Double Hung Windows in Portland, OR
Gorilla Works installs Milgard double hung windows in Portland and Vancouver, WA. On a double hung window both sashes slide, the bottom one up and the top one down, and both tilt into the room so you can wash the outside glass without a ladder. It is the classic look on Portland's older houses, and it stays flat to the wall when open, so it works beside a walkway, a deck, or a patio where a crank-out window would be in the way.
- Milgard V400 Tuscany double hung, the only double hung Milgard builds
- Low-E glass to the Oregon and Washington energy codes
- Lifetime warranty on the window and the installation
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Old wood double hungs: restore them or replace them?
Search for double hung windows in Portland and half the results are shops that rebuild old wood sashes. That is not an accident. This is an old-house city, and in neighborhoods like Laurelhurst, Irvington, Sellwood and Hawthorne a lot of homes still have their original wood double hungs with rope, pulleys and iron weights hidden in the wall. We replace windows, we do not restore them, so here is the straight answer on when each one makes sense.
Restoring is often the better call when the old sashes are solid wood with little rot, the house sits in a historic district where the city wants the original look kept, and you mostly care about character. Old-growth fir is tough stuff, and a rebuilt sash with new weatherstrip and a storm window can last a long time.
Replacing makes more sense when the sills or bottom rails are soft, the glass is a single pane you want to upgrade, the sashes are painted shut or the ropes are gone, or you want windows that tilt in for cleaning and need no paint on the outside again. A new double hung brings dual-pane Low-E glass and sealed sashes in one step, where a restored single pane still needs a storm window to come close.
The numbers behind that: a single pane of glass in a wood sash has a U-factor of about 1.0 to 1.1, and a new window built to Oregon's 0.27 code loses heat roughly four times slower. A storm window narrows the gap. When the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory added low-E storm windows to its test homes in Richland, Washington, heating energy dropped by about 10 percent. That is a real gain, but it still leaves a single pane, a painted sash and a rope that will break again.
Two things to check before either job, and most window quotes skip both.
Historic districts and vinyl. Portland's historic resource rules (zoning code 33.445, updated January 2025) only let you skip city review when the new windows are wood, metal-clad wood, or in some cases fiberglass, set exactly in the old opening with the glass recessed at least 2 inches from the siding. Vinyl is not on that list, and replacing original wood windows on a house that counts toward a district's history is not exempt at all. Since Milgard's only double hung is vinyl, a Milgard double hung on a house in a district like Irvington or Laurelhurst will normally need historic resource review before it goes in. Look up your address on the city's historic resource map, or ask whoever quotes the job to do it, so you find this out at the kitchen table and not from a stop-work notice.
Lead paint. Any house built before 1978 may have lead paint on the old sashes and trim. In Oregon, a contractor who disturbs that paint needs a separate Lead-Based Paint Renovation license from the Construction Contractors Board, on top of the regular license, and has to work lead-safe. Ask to see it, whoever you hire.
Not sure which side of the line your windows are on? Book a free in-home estimate and we will look at the sills and sashes with you and tell you straight if they are worth saving.
The Milgard double hung we install
Here is a detail most window quotes leave out: Milgard builds its double hung in exactly one series, the V400 Tuscany in vinyl. Its lower-cost lines make single hung windows only, and the C700 fiberglass series has no double hung at all. So if a bid says "Milgard fiberglass double hung," ask what it really is.
- Both sashes work. Lift the bottom for a breeze, drop the top to let warm air out near the ceiling, or open both a little.
- Both sashes tilt in. You clean the outside glass from inside the room, which is the whole reason most people choose a double hung on a second floor.
- Locks on both sashes, with an opening control device available that stops the sash at a few inches for kids' rooms.
- A traditional frame. Tuscany has wider frames with shadow lines, closer to the look of an old wood window than a flat modern frame.
- Colors beyond white, including Black Capstock, Bronze and Espresso outside, so a new window can match a dark trim scheme.
- SunCoat or SunCoatMAX Low-E glass, picked for the side of the house the window faces.
If you want a fiberglass frame or a lower price on a standard opening, a single hung window is the usual answer, and our single hung vs double hung windows guide walks through that choice, including the bedroom escape rule and the safety stop for second-floor rooms. The full Milgard range is on our Milgard windows in Portland page, and the frame material is explained on our vinyl windows in Portland page.
Where a double hung window fits, and where it does not
We pick the style one opening at a time. A double hung earns its place in these spots:
- Upper floors you cannot reach from outside, since both sashes tilt in for cleaning.
- Walls facing a walkway, deck, porch or patio, because the sash slides inside the frame and never swings out into the path.
- Older Portland homes, where the stacked two-sash look matches the house and the neighbors.
- Rooms where you want a window AC unit in summer, which a crank-out window cannot hold.
We steer people away from a double hung over a kitchen sink or behind a counter, where lifting a sash means leaning over and a crank is much easier. And where the tightest possible seal matters most, like a windy west wall, a casement usually wins, because it presses against its seals instead of sliding past them. Our casement windows in Portland page covers that style.
The downsides of double hung windows
It is one of the questions people ask most, so here is the honest list:
- More moving parts. Two sliding sashes means two sets of balances and seals that can wear over the years, where a single hung only has one.
- A little more air leakage. Sliding seals never press as hard as a casement's, so a double hung lets a bit more air past. A new one is still far tighter than an original wood window.
- It only opens half way. One sash always covers the other, so you get about half the opening for air, and a bedroom escape window has to be tall enough to make up for it.
- It costs more than a single hung of the same size, and with Milgard it only comes in the Tuscany line.
For a lot of homes those trade-offs are worth it for the easy cleaning and the look. Where they are not, we will say so before you order.
Double hung windows and the energy code
Oregon's 2023 residential code holds replacement windows to a U-factor of 0.27 or lower, and Washington's current code allows 0.30 across the river. We order every double hung with the Low-E glass and argon fill it needs to meet the code where your house sits, and we check the rule for your address before we quote. Coming from single-pane wood windows, the jump in comfort is the part people notice first: no cold glass, less condensation on winter mornings, and fewer drafts around the sash. To see how Low-E and U-factor work, read our energy-efficient windows in Portland guide.
What double hung window replacement costs in Portland
We will not print a single price that is wrong for most houses. What moves the number: how many windows, their sizes, the glass package, the color, how sound the old frames and sills are, and the trim afterward. Old wood double hungs with rotten sills or weight pockets in the wall take more work than a newer vinyl window. A double hung also runs above a single hung of the same size, because of the second working sash. The accurate number comes from a free in-home estimate, where we measure every opening and give you one written price with the exact Milgard series on it. Zero-down financing is open to qualified homeowners. For rough ranges before we visit, see our window replacement cost in Portland guide.
How we install your double hung windows, and the warranty
Your Milgard windows are built to order, so most jobs are installed two to three weeks after you sign, and the work at your house usually takes a day or two. We take out the old windows and haul them away the same day. Each new double hung is set level, plumb and square, because a hung sash that is even slightly out of square will rub, stick or leak air at the meeting rail. We check that both sashes slide and tilt freely and lock tight, then flash and seal the opening against Northwest rain and trim it inside and out. We work one opening at a time, so the house is never left open to the weather.
A qualifying Milgard install comes with a Limited Lifetime Warranty on both the window and our workmanship, in writing before we start. Our warranty page spells out the coverage. Larger and commercial window jobs go to our Exteriors Design crews, and across the river we do the same work on our window replacement in Vancouver, WA page. To see the whole process from measuring to final walkthrough, visit our Portland window installation page.
Where these facts come from
- Milgard, V400 Tuscany Series double-hung windows
- City of Portland, Zoning Code 33.445, Historic Resource Overlay Zone
- Oregon Health Authority, Renovation, Repair and Painting rule and the CCB lead license
- 2023 Oregon Residential Specialty Code, Chapter 11, window U-factor for alterations
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Evaluation of Low-E Storm Windows in the PNNL Lab Homes
- U.S. Department of Energy, Selecting Windows for Energy Efficiency (single-glass U-factors)
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