Window replacement costs in Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania's building code has a line written with window jobs in mind. The statewide Uniform Construction Code doesn't apply to alterations to a house that make no structural change and no change to the required ways out, and it says a minor framing change needed to replace an existing window doesn't count as structural.

That exemption gives way where a local ordinance kept under the state law requires more. The state lists Pittsburgh as a city that enforces the code itself and has building code amendments dating from before July 1, 1999. So check with the city's permit office before you assume a same-size swap needs no paperwork.

The city's own list of work that needs no building permit carries a reminder, too. On a locally designated historic building, or in a local historic district, a Certificate of Appropriateness may still be required.

That question matters in a city this old. Nearly half of Pittsburgh's homes were built in 1939 or earlier, according to the Census Bureau, so a lot of the houses getting new windows here are close to a century old.