The kids are at the front door without a key again, and the window over the stairs hasn't opened since the last owner painted it. The 1960s were Plum's peak building years, and a lot of those houses still wear their early windows and doors. We replace them and seal each one for a hillside borough.
Plum Windows & Doors
Plum built more homes in the 1960s than in any decade since, and 62% were standing by 1980. Add hilly lots and plenty of families, and these are the requests that come in most.
Holiday Park's first houses were started in 1959, just ahead of the borough's busiest decade. Houses from those years may still carry first-round windows that rattle in the wind and sweat on cold mornings.
We take each opening back to sound framing, rebuild soft sills, and set the replacement plumb over a sloped pan. Foam seals the gap behind the trim, and aluminum capping outside ends the scraping and painting.
Replacement windowsLogans Ferry Heights began a century ago as roughly 200 houses for the mine's workers, which the company sold off after World War II. Decades of owners have left mixed windows, odd openings and doors that never quite fit.
Every opening is measured on its own, since none are likely to match. We square up the old framing where it has racked, order each unit to fit, and choose one style so the facade looks consistent again.
Replacement windowsAbout a fifth of Plum's homes date from 1990 through 2009. Their original windows are now old enough for fogged glass, failed balances and cracked vinyl corners, and owners wonder if it's all or nothing.
Check the window's label first: some makers still honor glass warranties. If the frame and sashes are solid, only the sealed glass gets replaced; if not, we swap the units and match them to the other windows.
What we findPlum's own plan blames its steep terrain for many drainage problems, and the July 2019 storms produced over 50 of them. Owners with a lower-level or garage-side door ask how to keep runoff from coming in under it.
A sill pan sloped outward, flashing tied into the wall above, and a threshold set high enough for the grade outside. We also check where the water flows downhill and say so if the real fix is in the yard.
Exterior doorsChildren live in about 30% of Plum's households, and keys go missing. Parents ask for a front door with a keypad deadbolt, so the house opens with a code after school and locks itself behind them.
We hang the new door with a reinforced strike plate and long screws into the framing, then bore and fit the keypad lock so it throws smoothly. Weatherstrip and a flashed sill come with it, so it seals as well as it locks.
Entry doorsSome 38% of Plum's owner households are headed by a person of retirement age, and on a sloping lot the ladder to the upstairs windows sits on uneven ground. Owners would rather keep both feet on the bedroom floor.
Double-hungs with tilt-in sashes fold inward so both sides of the glass can be washed from the room. We set the balances so each sash tilts and returns easily, and leave the screens where they can be reached.
Replacement windowsHomes and households: Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, Plum Borough. History: TribLive reporting. Storms: Plum, July 2019.
The rest of the job
How it runs, what it costs and who builds it are on our main windows & exterior doors page.
Windows in Plum
Three local rules come up on Plum window and door jobs: the borough's occupancy permit when a house changes hands, EPA's lead-paint requirements, and when the borough wants a building permit.
2 yrsAt most one occupancy permit per
Whenever new owners or tenants move into a Plum house, the borough inspects and issues a fresh occupancy permit, though never more than every second year. Sellers and landlords planning window work should finish it first. The Plum kitchen remodeling page explains the permit.
Plum's occupancy permit62%Plum homes built before 1980
Window replacement in a house from before 1978 is always covered by EPA's lead renovation rule. The firm doing it must be certified, the work area sealed and cleaned, and the agency's pamphlet handed over up to 60 days ahead. Most of Plum's houses qualify.
EPA lead renovation rule (opens in a new tab)BoroughPermits structural alterations
State rules treat a like-for-like window or door swap as non-structural. Cutting a fresh opening, or making one wider, is structural, and that work needs a building permit from the borough's Community Development staff. More on that office is on our Plum additions page.
Plum permitsWindow & Door Questions
These come up in Plum before we measure anything. Our service page for windows and doors walks through a whole install.
Ask a QuestionOn how many openings there are, the windows you choose and what the old frames are hiding. Glass-only repairs and inserts in sound frames are the light end; racked framing, new entry doors, keypad locks or a downhill door with flashing work add to it. We measure, then write it up.
Window price rangesNot for windows and doors. The county Health Department permits plumbing, which window work doesn't touch. Anything structural goes through the borough. If a project includes a bathroom or kitchen too, the county's plumbing permit covers that part.
Plum's two approvalsWeather swells wood doors, but a door or window that binds out of nowhere can also mean the house has moved. Most of Plum sits over mapped mine workings, so it's worth a look at the framing before we just plane the edge. We'll tell you what we see.
Mining under PlumA thin coating on the glass that reflects heat back toward its source: indoors in winter, outdoors in summer. Most good replacement windows include it. It also cuts the sun fading on floors and furniture in rooms that face south.
Glass optionsYes. Cutting a new opening is structural, so we draw a header for the load, get the borough's permit, and frame, flash and trim the window so it looks original. Inside, we patch the drywall and paint returns so the room looks finished.
New and enlarged openingsOther Services
Plum kitchens and bathrooms, attic bedrooms, finished basements and hillside additions are also part of our work. Pick one below.
Kitchen RemodelingNew layouts, new cabinets, new counters: framed, built, and installed by the same crew.View Service
Bathroom RemodelingFull gut renovations with proper waterproofing, new framing, and tile set by hand.View Service
Attic FinishingUnused attics framed into bedrooms and offices: subfloor, insulation, drywall, and a proper stair.View Service
Basement FinishingUnfinished basements turned into real rooms: framed, insulated, drywalled, and finished by our crew.View Service
Additions & ADUsAdditions and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), framed from the ground up and tied in clean.View Service
Exterior Restoration & Structural RepairsRotted trim and siding, sagging joists, failed sills: opened up and repaired to solid wood.View Service
Decks & Covered PatiosDecks, covered patios and three-season rooms, flashed to the house and built for Westmoreland winters.View ServiceVerified Google Reviews
5.0 out of 5 · 17 reviews
Written by the homeowners we've worked for across Westmoreland County. Every one verified on Google, every one pulled from the real feed.
Get in Touch
Tell us about the project in the form or give us a call. Either way, estimates are free and the number is the number — priced to the actual work, written down before anyone swings a hammer.
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hello@alltradeshq.com
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529 Forest Ave
Trafford, PA 15085
