Windows in Memphis fog, swell, and leak in a humidity that does not take a season off. Cooling runs so long that failed seals show up in Cooper-Young wood units and in East Memphis vinyl alike. Storms drive rain at the flange. Hail breaks a pane. A freeze that racks a loose sash is the exception, and it is worth naming when it happens, because most failures here are moisture and age. Salt is not the air. River humidity is. Older Midtown wood sticks, rots at the sill, and drafts only when that rare cold night arrives to prove the gaps.
Ask whether the frame stays in the wall. Inserts are reasonable on solid sills and a way to keep rot if the sill is soft. Full-frame work should say how water leaves the opening and who puts casing and exterior trim back. A bungalow bay and a ranch picture window are not the same opening. Ask who stands behind a leak at the joint rather than through the glass. Wind off a thunder line will find a careless flange on a low ranch as surely as on a taller old house.
Count before the job inflates. One rotten bath window is small. A front wall of original sashes under oaks is not. Flaking paint gets mentioned before sanding. A cracked lite in a true frame can stay glass. A frame racked by a limb cannot. Efficiency figures on the whole unit are a lab note. They will not outvote an attic that has been hot since May. Hardware seized by humidity is a repair. Say repair if that is the truth.
Midtown shade and an East Memphis west wall punish glass differently. One cooks, one stays wetter. Say which exposure leaks. This is not a hill house with a downhill weather wall and an uphill quiet wall. It is a flatter lot with a storm side. Basement windows are rare enough that if you have one, say so, because the person listening may assume you do not. Most of the leaks are on the living floor.
Bring the count and say fog, soft sill, or storm damage. Windows in Memphis are a long-humidity problem with hail as the sudden part. Call the number on this page.