Hinged at the side and cranked open like a door. The whole sash swings clear for the full opening of air, and the seal presses tighter the harder the wind blows. 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.
The Right Fit
No style wins every opening. These are the places a casement is the honest recommendation, and the estimate is where we tell you if yours is not one of them.
Nobody wants to climb the counter to lift a sash. The fold-away crank opens a casement from where you stand.
Wind pushes the sash tighter against its seal instead of rattling past it, so the windward side of the house is casement territory.
A casement carries a tall, narrow proportion cleanly, with no meeting rail cutting the glass in half.
The sash swings fully clear, so the whole opening moves air, not just the half a hung window gives you.
Stair landings, window seats, behind the bathtub: anywhere arms do not reach, a crank does.
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
The casement is the oldest operating window there is: hinged at the side and swinging outward, it predates the sliding sash by centuries. The modern version replaced the latch with a crank and the iron hinge with a concealed one, but the idea is unchanged, and it remains the window that seals best and vents most of anything we install.
The crank drives an operator arm that pushes the sash out and pulls it home. Because the hardware does the moving, the sash needs no tracks to slide in and no balances to carry it, and the crank folds flat against the frame when you are done so blinds and shades hang past it cleanly.
Locking is where a casement separates itself. The lock engages hook points along the frame edge and draws the whole sash inward against the weatherstripping, like pulling a door tight against its seal. Sliding windows wipe past their seals; a casement compresses into its seal, which is a different class of airtight.
A hung or sliding window rattles when the wind works on it, because the moving sash has to keep a sliding clearance. A casement has no sliding clearance. Wind pressing on the glass presses the sash deeper into its compressed seal, so the harder the weather leans on the house, the tighter the window gets. That is why the windward wall of a house is casement territory, and why the style tests at the lowest air-leakage numbers of any operating window.
Swing the sash fully clear and the entire frame is open air, roughly double the free area a hung window offers from the same opening. Angle the sash halfway and it becomes a scoop that catches a breeze running along the wall and turns it into the room, which no hung or sliding window can do at all.
The full swing means the outside face of the glass comes within arm's reach from indoors on most sizes, so cleaning stays a ground-floor job. The operator and hinges appreciate a drop of light oil every year or two, and the one discipline a casement asks is simple: crank it closed before a storm rather than letting the wind slam it. Screens sit on the inside face of the frame, out of the weather, where they stay cleaner than an exterior screen ever does.
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 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.
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
A casement is the window for the spots other windows fight you: over the sink, behind the counter, anywhere reaching a sash is awkward, and anywhere the wind hits first.
The Full Opening
The whole sash swings clear, so every square inch of the frame is ventilation.
Seals Tighter in Wind
Wind pushes the sash against the frame instead of through it, so the seal firms up exactly when it matters.
Crank, Not Lift
A fold-away crank opens it with two fingers, which is the answer over a kitchen sink.
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
Casement Questions
Anywhere reaching a sash is awkward: over the kitchen sink, behind a counter, high on a stair landing. The crank does the reaching for you.
Casement when you want maximum airflow and the tightest seal against wind. Double-hung when you want the traditional look and nothing swinging outward. We show you both at the estimate.
Hardware is serviceable and covered by the manufacturer's warranty on the window, and our 15-year labor warranty covers the installation. One call to our office handles either.
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.
From the Blog
Replacement Windows
How double-hung and casement windows open, seal, clean and vent, where each one fits in a house, and how to choose between the two styles.
September 23, 2026 · 7 min read
Replacement Windows
When to replace windows in Michigan: what winter, spring, summer and fall each mean on installation day, how lead time works, and how to decide.
September 23, 2026 · 7 min read
Replacement Windows
Replacement windows are one of the bigger investments you’ll make in your southeastern Michigan home.
April 30, 2026 · 8 min read
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.
