Window and glass help from Walkerville to Belle River

Several were towns before joining the city, and each kept its own kind of house. The City of Windsor page covers downtown and City permits.

Walkerville

Walkerville: wood sash, leaded glass and storms, and a proposed heritage district.

Olde Sandwich Towne

Olde Sandwich Towne: a heritage district in force and a City grant that names windows, doors and porches.

Riverside

Riverside: big picture windows and patio doors near the river.

Ford City

Ford City and East Windsor: worker houses and a grant for windows and doors you can see from the road.

Forest Glade

Forest Glade: suburb-era streets where blown seals, sliders and patio doors wear out.

South Windsor

South Windsor and Devonshire: a wide mix of streets and eras around St. Clair College's main campus.

The County is younger than the city.

LaSalle

LaSalle: mostly 1980s-to-2000s subdivisions by the river, with early thermal glass starting to fog.

Tecumseh and St. Clair Beach

Tecumseh and St. Clair Beach: subdivisions from the late 1980s on, where one house can have several blown seals at once.

Amherstburg

Amherstburg: an old core near Fort Malden with wood windows worth saving.

Belle River and Lakeshore

Belle River and Lakeshore: nearly all detached homes, many new, so screens, balances and rollers outnumber old sash.

Essex

Essex, the Town of Essex, Ontario, with Harrow and Colchester: more older houses, so storms and sash sit alongside sealed units.

The city's houses are among Ontario's oldest, and more of them need major repairs than County homes do: sticking wood sash, torn storms, old replacement windows gone cloudy.

The County's windows are younger, often 1980s and 90s sliders and casements whose seals are giving out. A blown seal, or failed thermal glass as it's often called here, means the sealed unit has lost its airtight edge; the glass unit can usually be replaced without touching the frame.

Summer is the common thread across Windsor-Essex, and it's hard on screens and patio doors everywhere.

Every Windsor neighbourhood goes through the City's Planning & Building Department, whose permit list covers porches, sunrooms, walkouts and any new or structural alteration to a window or door. Same-size replacement isn't named either way, so it usually needs none; check with the City to be sure.

Each County town issues its own permits, and we haven't confirmed every town's rules, so call your town hall before changing an opening.

In the city, check the municipal heritage register too. Most entries are downtown, in Walkerville and in Sandwich. If your address is on it, ask the City's heritage planners what applies before touching the front of the house.

A place gets a page when there's something specific to say about its houses or rules; the list isn't a fence. Send your town, postal code and a picture of the problem through the request form. We find an independent pro who works in your direction and keep the request from going quiet. If nobody covers your address, we'll say so.