Highland Park, Illinois

Highland Park Window Replacement and Door Installation, Certificate of Appropriateness and All

Highland Park regulates 136 historic structures, 80 of them landmarked individually, and if yours is on that list the Certificate of Appropriateness has to clear before the work begins. Applications land 31 days ahead of a monthly meeting, and unlike several neighboring suburbs the rule here reaches changes nobody can see from the street. That schedule is manageable when your contractor has been through it and miserable when they have not. We have been installing Marvin units since 1987 with crews who work for us, and one visit will tell you whether your address is regulated at all.

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Marvin Windows & Doors

Highland Park Window Replacement Runs on the Commission’s Calendar

The important detail is the one most contractors miss. Highland Park’s review is not limited to what the public can see, so a rear elevation facing nothing but your own yard still counts if the structure is regulated. Interior work is exempt, and any permanent exterior change that cannot easily be undone generally is not. Swapping original sash for a modern unit sits squarely in that second category.

So the specification has to be right before it is ever submitted. Marvin manufactures to the opening we record rather than the nearest catalog size, and it holds sightline, muntin profile, material and exterior finish closely enough that a commission can approve it without argument. Wood, clad-wood and Ultrex fiberglass are all available, with Low-E and multi-pane glazing carrying the performance side.

Away from the regulated addresses, most of Highland Park is simply old. Ravine lots, bluff exposure, and a housing stock with decades of freeze and thaw behind it mean openings that have moved and sills that have taken a beating. Whoever quotes you, ask who turns up to do the work. Ours are Forde employees and one warranty covers the unit and the labor.

The Forde Difference

Why Highland Park Owners Stop Shopping and Start Scheduling

Four things that decide whether your project lands on the next agenda or waits another month.

Reason 1

We Work Backward From the Meeting Date

Applications are due 31 days before the Commission sits. We build the submittal around that date so your project is not sitting a month behind because a drawing was missing.

Reason 2

Specified to Be Approvable

Sightline, muntin depth, material and finish are chosen against what the Commission actually accepts, not against whatever is quickest to order. That is the difference between one hearing and three.

Reason 3

Ravine and Bluff Lots Handled

Sloped ground, restricted access and drainage that has somewhere unhelpful to go. We stage where the ground will take it and detail every opening so water leaves the wall rather than the hillside.

Reason 4

One Company Answers for Everything

Marvin warranties the product, Forde warranties the workmanship, and the crew belongs to us. When something needs a look, nobody spends a week deciding whose problem it is.

Get My Free Highland Park Estimate

Highland Park Exterior Services

Eleven Highland Park Services, From One Failed Sash to the Full Envelope

Begin wherever the problem is. Each of these is carried out by people we employ, run through one point of contact, and backed in writing.

Window Replacement in Highland Park

Clouded glass, sash that refuses to move, a room handing its heat back to the lake every winter. Double hung, casement and vinyl replacement windows in Highland Park, built to recorded openings, with the casing reset so the wall looks like nobody touched it.

Put a number on it

Window Repair in Highland Park

Failed balances, parted cords, one blown seal, a sill nose gone soft. Window repair in Highland Park is often the better buy, and on a regulated structure it is frequently the far easier approval.

Get it looked at

Window Installation in Highland Park

Additions, basement egress and full-frame window installation in Highland Park taken back to the sheathing where the wall requires it. Bay, picture and sliding windows fitted by whoever recorded the dimensions.

Set a measure date

Skylight Installation in Highland Park

Skylight installation in Highland Park brings light into stair halls, upper bedrooms and kitchens sitting under heavy roof structure. Curb, counterflashing and shaft insulation detailed for snow that lingers and the ice behind it.

Look at the options

Skylight Replacement in Highland Park

Skylight replacement in Highland Park addresses the whole assembly and not just the glazing. New unit, curb rebuilt wherever it has gone soft, flashing laced properly back into the roof covering, and the shaft reinsulated before the ceiling closes.

Replace the whole unit

Door Replacement in Highland Park

Entries that need a shoulder once the humidity arrives, sliders grinding on worn rollers, a thin line of daylight where the seal should be. Door replacement in Highland Park turns out better when the entry or patio unit is manufactured to your measured jamb rather than picked from a catalog of stock sizes.

Price the entry

Door Installation and Door Repair in Highland Park

French doors, sliding glass units and wide openings hung plumb and sealed against lake wind. If the slab is sound and the fault is a dropped hinge or a flattened threshold, door repair in Highland Park costs far less and that is what we will advise.

Talk it through

James Hardie Siding Installation in Highland Park

Siding installation in Highland Park done exactly to the gaps, flashing details and nailing pattern James Hardie sets out. Strip back a wall that has failed here and the culprit is almost always how it went on, not what went on.

See the siding price

Siding Repair and Replacement in Highland Park

Cracked boards, storm damage, shaded corners turning soft, rust bleeding at the fasteners. Siding repair in Highland Park starts by locating the water’s way in behind the cladding, then patching the run or pricing siding replacement in Highland Park across the elevation.

Look at my walls

Gutter Installation in Highland Park

On a ravine lot, badly placed roof water does not just soak a foundation, it undercuts a slope. Gutter installation in Highland Park, correctly sized and pitched, sends it somewhere the ground can actually take it.

Fix the drainage

Whole-Exterior Remodeling in Highland Park

A single manager sequences the openings, the cladding and the drainage so each layer discharges onto the one beneath it as detailed, and no crew turns up to discover what the previous one skipped.

Scope the full job

Not Sure If Your Address Is Regulated? We Will Check for Free.

Why Highland Park Owners Choose Forde

Employees, Not Subcontractors, Since 1987

Over 20,000 window, door and exterior projects have gone in across the North Shore under our name, and the Better Business Bureau rates us A+. That record stands behind every Marvin proposal a Highland Park owner receives from us, and behind every submittal we put our signature to at City Hall on St Johns Avenue.

For homeowners it means the specification suits the era of the building rather than this quarter’s promotion, Certificates of Appropriateness and permits are prepared and presented for you, and where repairing the original sash is the smarter buy we say so.

For condominium boards, property managers and the commercial blocks along Central Avenue and Deerfield Road, it means work phased around residents and trading hours, documentation packaged for approval, and envelope diagnostics run before anything is ordered.

That standard does not move with the address. A landmarked house near the lake and a storefront in the city center get the same fitters, the same manager, and the same foreman each morning.

1987Fitting windows since

20,000+Projects completed

0Subcontractors

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Highland Park Window and Door FAQs

What Highland Park Owners Ask First

Five questions we field on nearly every Highland Park phone call.

1. How do I know whether my Highland Park house needs a Certificate of Appropriateness?

There are 136 regulated historic structures in the city, 80 of them individually landmarked, and the rest sit inside local historic districts. If yours is one, most exterior repairs and changes need a Certificate before a permit is issued. If it is not, you need a building permit and nothing more. Give us the address and we will confirm which applies before you spend anything.

2. My back windows face my own yard. Does that still need approval?

Yes, if the structure is regulated. This is where Highland Park differs from several neighboring suburbs, whose rules only bite when work is visible from the public way. Here the Commission reviews substantial exterior alterations including ones nobody can see from the street. Interior work is exempt. The practical test is whether the change is permanent and hard to undo, and replacing original sash usually is.

3. How much time does the review add to a Highland Park window project?

Applications are due 31 days ahead of the Commission’s monthly meeting, so figure on roughly six weeks from a complete submittal to a decision if the calendar is kind. Marvin manufacturing then runs in parallel or after, depending on how confident we are in the outcome. It is slower than an unregulated house, and it is predictable, which matters more.

4. What does window replacement cost in Highland Park?

It depends on how many openings there are, how big they run, whether they take inserts or need the frame out, what the casings turn out to be concealing, and whether the property carries review. Any per-window price offered before someone has walked the house is invention. We measure first, then set out the figure opening by opening in writing, so you can commit to everything or take one elevation now and the rest later.

5. Is there any upside to landmarking my Highland Park home?

There can be. Local landmark status makes a property eligible for a partial state tax assessment freeze following substantial rehabilitation, along with a bronze plaque and the Commission’s support when other City boards get involved. It also brings the review requirement permanently. We are contractors rather than advisors on that decision, but we can tell you what the work itself would involve either way.