Commercial Window Replacement by Building Type

Ground-floor aluminum storefront with tall glass panels and a center glass entrance door on a small suburban retail building

Aluminum Storefront Systems

A storefront is a framing system, not a set of windows: extruded aluminum mullions and rails holding large fixed lites, usually with a glass entrance door in the run. Jobs range from one broken lite to a whole new front.

Ask whether the frame is thermally broken. DOE data shows a thermal break cuts an aluminum frame's U-factor roughly in half, from about 2.0 to about 1.0. Ask also whether the new system will match the old sightlines, since a landlord or property manager may require it.

Office Building Windows (Fixed and Operable Aluminum)

Many office buildings use fixed glass in aluminum frames, with an operable vent here and there. Replacing a building's windows takes shop drawings, lift or scaffold access and a phased schedule. The operable vents add hardware, screens and a lock to every unit, so count them separately on the quote.

The questions that matter are about access and sequence. Will the work be done from outside, inside or both? How many openings per day? What happens to blinds, furniture and tenants' equipment near the glass?

Two-story brick apartment building with a row of new white vinyl windows and one opening still covered in plastic sheeting

Apartment and Multifamily Window Replacement

Two things set an apartment building apart from a house.

First, the code. The residential code only covers detached one- and two-family homes and townhouses up to three stories with their own exit. A larger apartment building falls under the building code instead.

Second, lead. The EPA lead rule covers apartments built before 1978, and window replacement in them is always covered. Every tenant gets EPA's Renovate Right pamphlet before work starts. For work in common areas like hallways, the firm notifies tenants or posts signs. Ask the firm for its EPA certification and how it handles containment unit by unit. Records must be kept for three years, so ask for copies. The full set of steps is on our lead-safe window replacement page.

Commercial Safety Glazing

Commercial glass follows the International Building Code's safety glazing section. Glass in every fixed and operable panel of swinging, sliding and bifold doors is a hazardous location. So is glass within a 24-inch arc of either edge of a closed door with its bottom edge under 60 inches above the floor. On a storefront, that takes in the door and usually the lites beside it.

Ordinary annealed glass in a door sidelite is the mistake to avoid. Ask the installer to write the glass type next to each opening on the quote, and ask how each pane's safety rating is marked or documented.

Occupied-Building Scheduling

The building usually stays in use while the work goes on. Good scheduling means a written sequence: which openings each day, how each one is closed up at night (new glass, a temporary panel or plywood), where the installer's crew stages materials and where waste goes.

Child-occupied facilities built before 1978, such as daycares and schools, have their own EPA notice rules. Parents get notices, or the site posts signs.

Gloved hands holding a tape measure across the inside of a window opening to check its width

Why Troy homeowners call Troy Windows

Free in-home measure of every opening
Written, itemized quote before any work
Frames and sills checked before a price
One local window installer, not a call list
No charge to homeowners for the referral