Michigan window & door repair
Great Lakes Doors & Windows
We repair windows and doors. We do not sell replacements — which is the only reason our advice about repairing yours is worth anything.
- Main service
- Window repair
- Coverage
- Both peninsulas
- Product list
- One item: repairs
- Estimate
- Free, fixed in writing
Start here
The six questions people call us with
Short answers first. Everything below is the detail, but most people only need what is in this grid.
Do my windows need replacing?
Almost never. A window is six systems and usually exactly one has failed. The frame is rarely the problem.
Will repair actually help my heating?
Yes, more than people expect. Air leakage around a sash is what costs you, and sealing it costs a fraction of replacement.
Are storm windows worth keeping?
In Michigan, emphatically. The air space between the storm and the sash is what insulates in a house built before insulated glazing.
Will you come up north?
Yes, both peninsulas. We plan routes around distance rather than charging for it, and seasonal properties are normal work.
When should I book?
Thermal work before October. Screens in April. Exterior timber and glazing between May and September.
What if replacement really is right?
We say so and send you elsewhere. We do not sell units, so there is nothing in it for us either way.
Services
Eight services, one trade
Windows and doors are the whole business, residential and commercial. There is nothing else on the price list.
01
Window repair
Sash cords and weights, balances, locks and weatherseals. Michigan runs on weight-and-pulley sash, built to be serviced rather than swapped.
02
Broken window & glass
Openings cleared and secured the same visit, then glazed once the glass is cut. Securing vacant and seasonal buildings properly is part of this.
03
Foggy window & seal repair
Failed sealed units replaced inside your existing sash. We do not offer defogging, and the page explains why.
04
Storm window repair
Seized tracks, broken clips, missing panels and blocked weep vents. The cheapest thermal improvement in an older Michigan house.
05
Door repair
Sticking, sagging and draughty doors, thresholds, sweeps and storm doors, including cottage doors swollen shut over a closed winter.
06
Sliding glass door repair
Rollers, tracks, panel height, latches and interlock seals on the door that has started taking two hands.
07
Commercial glass & storefronts
Closers, pivots, locks and glazing. Closers need a seasonal adjustment in this climate that almost nobody makes.
08
Window screen repair
Rescreening aluminium and original wooden frames, porch screens, and the screen half of combination storm units.
Two peninsulas
Michigan is two states wearing one name
Roughly four hundred miles north to south, with snow belts on one side and salted freeways on the other. The same fault has different causes depending where you are.
North & the snow belt
Marquette to Traverse City
- Lake-effect snow driven horizontally into every gap
- Deep frost lifting steps and the openings above them
- Thousands of seasonal properties closed half the year
- A short exterior season, roughly May to October
- Long distances, so first-visit completion matters
Southern Lower Peninsula
Detroit, Grand Rapids and south
- Enormous stock of 1900–1950 housing on cords and weights
- Heavy road salt carried into sills and tracks
- Humid summers swelling sash and doors shut
- A longer working season for planned repairs
- Vacant and between-tenancy buildings needing securing
We work both, and we plan routes rather than treating distance as a surcharge. What changes between them is the parts on the van and the time of year we recommend booking.
The Michigan year
When to do what, and why then
Michigan gives you a short exterior season and a long heating one. Working with that calendar costs nothing and saves a great deal.
| When | What to do | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| March–April | Free the sash that are painted or swollen shut | Before you want the windows open, and before the spring rush fills the schedule. |
| April | Screens, every one of them | The blackfly and mosquito season here is short and it arrives fast. A torn screen is noticed in week one. |
| May–August | Glazing, putty, timber and rot repair | Needs dry, warm weather to cure. This is the only reliable window for it in Michigan. |
| August–September | Weatherstrip, locks, keepers and sweeps | The highest-return work we do, and far easier to book before everybody remembers winter exists. |
| September–October | Storm windows down, closed and draining | By November a seized storm or a blocked weep vent is a cold room for five months. |
| November–March | Emergencies, securing and interior work | We still come out. Exterior glazing and timber genuinely should not be done in a Michigan January. |
Seasonal properties
If you own a cottage
Michigan has tens of thousands of properties that sit empty for half the year, and the problems that come with that are specific and predictable.
What a closed winter does
An unheated building swings through the full outdoor humidity and temperature range with nothing moderating it. Sash swell, joints open, sealed units fail, and anything already loose works looser. Most cottage faults are discovered in May and were created in February.
Book the spring opening
Before you arrive rather than after. Painted-shut sash, seized storms and torn screens are all far easier to deal with on a planned visit than on the first warm weekend when you want the place usable.
The closing visit is the cheap one
An hour in October confirming every sash and storm closes and latches, the weep channels are clear and the doors lock prevents most of what otherwise develops over the winter.
Batch everything into one trip
On a property two or three hours away, the cost difference between one repair and six is almost entirely travel. Walk round, make a list, and have us do the lot in a single visit.
Michigan conditions
Four things this state does to an opening
None of these are weather generalities. Each one changes what the right repair actually is.
Lake-effect snow
The west and north sit in genuine snow belts, and lake-effect snow does not fall so much as arrive sideways. It finds every gap a seal has stopped closing, packs into tracks and storm window channels, and then freezes there. It is a different mechanism from ordinary snowfall and it does different damage.
Road salt, not sea salt
Michigan has no ocean coast but uses an enormous amount of winter road treatment. It comes indoors on boots and settles into sills, door tracks and storm window channels, corroding hardware and holding moisture against metal. It is the dominant corrosion mechanism in this state.
Frost that goes deep
Michigan frost reaches well below the surface and lifts steps, porches, stoops and the frames sitting on them. A door or window that has fitted for decades can bind on one side after a hard winter and partly recover by June, which is exactly why planing is the wrong response.
Early-century housing, everywhere
Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw, Kalamazoo and a hundred smaller towns are full of homes built between 1900 and 1950. Weight-and-pulley sash, putty glazing, original storm windows and openings that have been settling for a century.
Coverage
Both peninsulas
Metro Detroit and the southeast, Grand Rapids and the west, Lansing, Ann Arbor and mid-Michigan, Traverse City and the north, and the Upper Peninsula.
Questions
What people ask before they call
Do you sell replacement windows or doors?
No, deliberately. It is the whole reason our recommendation about repairing yours carries weight.
My windows are original to a 1920s house. Worth keeping?
Usually, yes. The sash were built to be serviced, the timber is denser than modern stock, and the parts that fail cost very little.
Will repair help my heating bill?
More than most people expect. Air leakage past a flattened seal and a lock that is not pulling tight is what costs you, and both are inexpensive to fix.
My windows fogged up between the panes.
The sealed glass unit has failed. We replace the unit inside your existing sash — the window itself stays.
Will you come to a cottage up north?
Yes. Seasonal properties are a normal part of the week, and the sensible plan is to book the visit around your opening or closing date.
Can you work in winter?
For emergencies, securing and interior work, yes. Exterior glazing, putty and timber repair genuinely should wait for weather that lets them cure.
Will you come out for one small job?
Yes. A single jammed storm or one screen is a normal call. Mention anything else while we are there, because most of the cost is the visit.
Do you cover the Upper Peninsula?
Yes. We plan routes around distance rather than charging for it.
Next step
Tell us what it is doing
Free estimates across both peninsulas, with a fixed written price before anything is touched.