Awning Windows

People looking up awning windows Lehigh Valley are usually solving a small problem in a specific room: a bathroom that fogs, a basement that smells like a basement, or a kitchen window behind a faucet that no one can reach to lift. The awning hinges at the top and pushes out at the bottom, so the open sash becomes a little roof over the opening. You can leave it cracked through a summer thunderstorm rolling down off Blue Mountain and the rain runs off the glass instead of onto the sill. No other operating style does that.

Awnings are also the quiet workhorse of mid-century houses. The 1950s Cape Cods in Fullerton and the ranches along the Catasauqua and Northampton line often carry a row of short awning sashes under a big fixed pane, or a single awning high on a bedroom wall for privacy. Those originals were steel or aluminum with a stamped crank, and after seventy winters the hinge arms are frozen and the glass is single. A new unit in the same opening keeps the proportion the house was designed around while finally sealing it.

Because the sash closes by pressing against weatherstripping on all four sides, an awning seals nearly as tightly as a casement. That matters in a bathroom where humid air is trying to leave and cold air is trying to get in through the same twelve square feet. It matters more in a Poconos cottage that sits empty for weeks in February, where a small vent window that does not leak is the difference between a dry room and a frosted one. The sash is small, so the hardware carries the whole experience, and it is worth trying before you order.

Awning sashes are small, so the frame takes up a larger share of the opening than it would on a big window. Slim-profile frames in fiberglass or composite give back some of that glass. Two panes with a Low-E coating and a gas fill are standard; in a bathroom, ask about a laminated or tempered inner pane if the window sits near a tub, since some codes require safety glazing there. Obscure or patterned glass adds privacy without changing the operation.

The hardware is the whole experience. A folding crank handle tucks flat so it does not catch a curtain or a shoulder in a narrow bath, and a single-lever lock that engages multiple points along the sash pulls the whole perimeter tight in one motion. Hinge arms should be stainless or coated for a room that stays humid. Because the sash swings out, the screen mounts on the inside and clips or hinges away for cleaning.

Most awning replacements in the region are like-for-like swaps into mid-century openings, or a style change where an old fixed or sliding basement window has been letting water in. In a masonry basement wall the frame is set in a buck or directly to the block, and the sill detail is what keeps splash out; your matched installer will check how the old unit was flashed before recommending an insert or a full pull. Above grade, the same insert-versus-full-frame logic as any window applies, with full-frame favored whenever the old steel or aluminum frame has rusted or the wood behind it is soft.

The work goes quickly because the units are small, so a house full of awnings is often a single day. Each opening is cleared, the new frame is set plumb and square so the sash meets its stops evenly on all sides, then foamed and sealed. The crew will test the crank through its full travel and adjust the hinge arms so the sash closes with even pressure. Outside, trim is capped and the joint to siding or block sealed.