Several windows joined at an angle, projecting past the wall. Light from three directions, a shelf of usable space inside, and the biggest change a single upgrade makes to the front of a house. 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We do not publish a price per window, because an honest one does not exist.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.
Our Work
These are our photos from our jobs across Downriver and Southeast Michigan. Click any photo for a closer look.
In Detail
Every other window lives inside the wall. A bay or bow steps through it, projecting past the siding to add depth the house did not have before. From outside it is the feature the street remembers; from inside it is a ledge, a pocket of floor space, and daylight arriving from three directions at once.
A bay is three windows: a wide center unit, almost always a picture window, with two flankers set at an angle to it, commonly around thirty or forty-five degrees. The lines are crisp and the ledge is deep. A bow is four or more equal units set at gentler angles, so the projection reads as a curve. Bays suit squarer, more modern faces; bows read softer and more traditional. Ventilation comes from the flankers in either case, as casements or double-hungs beside fixed center glass.
A projecting unit hangs real weight outside the plane of the wall, and it cannot simply lean on the siding. Depending on the house it is carried on brackets beneath, cabled back to the framing above, or both, with an insulated seat board below and an insulated head above, since both surfaces now face open air. This is the part of the job that separates a bay window from a bay window done right, and it is why the unit arrives engineered as one assembly rather than three windows and ambition.
The angled flankers catch morning and evening light that a flat window facing the same direction never sees, which is why bay rooms feel bright longer than their compass direction says they should. The seat becomes whatever the room needs: a reading perch, a plant shelf, the spot the dog claims by the second week.
This is the one window in the lineup that is routinely more than a same-day swap. The old unit comes out, the framing and any support work get attention, and the new assembly is set, leveled, sealed, and skirted as a piece. We tell you the schedule at the estimate, and the 15-year labor warranty covers the carpentry that makes the projection solid, not just the glass in it.
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.
Hinged at the top so the bottom swings outward. The open sash acts as its own little roof, which means you can leave it cracked through a spring rain. Often set high on a wall or paired underneath a picture window.
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.
The Advantages
Most window replacements restore a house. A bay or bow changes it: the wall gains depth, the room gains a ledge and light from three sides, and the facade gains the one feature people remember.
Light From Three Sides
The angled returns pull in morning and evening light a flat window never sees.
A Shelf of Real Space
The projection adds a ledge inside: a window seat, a plant shelf, a reading spot.
Angled or Curved
A bay is three units meeting at angles; a bow is four or more in a gentler curve. Same idea, different accent.
Built as One Unit
Measured, built, and set as a single assembly by our own crew, with 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
Bay & Bow Questions
A bay is usually three units: a big picture window flanked by two angled side windows. A bow is four or more equal units in a gentler curve. Bay reads crisp and modern, bow reads soft and traditional.
Yes. The center is usually fixed glass for the view, and the flanking units can be casements or double-hungs so the arrangement still ventilates.
It can. A projecting unit is larger, heavier, and sometimes needs support work, so it is not always a same-day job like a standard opening. We tell you the schedule at the estimate rather than on the day.
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.
Reviews
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.
