Window replacement costs in Greensboro

Greensboro's housing has some age on it. Roughly 41 percent of Greensboro-area houses predate 1980, about one in five predate 1960, and about 7 percent date to 1939 or before.

That age brings lead-paint rules into a window job, and in North Carolina the state runs them, not EPA. A unit of the state health department, the Health Hazards Control Unit, certifies both the renovation firms and the individual workers. When a paid job disturbs lead-based paint in a home from before 1978, North Carolina wants that certification and a permit too.

A window swap disturbs that paint. Getting an old unit out means prying off painted stops, casing and sometimes the sill. The Health Hazards Control Unit also publishes a list of the firms it has certified.

Greensboro's weather leans cold for a window. At the Piedmont Triad airport, freezing nights outnumber 90-degree days about two to one: roughly 68 a year against 33. That tilts the glass choice toward holding heat in, more than toward heavy sun control.