Replacement Windows & Doors FAQs
- What is a Bay window?
A multi-panel window, with at least three panels set at different angles to create a protrusion from the wall line. These are popular replacement windows.
- What is a Oriel window?
A window with many panels. It is most often seen in Tudor-style houses and monasteries. An oriel window projects from the wall and does not extend to the ground. Oriel windows originated as a form of porch. They are often supported by brackets or corbels. Buildings in the Gothic Revival style often have oriel windows. They make stunning replacement windows if you love this style
- What is a Fixed window?
A window that cannot be opened, whose function is limited to allowing light to enter. Clerestory windows are often fixed. Transom windows may be fixed or operable.
- What is a Picture window?
A very large fixed window in a wall, typically without glazing bars, or glazed with only perfunctory glazing bars near the edge of the window. Picture windows are intended to provide an unimpeded view, as if framing a picture. They make beautiful replacement windows.
- What is a Jalousie window?
A window comprised of many slats of glass that open and close like a Venetian blind, usually using a crank. The hinges may be at the top or middle of each of the slats of glass. A Jalousie door is a door with a Jalousie window.
- What is a Tilt and Slide window?
A window (more usually a door-sized window) where the sash tilts inwards at the top and then slides horizontally behind the fixed pane.
- What is a Tilt and Turn window?
A window that can either tilt inwards at the top, or can open inwards hinged at the side.
- What is a Trapdoor?
A trapdoor is a door that is oriented horizontally in a floor or ceiling, often accessed via a ladder.
- What is a Stable door?
A stable door is divided in half horizontally. The top half can be opened to allow the horse to be fed, while the bottom half can be closed to keep the animal inside. Stable doors are also known as Dutch doors. They make fun replacement doors.
- What is a Swing door?
A swing door has special hinges that allow it to open either outwards or inwards, and is usually sprung to keep it closed.
- What is a Saloon door?
Saloon doors are a pair of lightweight swing doors often found in public bars. Saloon doors, also known as cafe doors, often use double action hinges, which will return the door to the center, regardless of which direction it is opened, due to the double action springs in the doors. These are good replacement doors for areas where you find your hands are always too full to open a door.
- What is a French door?
A French door, also called a French window, is a door that has multiple windows ("lights") set into it, the full length of the door. Traditional French doors are assembled from individual small pieces of glass and mullions. These doors are also known as true divided lite[sic] French doors. French doors made of double-pane glass (on exterior doors for insulation reasons) may have a decorative grille embedded between the panes, or may also be true divided lite French doors. The decorative grille may also be superimposed on top of single pane of glass in the door. These are popular and beautiful replacement doors in Agoura Hills and Camarillo California.
- What is a bypass door?
A bypass door is a door unit that has 2 or more sections. The doors can slide from each direction on an overhead track, sliding past each other. They are most commonly used in closets, in order to access one side of the closet at a time. The doors in a bypass unit will overlap slightly, in order not to have a gap between them.
- What is a False door?
A false door is a wall decoration that looks like a door. In ancient Egyptian architecture, this was a common element in a tomb, the false door representing a gate to the afterlife. They can also be found in the funerary architecture of the desert tribes (e.g., Libyan Ghirza). It may have influenced the mihrab in a mosque.
- What is a Butterfly door?
A Butterfly Door is so-called because of its two "wings". It consists of a double-wide panel with its rotation axle in the centre, effectively creating two separate openings when the door is opened. Butterfly doors are made to rotate open in one direction (usually counterclockwise), and rotate closed in the opposite direction. The door is not equipped with handles, so it is a "push" door. This is for safety, because if it could open in both directions, someone approaching the door might be caught off guard by someone else opening the other side, thus impacting the first person. Such doors are popular in public transit stations, as it has a large capacity, and when the door is opened, traffic passing in both directions keeps the door open. They are particularly popular in underground subway stations, because they are heavy, and when air currents are created by the movement of trains, the force will be applied to both wings of the door, thus equalizing the force on either side, keeping the door shut.