Window styles and materials, and what boroughs allow
On a plex street you'll often see guillotines on one façade and casements on the next. The type you have shapes what can be repaired and, in several boroughs, what may replace it. Each type is named below in English and French. Once you've narrowed it down, we connect you with a window pro who works independently in your area, quotes your chosen style and can help with the borough permit file.
Battant
Casement windows (crank)
Casement (fenêtre à battant)
Hinged at the side and cranked outward, so the sash presses into its weatherstripping when closed. Its screen sits on the inside.
Crank and hinges (manivelle)
Moving parts wear out long before the window does. A stripped crank or sagging hinge is usually a parts job, not a new window.
An air conditioner in a casement
A casement has nothing to hold a window unit. A removable plexiglass panel is the usual answer; tenants should ask the owner first.
Guillotine
Guillotine (hung) windows
Guillotine (hung window)
The lower sash, sometimes both, moves up and down, so nothing swings out over a gallery. A classic front window on many older plexes.
Original wood guillotines
Original wood sash is often worth restoring rather than replacing. On the Plateau, repairing originals generally needs no permit outside heritage protections.
A fogged thermos
Mist between the panes means the sealed glass unit, called a thermos here, has failed. It can usually be replaced alone.
Coulissante et auvent
Sliders, awnings and fixed windows
Slider (fenêtre coulissante)
The sash glides sideways on a track and never projects. Simple and common in later buildings, but refused in some protected sectors.
Awning (fenêtre à auvent)
Hinged at the top and cranked out from the bottom, so it sheds rain while open. Often set below a fixed pane.
Fixed window (fenêtre fixe)
Glass that doesn't open, often the large centre pane between two casements. With nothing moving, only the glass needs attention.
Frames
PVC, hybrid, aluminum and wood
PVC (vinyl)
The common replacement frame: insulating, low-maintenance, available in colours. Not every borough accepts it on the outside.
Hybrid (hybride)
PVC facing the room, aluminum facing the weather. It's the frame that works in the Sud-Ouest, where PVC exteriors are banned.
Aluminum and wood
Wood suits heritage façades, and some protected buildings must use wood or aluminum. Both call for a pro who knows them.
Check your borough
When the borough sets the style
Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
A permit is required, and sliding windows aren't allowed in the borough's significant sectors. Casements or guillotines usually are.
Ahuntsic-Cartierville
Replacements must match the building's typology: opening type, subdivisions and colour. A casement is replaced with a casement.
Le Plateau-Mont-Royal
A same-size replacement still needs a permit and must keep the original characteristics. Repairing what you have is often simpler.
Getting it installed
From purchase to permit: getting it installed
Permit before purchase
Most boroughs require a permit even for identical windows, and some say to wait for it before buying. The file needs the quote, photos and product sheet.
Subsidy approval first
RénoPlex pays only when approval comes before the work; Rénoclimat needs an evaluation first. Neither pays for replacing the glass alone.
An independent pro, matched to the job
Tell us the window, the style you want and your borough. The pro we connect you with measures, quotes and helps with the permit documents.
Questions
Window style questions
Service areas
Window installers across the island and nearby
Independent installers work across the island's boroughs, and some cover Laval and the South Shore. Give us your address and we'll find one who covers it.
Torn between two styles?
Say which windows, what's there now, what you'd like instead and your borough. A local installer checks what the borough accepts and quotes the style that fits.