Fixed glass that does not open, on purpose. No moving parts means nothing to leak air, which makes a picture window the most efficient shape we install, and the biggest view. 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We do not publish a price per window, because an honest one does not exist.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
A picture window is glass that has stopped pretending to be a machine. No sashes, no balances, no locks, no track: a sealed insulated glass unit set directly into a frame, named for what it does to the wall it sits in, which is turn the view into the picture.
Every operating window leaks a little at its moving joints; that is the price of moving. A picture window has no moving joints, so its air infiltration is effectively the frame's alone, the lowest of any window type. The frame itself is slimmer too, because it carries no hardware, which means more glass and more daylight from the same rough opening. Where winter comfort is the goal, a fixed pane is the strongest square footage on the wall.
With no mechanism to discuss, everything rides on the glass package. A low-E coating decides how much heat the glass keeps in January and turns away in July; argon between the panes slows what conducts through; a third pane adds another sealed chamber for the coldest walls. One practical note worth knowing early: building code treats large panes near the floor or beside doors as hazardous locations, and glass there may need to be tempered. We flag that at the estimate, not at installation.
A picture window rarely works alone. Flank it with casements or double-hungs and the wall gets its ventilation back while the center stays pure view. Set an awning underneath and the room vents in the rain under an unbroken pane. Mulled combinations like these are ordered as one engineered unit, so the joints between windows are factory-made rather than improvised in the wall.
There is nothing to maintain because there is nothing that moves: wash the glass and walk away. The one planning question is honest airflow: a room lit by a single large fixed pane needs its ventilation from somewhere, so we look at the whole wall, not just the opening, before recommending one.
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.
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
Every window is a hole in the wall trying not to be one. A picture window comes closest: sealed glass all the way around, no sashes, no gaps, just the view.
Nothing to Leak Air
With no moving sash there is no seam to wear out, which is why it is the most efficient shape we install.
The Biggest Glass
No rails or meeting stiles in the middle, so the opening is all view and all daylight.
Pairs With Openers
Flank it with casements or double-hungs, or set an awning below it, when you still want ventilation.
Nothing to Maintain
No hardware, no balances, no tracks: wash the glass and it is done.
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
Picture Questions
No, and that is the point: with no moving parts there is nothing to leak air, so it is the most efficient window on the house. Rooms that need airflow pair it with casements, double-hungs, or an awning underneath.
Wherever the view or the light is the point: living rooms, stair landings, above a window seat. It is also the anchor of most bay and bow arrangements.
Modern glass does the work here: two or three panes, argon between them, and a Low-E coating that keeps heat in during winter and out during summer. Sealed fixed glass outperforms any operable window of the same size.
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.
