Five Ways to Upgrade Your Windows, and How to Tell Which One You Need

Most people who call us about windows have already decided they need new ones. Sometimes they do. Often enough, what they actually need is a fraction of that, and we end up doing a couple of hundred dollars of work on a house where somebody else had quoted twenty thousand.

The trouble is that "replace the windows" covers about five different jobs at five different prices, and nobody explains the difference before the quotes start arriving. So here they are, along with the catch attached to each one, because every option on this list has a catch and most articles skip that part.

Start by working out what is actually wrong

Before any of this matters, figure out what is bothering you, because the fix follows from the fault.

A draft you can feel is usually air leakage, and air leakage is often the seal or the hardware rather than the window. Fog or haze trapped between the panes is a failed sealed unit and has nothing to do with the frame. Rot or soft wood at the sill is a frame problem and it will not be fixed by anything cosmetic. A window that has become hard to open is almost always hardware.

Write down which of those you have before anyone comes to quote. It will save you money.

1. Brick-to-brick replacement

Brick-to-brick means the whole assembly comes out, right back to the framed stud opening in the wall.

The reason to do it is not that it is the most thorough option, though it is. The reason is that it is the only way to see and fix what is behind the window. Once the old unit is out, we can see the sheathing and the framing, deal with any rot, and install proper flashing and a sill pan so that water that gets into the opening drains back out instead of sitting in the wall. You cannot do any of that through a retrofit, because the old frame is still in the way.

It is also the only option if the opening itself is changing size, or if a previous installation was done badly enough that water has been getting in for years.

The catch: it is the most expensive of the five, it is the most disruptive, and it involves interior and exterior finish work around the opening that a retrofit does not. Budget for the trim and sometimes the drywall and paint, not just the window.

2. Retrofit replacement

Retrofit, sometimes called insert replacement, means the old frame stays in the wall and a completely new window goes inside it. It is faster, cheaper, and far less invasive, and for a house with sound frames it is usually the right answer.

The catch, and this is the one that surprises people: you lose glass. The new frame sits inside the old one, so on every side you give up an inch or more of viewing area. On a big picture window nobody notices. On a small bathroom or basement window, or on a window divided into several sections, it is very noticeable and it is permanent. Ask to see the glass dimensions of the new unit next to the old one before you sign anything. I would rather have that conversation at the quote than after installation.

The second catch: whether your frames are sound is not always knowable from the outside. Wood can look fine and be soft an inch in. A reputable contractor will tell you up front what happens if we open it up and find rot, and that contingency should be written into the quote rather than turning into a surprise on the day. Ask what that language says.

3. Glass-only replacement

If the frame and the hardware are fine and the only problem is the glass, you can replace just the sealed unit and leave everything else alone.

This is the fix for fogging between the panes. That haze means the seal around the glass unit has failed and the argon or krypton fill that was doing the insulating has gone. The window still keeps the weather out, but it has lost most of its efficiency advantage and you cannot see through it properly.

The catch: it is not always possible. On some older windows the glass is sealed into the sash in a way that does not come apart, and on discontinued product lines the replacement unit may not exist in the right thickness or size. We can usually tell from the manufacturer's stamp in the spacer bar between the panes.

The second catch: if one unit has fogged, the others in your house went in at the same time and are on the same clock. That does not mean replace them all today. It does mean a single fogged window on a twenty year old house is worth treating as information rather than as an isolated event. The tint on the new unit may also differ from the original look. Consider changing units in pairs or sets if maintaining good curb appeal is a priority.

4. Aluminum capping

Capping means wrapping the exterior wood trim around a window in bent aluminum, so the wood underneath stops getting rained on and stops needing paint. Done properly on sound wood it works well, and it lasts for decades.

The catch is a serious one. Capping over wood that is already wet or already rotting seals the moisture in and hides the damage while it gets worse. We have pulled capping off houses where the trim underneath had gone entirely and nobody had any idea, because the outside looked perfect the whole time. If anyone offers to cap your trim without first checking the condition of the wood underneath and making sure the detail is sloped and drained so water can escape, get somebody else.

Done right, capping is one of the better value maintenance decisions available on an older house. Done as a cover-up, it is the most expensive kind of cheap.

5. Recaulking

Recaulking is removing the old sealant around the outside of a window and putting on fresh, and it is the cheapest thing on this list by a wide margin. On an otherwise sound window it stops drafts and keeps water out of the wall.

The catch, and I wish more people knew this: you can absolutely caulk a window wrong, and the most common way is to seal it up too well. Windows are designed to let a small amount of water that gets past the glass drain back out, usually through small openings along the bottom of the frame. Seal those and the water has nowhere to go but into the wall. So, the bottom of a window frame often should not be fully caulked, and anyone who runs a continuous bead all the way around without thinking about drainage has made your house worse, not better.

Product matters too. Exterior sealant around windows needs to stay flexible through our temperature swings, and the cheap stuff goes hard and cracks in a season or two.

One other possibility

If your complaint is drafts or a window that has become stiff to operate, the fix is often the weatherstripping or the hardware, not the window. Weatherstripping compresses and hardens over fifteen or twenty years, and crank operators on casement windows wear out. Both are replaceable on most units for a fraction of anything else here.

Nobody puts this on a list of window upgrade options because there is no money in it. It is still the right answer often enough that it is worth checking first.

What ENERGY STAR actually means in Canada now

This changed in a way most homeowners have not caught up with, and it makes shopping easier.

Until 2020, Canada certified windows by climate zone, so you had to work out which zone you were in and buy accordingly. In January 2020, Natural Resources Canada dropped the zones and moved to one national standard set at what used to be the coldest-zone requirement. A window sold in Canada is now either ENERGY STAR certified or it is not, and that is the same everywhere from Windsor to Whitehorse.

The threshold is an Energy Rating of 34 or higher, or a U-factor of 0.21 or lower.

The Energy Rating is worth understanding because it is a Canadian metric and it is more useful than the U-factor on its own. U-factor only measures how fast heat escapes. ER combines that with how much free heat the window lets in from the sun and how much air leaks through the assembly, which is a fairer picture of how a window behaves through an Ontario winter.

We install ENERGY STAR 2020 certified windows and patio doors as standard. You can see the range on our windows and doors page.

The rebate, and how it changes the comparison

This is the part that should affect your decision, and it usually gets left out.

Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program (as of this writing), run through Save on Energy, currently pays a rebate per eligible window or door rough opening on ENERGY STAR certified products. Several older programs that still come up in search results are closed: the Canada Greener Homes Grant stopped taking new applications at the end of 2025, the Greener Homes Loan closed in October 2025, and Enbridge's Home Efficiency Rebate and Home Efficiency Rebate Plus have both ended intake. If somebody quoting you a window job references those, they are working from old information.

Here is why it matters to the choice in front of you. The rebate attaches to certified product going into an opening. Brick-to-brick and retrofit replacement can qualify. Glass-only replacement, capping, and recaulking do not, because no certified window is going in. So, the real gap between a retrofit and a cheaper patch is narrower than the quotes suggest, and on a house with a lot of openings it can be a good deal narrower.

One practical note if you are claiming. Rebate applications get held up most often over paperwork, and the usual culprit is a missing ENERGY STAR certification number on the contractor's invoice. Ask whoever is doing the work to confirm they will put it on there before you start.

While we are at it: condensation is usually not a window problem

Every winter we get calls about water running down the inside of the glass, and most of the time the windows are fine.

Condensation on the interior surface means the humidity in your house is high enough to condense on the coldest surface in the room, which is the glass. The window is not leaking. It is just the first place the moisture shows up. The fix is usually running the bathroom and kitchen fans properly, checking the humidifier setting on the furnace, and getting some air moving.

Moisture between the panes is a different thing entirely and that one is a failed sealed unit, covered above. Water pooling on the sill from the outside is a flashing or drainage problem and worth looking at properly.

A note on how the window opens

This gets overlooked and it matters more as people age in their homes.

Casement windows with a crank are easier to operate for anyone with limited grip strength than a slider that has to be shoved sideways. Awning windows can stay open in light rain. Reach matters too, particularly over a kitchen counter or a bathtub. If somebody in the house has arthritis or limited mobility, the operating style is worth as much thought as the glass package, and it costs nothing extra to choose well at the quoting stage.

How to decide

Work from the fault, not from the budget.

Rot, water damage, a badly installed original, or a change to the opening means brick-to-brick. Sound frames and tired windows means retrofit. Fogged or broken glass in a good frame means a sealed unit. Weathered but sound exterior trim means capping. Cracked sealant on a window that otherwise works means recaulking. Drafts and stiff operation on a decent window means hardware and weatherstripping, and that is worth checking before you spend anything else.

If you are not sure which one you are looking at, that is normal. That’s what a proper assessment is for. Ask for it in writing, with photos, and ask what happens if the frames turn out to be worse than they look.

Talk to us

John McLellan Contracting has been working on homes across Durham Region and Toronto East since 1995. More than 90 percent of our work comes from repeat and referral customers, and you don’t earn referrals by selling people jobs bigger than the ones they need.

Call (905) 767-1240 or book an assessment. You can see our window work in Pickering and Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa.

Key takeaways

• Brick-to-brick is the only option that lets anyone see and fix what is behind the window, which is why it is the answer when there is rot or water damage.

• Retrofit costs you glass area permanently, an inch or more on every side. Ask for the new glass dimensions before you sign.

• A fogged pane is a failed seal, not a failed window, but it is not always replaceable on older or discontinued units.

• Capping over wood that is already wet hides the rot while it spreads. The wood underneath has to be checked first.

• Windows need to drain. Caulking over the drainage openings at the bottom of the frame traps water in the wall.

• Drafts and stiff operation are often weatherstripping or hardware, which nobody puts on a list of upgrade options because there is no money in it.

• Ontario's current rebate applies to certified windows going into an opening, so it narrows the gap between a retrofit and a cheaper patch.

  
  

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between brick-to-brick and retrofit replacement?

Brick-to-brick takes the whole assembly out back to the framed opening, so the wall behind can be inspected, repaired, and properly flashed. Retrofit leaves the existing frame in place and fits a new window inside it. Retrofit is faster and cheaper. Brick-to-brick is the only one that addresses what is behind the window.

Will a retrofit window look smaller? 

Yes, and this is the thing people most often wish they had known. The new frame sits inside the old one, so you lose viewing area on every side. It is barely noticeable on a large window and very noticeable on a small one.

Can I just replace the foggy glass? 

Usually, as long as the frame and hardware are in good shape. The limits are older windows where the glass is sealed into the sash in a way that does not come apart, and discontinued product lines where a matching unit is no longer made.

How often should windows be recaulked? 

Look at the sealant every couple of years and redo it when it cracks, hardens, or pulls away from the edge. Just as important, make sure whoever does it leaves the drainage openings along the bottom of the frame clear.

Is aluminum capping worth doing? 

On sound wood, yes. It ends the repainting and protects the trim for decades. On wood that is already damp or rotting it is actively harmful, because it seals the moisture in and hides what is happening. The condition of the wood underneath decides it.

My windows sweat in winter. Are they failed? 

Probably not. Condensation on the inside of the glass usually means the humidity in the house is high, and the glass is simply the coldest surface for it to collect on. Moisture trapped between the panes is a different problem and does mean a failed seal.

Is there still a rebate for window replacement in Ontario? 

Yes, though several of the programs people remember have closed. The current one is Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program, and it applies to ENERGY STAR certified windows and doors. Check the current terms at saveonenergy.ca, since the amounts and deadlines change.