Storm Window Repair
The window in front of the window: aluminum triple-tracks that stopped sliding, wood storms that historic houses were built to wear, and screens with more holes than mesh. All of it is serviceable — and servicing it is what keeps your original windows alive.
replacement
Before
AfterNobody advertises storm window repair.
So homeowners assume it doesn't exist.
Here's a quiet fact about New Jersey's housing stock: tens of thousands of perfectly good original windows have survived a century of winters for one reason — a storm window stood in front of them. And here's the market failure: when that storm window sticks, cracks, or loses a part, almost nobody offers to fix it. Window companies see a storm problem as a doorway to a replacement conversation; handymen see unfamiliar hardware. So the storms come down, the originals start weathering unprotected, and five years later the same company returns to quote the "failing" windows. We interrupt that cycle at step one: we repair storm windows — aluminum and wood, panels and screens, hardware and glass.
What's actually wrong with your storms
- Panels won't slide — dirty, oxidized tracks and dead latch pins; freed, dressed, and re-pinned
- Cracked or missing panes — glass cut and re-splined (aluminum) or re-puttied (wood) in the shop
- Torn screens — re-screened with new mesh and spline, usually the cheapest line on the scope
- Water pooling behind the storm — weep holes blocked by paint; cleared so the sill dries again
- Wood storms sagging or open-jointed — re-glued, spliced, re-glazed, and rehung on sound hardware
- Storms missing entirely — replicated to match the survivors and the openings, especially on historic facades
Every line on that list costs a small fraction of one replacement window — and the whole list together protects windows that would cost a fortune to replace in kind. That's the storm window bargain, and it's been the best deal on the house for a hundred years.
The historic-house angle
If you own a pre-war house, your storms aren't an accessory — they're half of the window system the house was engineered with. Original single-glazed sashes were always meant to work in tandem with a seasonal second layer. That's why our storm work so often travels with restoration of the primary sashes behind them: probe both while the ladder is up, service both in one project, and the assembly performs the way it did when it was new. For district-regulated homes we keep the visible details period-correct, which matters to review boards and to the streetscape alike.
Storm window repair across Montclair, Glen Ridge, Morristown, Maplewood, Westfield & northern NJ · West Caldwell, NJ · Mon–Fri 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM · (973) 564-0958
Serviced before the weather
that named them arrives.
Count and photograph
Snap the problem storms — stuck panels, cracked panes, torn screens, empty hangers where wood storms once hung. Whole-house counts welcome.
Answer same dayOnsite survey
We test every track and panel, measure for glass and screens, and check what the primary windows behind the storms need while we're there.
Within 1–2 daysShop work, then rehang
Panels re-glazed and screens re-spun in the shop, tracks dressed, hardware replaced, wood storms repaired or built to match — then everything goes back up.
1–2 weeksPrefer to talk first? Call (973) 564-0958 — Mon–Fri, 8 AM–6 PM.
Aluminum tracks and wood storms —
same purpose, different craft.
Storm windows come in two families, and we service both on their own terms.
The triple-track era. From mid-century on, aluminum triple-tracks went up on houses across New Jersey — self-storing units where two glass panels and a screen shuffle positions with the seasons. They're honest hardware, and their failures are honest too: corroded tracks, dead latch pins, cracked panes, torn mesh, drain holes painted shut so water pools on the sill under them. Every one of those has a stock repair. We keep these units working because behind most of them sits an original wood window that the storm has been quietly protecting for decades — a partnership worth maintaining.
The wood storm tradition. Before aluminum, houses wore fitted wood storm sashes each winter — glazed panels hung on clips or hangers at the casing, swapped for screens in summer. Historic homes in Montclair, Glen Ridge, and Morristown were designed around exactly this look, and district guidelines often favor it. We restore surviving wood storms (re-glued joints, spliced rails, fresh putty and paint), replicate missing ones from the survivors, and set up sensible seasonal hardware so the swap doesn't require a contractor every October. When a storm pane needs glass alone, that's a same-week shop job — the wider glass trade lives on our window glass replacement page.
Keeping the second line of defense strong — so the first line never needs replacing.
Old storms, straight answers,
no upsell.
The panels in my triple-track storm windows are stuck. Can they be freed without bending everything?
Yes — stuck panels are the most common triple-track complaint and among the quickest fixes. Those aluminum storms hold two glass panels and a screen in three parallel tracks, each panel riding on small spring-loaded latch pins. Fifty years of oxidized aluminum, dirt packed into the tracks, and pins that have lost their spring will freeze the whole sandwich in place — and prying with a screwdriver is how tracks get bent and panels get cracked. We free the panels properly: clean and dress the tracks, replace dead latch pins and clips (they're standard parts, still made), straighten minor track damage, and lubricate so the panels glide season to season. Most homeowners are surprised the parts still exist. They do — and so does the whole repair trade around these windows.
A pane in my storm window broke. Who replaces glass in a storm panel?
We do, and it's a workshop job rather than a window job. An aluminum storm panel is a slim frame holding its glass in a rubber gasket spline; a wood storm holds its glass in glazing putty like a traditional sash. Either way the panel comes off the house, the broken glass comes out, new glass gets cut to size, and the panel is re-assembled — new spline or fresh putty — and rehung. Screens work the same way: torn mesh is re-spun into the frame with new spline in minutes. None of this requires replacing the storm unit, let alone touching the primary window behind it. If you've been told a broken storm pane means a whole new storm window, you've been quoted a product when you needed a repair.
Do wood storm windows still make sense for a historic house, or should I switch to aluminum?
If your house is pre-war — and especially if it's in a historic district — wood storms are usually the better answer, and often the required one. Aesthetically, a wood storm disappears into the facade where a mill-finish aluminum triple-track announces itself; many NJ historic district guidelines say so explicitly. Practically, a well-fitted wood storm over a restored original window creates a deep insulating air gap that performs remarkably well in winter. And they're serviceable forever: joints re-glued, rails spliced, putty renewed, hardware replaced. We repair existing wood storms, and where they've gone missing over the decades — a hook here, an empty pair of hangers there — we build new ones matched to the openings and to surviving examples. That work pairs naturally with our historic window restoration service.
Are storm windows even worth keeping now that replacement windows exist?
Worth keeping, and often worth celebrating — because a storm window is what lets you keep an original window and stay warm. The storm-plus-original combination gives you two glass layers with a generous air space, protects irreplaceable old sashes from the weather, and costs a fraction of tearing out windows that may be the best woodwork in the house. The replacement industry's pitch quietly depends on you forgetting that this system exists. Our advice is honest either way: if your primary windows are sound (or restorable) and your storms just need service, that combination is hard to beat for the money. Where a primary window has genuinely failed, we'll tell you that in writing instead. Repairing what you own runs about 80% less than replacing it — storms included.
How does storm window service work with RotGone, and what's the timeline?
Like every job we do, it starts with a photo: text pictures of the stuck, broken, or missing storms to (973) 564-0958 and you'll have an answer the same day. We assess onsite within 1–2 days — counting panels, checking tracks and hardware, measuring for glass, spline, or new wood storms — and give you one written scope. Panel and screen work often turns around fast since it's workshop-based; full sets and new-built wood storms are typically done within 1–2 weeks. Everything carries our 5-year workmanship warranty, RotGone is fully insured, and we're based in West Caldwell, reachable Mon–Fri 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM.
Service for the whole sandwich.
Send us a photo — get a real answer today
Tell us what's going on and attach a picture of the damage. We'll tell you honestly whether it's rot, whether it can be repaired, and roughly what it costs.
Don't let a stuck panel
talk you into new windows.
Text photos of your storm windows — stuck, cracked, torn, or missing. We'll tell you what's serviceable (usually all of it) and what it costs, the same day.