Window Repair & Restoration in Indianapolis

Restore form and function by preserving your original windows.

Window Restoration

Instead of replacing your damaged windows, choose to restore them for a cost-effective and energy-efficient solution. Window restoration can save you up to 70% or more compared to replacing all the windows in your home while still providing the performance and beauty you desire. Contact Window Makeover today for a free evaluation and see how a window makeover is the smart choice for all your window needs. Our team of experienced professionals will inspect your windows and provide you with a detailed report on their condition and the best course of action for restoring them. We use only the highest quality materials and techniques to ensure that your restored windows are as good as new.

As a cost-effective and energy-efficient solution, you can choose to restore your beautiful windows and conserve what makes your home special. Call Window Makeover today for a free evaluation, and see firsthand how a window makeover is the smart choice for all your window needs.

Window repair across the Indianapolis metro

Restoration is shop work. Sashes come off the house, travel back to our shop on Hillsdale Court, get repaired on a bench, and go home again. That is why our radius is a real one rather than a marketing claim: most of what we take on sits within about forty-five minutes of the shop.

That radius covers the neighborhoods where window repair actually matters. Lockerbie Square, Herron-Morton Place, the Old Northside, Meridian-Kessler, Irvington and Broad Ripple all hold housing old enough that the original windows are better made than anything sold to replace them. Out in the suburbs, Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville, Noblesville and Westfield mix historic cores with subdivisions where twenty-year-old insulated glass is now failing. See the full list on our service areas page.

Repair or replace: how we decide

We would rather tell you the truth than sell you windows, so here is the rule we actually use.

If the frame and sash are structurally sound, repair almost always wins. Wood windows built before the war were made from old-growth timber that is denser and more rot-resistant than today’s lumber, and a sash that has lasted eighty years will last another eighty once its joints, glazing and hardware are put right.

If the glass has fogged but the frame is fine, the seal failed, not the window. We replace the insulated glass unit and leave the rest alone.

If rot has reached the sill or the lower rail but stops there, we cut it out and splice in new material. That is routine work.

Replacement is the right call in three situations: the frame has rotted through and lost its structure, the window was cheaply made to begin with and is not worth the labor, or you want something the original cannot give you — a different opening style, a larger unit, or a rating the old window will never meet.

Sash, sill and frame repair

The specific work behind a restoration usually includes some combination of the following.

• Sash repair. Loose joints re-glued and pinned, split rails and stiles repaired, broken muntins rebuilt.
• Sill and rail rot. Rotted sections cut out and replaced with matched material, then primed and sealed.
• Re-glazing. Old, cracked putty removed and the glass re-bedded so it stops leaking air and water.
• Balances and sash cords. Broken ropes, worn pulleys and failed spiral balances replaced so the window holds where you put it.
• Hardware. Locks, lifts, hinges and operators repaired or replaced, often with period-correct parts.
• Weatherstripping. Fitted properly, this closes the draft that usually prompts the call in the first place.

Not sure which of those your windows need? That is what the free evaluation is for. We will look at them, tell you what is wrong, and say plainly whether repair or replacement is the better spend.

Not sure which you need? See repair or replace your windows for how we make that call.