Window Repair Group was founded in 2016 with a specialty in repairing existing windows and doors.
Frequently this involves dis-assembling metal-clad solid wood doors, the type made by Anderson, Marvin or Pella, for example, to replace rotted mullions or stiles, or put in new thermal pane glass if it has been compromised.
"Our customers saved big money by repair, and not replacing," says Ruslan Tambiev, who owns the Des Plaines, Illinois-based business. "We thrive to renew a better look than the original."
As it happens, my home needed its doors repaired. The west wall of the building, just 15 years old, has a panel of French doors running across the full breadth of the building. The construction of the three-unit condominium had been hastily completed during the end of a building boom in 1999.
The builder had dropped in the doors and transom windows (probably made by Masonite) too quickly, with limestone caps and sills. It looked very elegant until a few years of weather showed the weak spots: water infiltrated the tops of the doors and ran inside all four units. The solid pine doors were very well manufactured, and sealed with aluminum on the outside, and weather stripping at the bottom and around the casement.
But there were two unfinished details in the building construction: the flashings above the door openings were two feet narrower than the window openings. And the limestone had been set at an inward cant that caused the water to flow into the building not away from it. Water flowed into the tops of the doors and frames and warped or rotted out some of the wood. After resetting the limestone and installing proper flashing, we decided to address repair of the doors.
After getting multiple bids - from replacement at $40,000 per opening to offsite restoration at $12,000, we received a quote from Ruslan's Windows Repair Group that was details and specific, itemizing individual door components that would require repair, and leaving the components that were still serviceable. Overall, the price was the best value.
It was also the most convenient approach. Window Repair Group brought its team onsite and worked in our garage, so the doors were out of service for less than a day in each of the five days of production. The Masonite doors are made of five components: two: two rails and two stiles bolted together, and a thermal glass pane. A stripping seal at the bottom and aluminum cladding were the finished elements.
Window Repair Group disassembled the doors, sliding off the aluminum and fabricating replacement parts as needed. Within five days the work was completed and okayed by the association.
www.windows-repair.com
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