River North, Chicago
River North Window Replacement and Door Installation for Timber Lofts and Glass Towers
River North is a warehouse district that became somewhere to live. The heavy timber buildings that once held printing, furniture and dry goods were converted into lofts with enormous single-glazed industrial openings, and around them went up a generation of glass towers with curtain wall and sliding balcony doors. Neither behaves like a house. Openings are oversized, access is from a freight elevator rather than a driveway, and the person who approves the work is usually a board. We survey the opening, order Marvin units built to it, and install with our own crews. Since 1987.
Marvin Windows & Doors
River North Window Replacement Is Governed by Scale and Access
Loft openings are the first surprise. A converted warehouse frequently has windows two or three times the size of anything in a house, set into masonry that has moved over a hundred and thirty years, sometimes with the original steel still in place. Nothing about that is a catalog order. It has to be surveyed, and the replacement has to be manufactured to what the survey finds rather than to a nominal size that stopped being accurate decades ago.
The towers present the opposite problem. The units are younger and more uniform, but they sit in a sealed facade at height, where wind pressure, solar gain on a west elevation and the building’s own movement all matter more than they would at street level. Balcony and terrace doors take the worst of it, and they are usually the first thing an owner notices failing.
Marvin covers both because everything is made to order. On a loft that means an oversized unit built for an opening we measured, with sightlines that suit the industrial character rather than fighting it. In a tower it means glazing chosen for the exposure that particular elevation actually gets. Either way, the install is done by Forde employees and one warranty covers the product and the workmanship.
River North Exterior Services
Eleven River North Services, From a Single Loft Window Upward
One unit or one building, it runs through our own installers with a single point of contact and the workmanship in writing.
Window Replacement in River North
Failed sealed units, original industrial glazing bleeding heat, condensation running down a loft wall every January. Window replacement in River North handled with units made for oversized masonry openings, not adapted to them.
Window Repair in River North
Worn hardware, a cracked pane in a large lite, failed weatherseals on an operable section, one unit gone in a bank of six. Window repair in River North is often the proportionate answer, especially where only part of an assembly has failed.
Window Installation in River North
New openings in masonry, replacement of original steel sections, and full-frame window installation in River North taken back to solid substrate. Oversized fixed lites and operable units set by the crew that measured.
Skylight Installation in River North
Skylight installation in River North gets daylight into the middle of deep loft floorplates where the exterior wall is a long way from the core. Curb, flashing and shaft detailed for a flat roof carrying plant.
Skylight Replacement in River North
Skylight replacement in River North takes the entire assembly. New unit, curb rebuilt where the deck has softened, flashing properly reintegrated with the membrane, and the shaft made good before the ceiling closes.
Balcony and Patio Door Replacement in River North
Terrace and balcony doors take the worst weather any tower gets. Rollers wear, seals harden and the leaf drops. Door replacement in River North works when the unit is built for the opening and the exposure it faces.
Door Fitting and Door Repair in River North
Entrance doors, sliding glass units and oversized loft doors hung true and sealed against the pressure differences a tall building creates. Where hardware or a threshold has failed, door repair in River North is the sensible fix.
Exterior Cladding Work in River North
Penthouse additions, rooftop enclosures and the low-rise flanks where cladding meets old masonry. Installed to the clearances and flashing the manufacturer specifies, on assemblies that cannot easily be opened again.
Exterior and Leak Repair in River North
Staining below a lintel, damp at a parapet, water arriving three floors down from where it entered. Exterior repair in River North starts with finding the actual path rather than sealing the visible symptom.
Roof Drainage Work in River North
Flat roofs, internal drains and parapets that have to carry everything a summer storm delivers. We check where the water is meant to go and whether it still can before anything else is specified.
Whole-Building Exterior Projects in River North
Openings, cladding and drainage sequenced across an elevation or an entire association by one manager, with the phasing and budget years agreed before a single unit is ordered.
Why River North Owners Choose Forde
Our Crews, Our Warranty, Our Paperwork
We have finished better than 20,000 windows, doors and exterior projects around Chicago and the northern suburbs since 1987, and hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. In a building where a board signs the work off, that history plus a single accountable contractor counts for more than the lowest number on the table.
For owners it means an oversized loft opening is surveyed rather than estimated, glazing is chosen for the elevation it faces, and where repairing one failed unit in a bank of six is the honest answer, that is the answer you get.
For associations and property managers, it means phased replacement in occupied buildings, freight and access arrangements agreed in advance, documentation in the format your board expects, and leaks investigated properly before a building-wide order is placed.
Neither gets a lesser version. A timber loft conversion and a thirty-storey association draw the same installers, the same manager and the same foreman each morning.