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Wood window advocacy and preservation: The National Trust and RestoreMichiana provide leadership

Anyone on the front lines of preservation & revitalization gets quickly drawn into the window debate: repair or replace? Many people on the preservation side of the issue advocate saving, maintaining, and repairing (when needed) your older and historic windows. There are many reasons to save, but there’s also a lot of discussion out there about the value of window replacement. Two common pro-replacement arguments revolve around the functionality, or lack, of old windows, and the implied energy savings when converting to new windows. Here are a couple great sources to counter those arguments, one from Restore Michiana outlining the how-to of reconditioning windows, and one from the National Trust sharing data on energy performance when comparing old and new windows.
Click here to view the series of videos.
Click here to check out the Trust’s “Saving Windows Saving Money” webpage.

Windows can be one of the most significant architectural elements on a historic building. Understanding how windows function and how to improve their energy efficiency is critical to preserving community character.


Do you have great sources of information when it comes to saving your historic windows? Please share them in the comments section below.

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