Window Replacement in St. Paul, MN
More than four in ten St. Paul homes were built before 1940, so original wood windows, lead-era paint and heritage districts shape how we work here.
Owner-run. The owner has personally installed more than 10,000 windows over 24 years in Minnesota. Licensed residential contractor, MN Lic. BC809328. EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm.
What St. Paul's housing stock means for your windows
St. Paul has the oldest housing of any city on this side of our service area. The median home here was built in 1952, and roughly 78 percent of the city's 133,000 housing units went up before 1980. The striking number is the pre-1940 share: 42 percent of St. Paul homes were standing before the Second World War. Add the 6 percent from the 1940s and the 11 percent from the 1950s and you have a city where most window jobs start with wood.
Those older windows share a pattern. Original wood double-hungs ride on weights and pulleys hidden in the jamb pockets, often with a wood or aluminum storm window screwed on outside. Decades of paint have sealed many of them shut. Sills and lower sash rails take the weather and rot first, especially on the west and south faces. The glass is single-pane, and the pockets that hold the weights are uninsulated voids in the wall.
The rest of the city tells a different story. Roughly 9 percent of homes date to the 1960s and another 9 percent to the 1970s, where you will find first-generation aluminum sliders and early wood casements, single-pane or early double-pane, and cold to sit next to in January. Newer construction is a small slice: about 8 percent from the 1980s and only 3 percent from the 1990s. Close to half of St. Paul's housing units are in buildings with two or more units, so duplex and small multi-unit owners face the same window questions as single-family owners, often on a bigger scale.
Lead-safe work is not optional in a pre-1978 St. Paul home
Any St. Paul home built before 1978 is presumed to have lead-based paint until tested, and in this city that describes most of the housing stock. Pulling an old wood window disturbs painted surfaces on the interior stops, the exterior brickmould and the sash itself. Federal rules require that this work follow EPA lead-safe practices: plastic containment inside and out, no open-flame or high-heat paint removal, HEPA vacuuming, and a cleaning verification at the end.
The Window Guys is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm and our installers are certified renovators. On a 1920s home in Payne-Phalen or a 1950s house in Highland Park, that means the room is sealed off, the old sashes and frames leave in sealed bags, and the sills and floor are wiped and vacuumed before we set the new unit. It adds time to the job. It also keeps lead dust away from kids, pets and anyone living in the home during the work.
Permits, egress and Heritage Preservation review
The City of St. Paul requires a building permit for the installation of new or replacement windows, storm windows included, and for exterior doors other than storm doors. Permits run through the Department of Safety and Inspections, which offers a Contractor Express permit path for licensed contractors. Our office pulls the permit and schedules the inspection; you do not have to visit City Hall.
One St. Paul rule matters a great deal for older bedrooms. If you are replacing a window and not altering the rough opening, the city does not require the new window to meet current egress size rules, as long as the replacement is the largest window that will fit within the existing frame or rough opening. That is why we measure to the opening, not to a stock size.
If your house sits in a Heritage Preservation District or is a designated site, window work also goes before the Heritage Preservation Commission. The Summit Avenue corridor is the best-known example: it runs through the Historic Hill and West Summit Avenue National Historic Districts and the Summit Hill and Ramsey Hill city districts, and most of its houses are large, distinctive homes built between 1890 and 1920. The commission's own guidelines say it is desirable to retain original windows and doors, but that they may need replacement for functional reasons. We help you document that need and choose a unit whose profile, divided-light pattern and finish fit what the guidelines ask for.
Full-frame or insert? In St. Paul it is usually full-frame
An insert replacement leaves your existing frame in the wall and sets a new window inside it. A full-frame replacement removes the frame down to the rough opening and starts fresh with new jamb, sill and exterior trim. In a 1990s house with sound frames, inserts often make sense. In St. Paul, with its share of 80- and 100-year-old wood frames, we lean toward full-frame more often than in any suburb we serve.
The reason is what we find under the paint. Weight pockets are empty cavities that leak air; a full-frame job lets us insulate them. Sills that look fine from the sidewalk are often soft at the ends. Frames that have been painted shut for decades are rarely square. Setting a new insert into a rotted or racked frame hides the problem for a few years and then it comes back. If your frames genuinely test sound, we will tell you and price the insert.
How we work across Ramsey County
The Window Guys is owner-run, and the owner has personally installed more than 10,000 windows over 24 years in Minnesota. ProVia is our main window line, with Andersen and Marvin also available. Our crews do the exterior aluminum wrapping and the interior wood trim, jamb, casing and stops, which on an older St. Paul home is a big part of the finished look.
The easiest way to start is our online pricing tool, Quick Price, at build.windowguysmn.com. Enter your windows, get a real number, and then book an in-home visit if it fits. We are based in East Bethel, about 50 minutes north without traffic by way of I-35E, and we work throughout Ramsey County as one of the nine counties we serve, from Frogtown and the North End to Macalester-Groveland and the West Side. Licensed Minnesota residential contractor, BC809328.
St. Paul window questions we hear most
Do I need a permit to replace windows in St. Paul?
Yes. St. Paul requires a building permit for new or replacement windows, including storm windows, and for exterior doors other than storm doors. The permit goes through the city's Department of Safety and Inspections. Our office handles the application and the inspection scheduling. If your home is in a Heritage Preservation District, the Heritage Preservation Commission reviews the window work as well, and we help you prepare for that review.
My house is in a St. Paul heritage district. Can I still replace the windows?
Usually, yes. The Heritage Preservation Commission's guidelines say it is desirable to retain original windows, but they may need replacement for functional reasons such as rot, failed frames or sashes that no longer operate. The commission looks closely at the profile, the divided-light pattern and the finish of the replacement. We document the condition of the existing windows and select a unit that fits the guidelines before anything is submitted.
What about lead paint in my 1920s St. Paul home?
Assume it is there. Any home built before 1978 is presumed to have lead-based paint, and 42 percent of St. Paul homes predate 1940. The Window Guys is an EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm with certified renovators. We contain the work area inside and out, avoid heat or dry sanding on old paint, bag the old sashes and frames, and HEPA-clean before the new window goes in. It is standard on every pre-1978 job we do.
How long does a typical St. Paul window job take?
Most homes take one to two days. St. Paul jobs run toward the longer end because so many are full-frame replacements with new interior trim and lead-safe containment, which add setup and cleanup time. A small house with a handful of insert windows can be done in a day. A full-frame job on a two-story home with new jamb and casing throughout is usually two days, sometimes three.
Ready to price your St. Paul windows?
Get a real number online first, then book an in-home visit when you are ready. No pressure and no sales games.
Also serving nearby: Roseville, Minneapolis, Woodbury, Eagan.