Hinged at the top, so the open sash is its own roof. Leave it cracked through a spring rain, set it high on a wall for privacy, or pair it under fixed glass. Installed by our own employees, backed by a 15-year labor warranty.
The Choices
Picking the style settles how the window opens and not much else. Every window we order is built to the exact size of your opening, and these six choices are what we actually sit down and go through, at your kitchen table or in the 4,000 sq. ft. Southgate showroom where you can work the hardware yourself.
Vinyl for value and the widest color range, wood for the stained interior, fiberglass for frames that hold their shape through freeze and thaw. All three are measured, installed, and warrantied the same way; the main windows page compares them side by side.
The single decision with the most effect on how the room feels. Two panes with a low-E coating and argon sealed between them is the sensible Michigan baseline, and a third pane is worth discussing for a bedroom over a busy road or the wall your winter wind hits first.
The bars that divide the glass into panes and give an older house its face back. Set between the panes there is nothing to dust and the color is matched to the frame. The front of the house can carry them while the back stays plain.
Options run from a fine mesh you barely notice to Pella's Hidden Screen, which folds away into the frame when the window is shut, so a closed window is glass and nothing else.
The lock is part of the seal, not just the security. A cam-action lock pulls the sash tight against the weatherstripping instead of just latching it, and vent stops let a window open a few inches and no further.
Aluminum slats sealed inside the glass unit, where dust, pets and small hands cannot reach them. You still raise and tilt them, and the glass wipes clean in one pass because nothing hangs in front of it.
We do not publish a price per window, because an honest one does not exist. Cost tracks the size of the opening, the material, the glass package, and what the crew finds once the old unit comes out. What we do promise is that you get the full number in writing at the estimate, before anything is ordered, with no pressure to sign that day.
Flexible financing is available, and most homeowners replace in stages: the worst rooms first, the rest next season. Ask about it at the estimate and we will lay out both paths.
In Detail
Turn a casement on its side and hinge it at the top and you have an awning window. The name is literal: opened, the sash slopes out over the opening the way a shop awning slopes over a doorway, and everything the style is good at follows from that one geometric fact.
A scissor-arm operator raises the bottom edge of the sash outward while the top edge stays hinged to the frame. Like a casement, it locks by compression, pulling the sash up into its weatherstripping rather than sliding past it, so the seal is the tight kind. The mechanics are simple enough that awnings are among the least troublesome operating windows made.
The open sash is its own roof. Ordinary rain falls on the glass and sheds off the bottom edge, outside the opening, so an awning can sit cracked through a spring shower that would have you sprinting to close any other window in the house. In a climate that spends half the year threatening rain, that is not a small feature: it is the difference between a house that airs out in April and one that waits for June.
Because the sash tilts out rather than up or sideways, an awning works in places a hung window cannot: the short strip of wall above a kitchen counter, a bathroom where privacy matters more than view, a basement half-window, the space under a big fixed pane. Set above eye level it brings in light and air while the room stays private, and the crank means height is never a reason it goes unopened.
Keep the operator arm's pivots clean and occasionally oiled and an awning asks for little else. The habits are the casement's: close it fully before real wind, and let the interior-mounted screen do its work out of the weather. One honest limit: an awning high on a wall vents beautifully but cleans from a step stool, so on upper floors we usually pair it with glass you can reach.
More Styles
A window's style is how it opens. These are the other five we install, in any material, backed by the same 15-year labor warranty.
Two sashes that slide up and down in the same frame. Both tilt inward, so you can wash the outside of a second-floor window standing in your own hallway. The most common window on Michigan homes, and the safest bet when you want the house to look the way it always has.
Hinged at the side and cranked open like a door. Because the whole sash swings clear, you get the full opening for air, and the seal presses tighter the harder the wind blows. Good over a kitchen sink or anywhere reaching a sash is awkward.
One sash glides sideways past the other. No crank, no lifting, and nothing sticks out into the room or the yard. A practical choice for wide openings and for basements, hallways, and rooms where furniture sits against the wall.
Fixed glass that does not open. With no moving parts there is nothing to leak air, so a picture window is the most efficient shape we install, and the biggest view. Usually flanked by casements or double-hungs when you still want ventilation.
Several windows joined at an angle so the unit projects past the wall. It adds a shelf of usable space inside, pulls light in from three directions, and changes the front of the house more than any other single upgrade.
The Advantages
An awning window solves a Michigan problem: the days you want the window open are the days the weather has other plans. The bottom swings out, the top stays put, and the sash sheds the rain.
Open in the Rain
The outward-tilted sash acts as its own awning, so a spring shower does not end the fresh air.
High on the Wall
Set above eye level it gives a bathroom or basement light and air without giving up privacy.
Pairs With Fixed Glass
Often set beneath a picture window: the fixed glass takes the view, the awning does the venting.
Any Material
Vinyl, wood, or fiberglass, all installed the same way and backed by the same 15-year labor warranty.
What Sets Us Apart
When the company that sold you the job is not the company that installed it, a warranty call two years later turns into a search for whoever did the work. We do not work that way. Our own employees do the installation, never subcontractors, and the 15-year labor warranty comes from us, so there is one company to call.
1979
Family-owned and operating since
15
Year labor warranty on our workmanship
3
Generations of the Adkins family
We are a Pella Platinum Elite Certified Contractor, which means our crews are factory-trained and certified directly by Pella. They are our own employees, on our payroll, not a subcontracted crew hired for the week.
View Our CertificationFactory-Trained Crews Certified Directly by Pella
Our Own Employees, Never Subcontractors
Our Process
Four steps, one point of contact, and a clean home when we leave.
01
We come to your home, measure, listen, and give you straight numbers. Or stop by the Southgate showroom and see the options first.
02
Every opening is measured twice, and every window and door is ordered to the exact size of your opening, so installation day has no surprises.
03
Our own factory-trained crew does the work, protects your floors and landscaping, and hauls away the old materials.
04
We walk the finished job with you and register your 15-year labor warranty before we leave.
Warranty
15
Years Warranty
Every installation is backed by our industry-leading 15-year labor warranty, on top of the manufacturer's coverage on the window itself. If the workmanship ever needs attention, one call and we make it right, at no cost to you.
180 Month
2
Years Warranty
Most window companies stand behind their installation for only a year or two. Once that coverage runs out, drafts, leaks, and seal failures become the homeowner's problem to fix.
24 Month
Awning Questions
Cracked open in ordinary rain, yes: the sash is hinged at the top and swings outward, so it sheds water like a small roof. In driving, sideways weather you close it like any other window.
They are cousins: a casement hinges at the side, an awning at the top. Pick awning for rain-tolerant venting and high placements, casement for the biggest opening and easy reach.
High on bedroom and bathroom walls, in basements, and underneath picture windows where you want air without breaking up the view.
For Michigan, double-pane glass with a low-E coating and argon fill is the sensible baseline: the coating reflects heat back where you want it and the gas slows heat moving through. Triple-pane is worth discussing for rooms facing wind or a busy road. We walk through the options at your estimate instead of selling you the most expensive package by default.
Adkins & Sons employees, factory-trained and Pella Platinum Elite Certified, never subcontractors. Every opening is measured twice, the window is built to your exact opening, and the installation carries our 15-year labor warranty on top of the manufacturer's coverage on the window itself.
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Areas We Serve
One family company out of Southgate, working across Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washtenaw counties since 1979. Find your city below for local details.
