Windows in Maine take salt and wind-driven rain on the coast and deep cold inland. Sills on midcoast and Downeast houses check and rot where fog keeps the paint film broken. Inland sash ices and strains the meeting rail in a long January. Storms that do not latch trap moisture against the wood in both places, for different reasons. Odd sizes in capes and farmhouses make a stock unit a bad guest. Say which wall faces the weather.
A soft sill, fallen putty, and a snapped cord are different repairs. Paint over rot lasts until the next onshore storm and then the stool swells inside. Look at the apron. Fog between panes is a dead seal. Sweat on a single pane may be a wood stove, a shower, and a house buttoned up against the cold, not a reason to replace every opening. Know which complaint you have before you call it the windows.
A key that sinks into the sill means the wood is gone. Weights and pockets are worth keeping if the wood is sound. A window that is a way out of a sleeping room has to open. Brick openings in the older towns are not stock sizes. Shutters screwed tight hide casing rot and seal nothing. Exposed ocean-side paint fails faster than the same sash one ridge inland. Say the exposure.
Exterior carpentry on the trim has a shorter season Downeast than it does in a mild imagination of the coast. You can still sort repair from replacement from indoors while the weather is bad. Say whether the water is entering now, during a blow, or only showing as rot you can poke. Bays and ell windows are the ones people forget, and they are often the worst.
List the openings and the rooms. Say repair or replacement, coast or interior. Mention storms. Have the town. Call the number on this page.