One sash glides sideways past the other. No crank, no lifting, and nothing swinging into the room or the yard. The practical answer for wide openings, installed by our own employees and 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We do not publish a price per window, because an honest one does not exist.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
A sliding window is a double-hung rotated ninety degrees: the sashes ride sideways in a track instead of up and down in a frame. That one change removes the balance hardware entirely, because gravity stops fighting the sash, and it is why sliders are the simplest operating window built and usually the best value per square foot of opening.
Each moving sash rolls on small wheels along a track at the sill, and the two sashes interlock where they meet, closing the air path at the joint. There is nothing to crank, nothing to lift, and no spring under tension anywhere in the frame. Most designs let the sashes lift out of the track entirely, so the outside of the glass cleans from inside the room, the same trick as a tilt-in double-hung by a different route.
Every other operating window wants an opening taller than wide. The slider is the one built for the opposite: the long, low openings in ranches, walkouts, and basements, and the wide spans where a double-hung would look like a pair of postage stamps. In an egress basement window, the same geometry earns its keep in a more serious way: a slider gives up half its width as clear opening without needing swing room inside the window well.
Honesty about the style: a sliding seal is a wiping seal, like a double-hung's, not the compression seal of a casement. A well-built slider with an interlocking meeting stile and good weatherstripping seals fine; it simply is not the tightest window made. What you get back is a window with almost nothing in it to wear out, at a friendlier price, in proportions nothing else handles.
The track collects what gravity brings it, so the whole maintenance plan is a vacuum nozzle and a damp rag along the sill a couple of times a year. Rollers can be adjusted if a sash ever drags. Because nothing projects in or out, a slider is the window for the wall behind the couch, over the workbench, or along a walkway where a swinging sash would be in the way.
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.
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 slider is the window with the fewest demands: no sash weight to lift, no crank to turn, no arc to keep clear. It suits the openings other windows find difficult, wide, low, or right behind the furniture.
Glides, No Lifting
The sash rides sideways in its track, so a heavy or awkward window opens with one hand.
Nothing Sticks Out
Nothing swings into the room or out over a walkway, deck, or flower bed.
Made for Wide, Low Openings
Wider than tall is where a slider looks right: basements, hallways, ranches, and walkouts.
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
Sliding Questions
Openings that are wider than they are tall, and rooms where furniture sits against the wall: basements, hallways, ranch homes. Nothing swings in or out, so nothing has to be kept clear.
Sliding when the opening is wide and you want one-hand operation with nothing to lift. Double-hung when the opening is taller than wide and you want the traditional look. We show you both at the estimate.
It asks for an occasional vacuum and wipe, the same attention any window track needs. There is no crank hardware or balance system to wear out, which is part of the appeal.
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.
