Window replacement costs in Charlotte

Half the homes in the Charlotte metro were built in 1998 or later. On a house that young, a window job is mostly about glass, frame material and fit.

The older close-in neighborhoods are different. If your house sits in one of Charlotte's local historic districts, the Historic District Commission's design guidelines favor repair. They say to replace whole windows only when they're missing or beyond repair. A request to take out all of a house's original historic windows goes to the full commission, not to staff. So does any request for vinyl, wood-resin composite or fiberglass windows. Aluminum-clad wood is weighed case by case.

Staff can approve some window work on their own, such as replacing windows that don't meet the guidelines' definition of historic, or adding storm windows. The guidelines say those staff reviews usually take no more than five to ten working days.

The look is spelled out, too. New windows keep the original number and arrangement of panes, and the glass area can't shrink. Muntins need real depth: true divided lights, or three-part simulated divided lights with muntins fixed inside and out. Clip-in muntins, flat muntins and removable grilles aren't allowed.