Windows in Buffalo take wind-driven snow and a cold that lasts for months. Sills rot where ice sat. Sashes that rattle let the furnace chase its tail. Condensation on the glass, or between panes, shows up when the indoor air is moist and the outdoor air is a wall of lake cold. Storm panels, original wood, and later replacement units often share the same house. Describe the worst opening, not a fantasy facade.
A draft is sometimes the sash, sometimes the weight pocket, sometimes the trim-to-siding joint where wind off the water pushes snow. Fogged glass can be a pane job. A soft frame is a tear-out. Insert work leaves the old frame. Full replacement shows whether the rough opening stayed dry. Basement windows are their own problem: they sit near grade, they disappear under snow, and they leak melt into the basement.
Say how many openings and which side of the house faces the weather. A bedroom that is cold no matter how hard the radiator or the register works is a clue. So is a sill you can poke with a fingernail. Painted-shut sashes and hardware that has seized in the cold are repair questions. A whole wall of failing frames is a replacement question. Do not skip the count.
Have the material and the symptom. Wood or a later unit. Sweating, rotting, leaking, or rattling. Say whether storms are still on the house. Ask how the sill sheds water and who patches interior trim. Odd sizes are common in older Buffalo houses, so do not assume a stock unit will fit the opening you have. One clear photo of the worst sill can follow the call.
These are not pulley windows in a mild harbor rain. They are openings on a lake wind, asked to survive ice. Windows in Buffalo start with the sash that failed. Call the number on this page.