with ‘thermal pane’ glass on the grounds that they are ‘greener’ or more ‘energy efficient’. Unfortunately, these claims are often made by window manufacturers in comparison to historic wood windows that have not been restored or maintained, which are undoubtedly drafty and inefficient. Modern windows are often boasted to be ‘maintenance free’, but what that means is they cannot be maintained, making them destined for the landfill within 25 years. What many home owners do not realize is that their beautiful historic wood windows can function just as efficiently (and in some cases better) than modern replacement windows when they are properly restored and maintained. Additionally, choosing to maintain wood windows adds value and significance to the historic home. Here is a short list of reasons to keep your historic wood windows:

Many replacement units are manufactured with such materials as vinyl and PVC, whose production is known to produce toxic by-products. Perhaps more importantly, reusing historic windows reduces environmental costs by eliminating the need for removal and disposal of existing units, as well as manufacture and transportation of new units. This is conservation of embodied energy. Embodied energy is the sum total of the energy required to extract raw materials, manufacture, transport, and install building products. Preserving historic windows not only conserves their embodied energy, it also eliminates the need to spend energy on replacement windows. Aluminum and vinyl, and even new glass itself, are among the highest in embodied energy of most building materials.

Most of the cost of a restoration project is in the labour rather than new materials, meaning more dollars spent go to people, rather than the harvesting and processing of new raw material that would be required to make new windows. This type of spending, in turn, has the beneficial effect of producing stronger, more dynamic local economies.

“Maintenance free” is a convenient marketing slogan; many replacement windows, in reality, cannot be maintained well or conserved. Vinyl, fiberglass, sealants, and coating systems all degrade, and they are materials that remain difficult or impossible to recycle or conserve. Whereas traditional wood windows were designed with maintenance and repairability in mind, requiring simpler and les expensive interventions.

Modern manufacturers’ warranties pale in comparison to the actual performance life exhibited in historic windows, which can reach 100 – 200 years, often with just minimal maintenance. This is because they are made with both superior craftsmanship and materials. Historic windows were made from old growth timber which has far greater stability and rot resistance compared with trees harvested today.   

Many studies on historic windows show that with a storm window and well fitted weather stripping, traditional wood windows perform equally or better than their replacment window counter-parts. This may seem surprising, but when you think about it, an insulated glass unit is simply two layers of glass with an air pocket in between, which is what a traditional window already has when a storm sash is installed.

Flaking and peeling paint is a modern problem. Petrochemical paints (acrylic and latex) are reliant on adhesion to the surface of a substrate, like a thin skin of plastic, that doesn’t allow wood to breath (promoting rot), and must be eventually removed by scraping and sanding. Whereas traditional linseed oil paint penetrates deep into the wood pores, nourishing the wood from the inside, enhancing the wood’s rot resistance and eliminating the problem of peeling paint making maintenance far easier and cheaper in the long run. Rather than repainting, linseed oil paint typically only requires a maintenance coat of boiled linseed oil on average every 9 years (this schedule can vary depending on different factors such as exposure). Linseed oil paint is a natural product that does not contain solvents, so it is safe for the user and safe for the environment. This remains one of my top recommendations to homeowners toward making their wood windows more user friendly and less costly over time.

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