Window and Door Replacement in El Paso, TX

It means replacing its windows is lead-regulated work that Sage does not take on. Sage replaces windows and doors in homes built in 1978 or later. Homes built before 1978 are presumed to contain lead-based paint, and any paid work that disturbs more than 6 square feet of paint per room inside, or 20 square feet outside, must be done by an EPA-certified firm. Tell us the year your home was built when you send photos, so the scope is set correctly from the first call.

Window replacement is one of two kinds of work where the square footage never matters. EPA states that window replacement and demolition of painted surfaces are always covered by its Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, regardless of square footage, and that firms cannot advertise or perform covered work in homes or child-occupied facilities built before 1978 without firm certification (U.S. EPA). Taking an old window out cuts and breaks the painted sash, stops, sill and trim around it at every edge, so even a single window counts.

Sage treats an exterior door in a pre-1978 home the same way, because its painted frame and trim come out with it. If the year is uncertain, mention that with the photos, and no scope is written until it is known. How the federal rule works, who may test paint and how to check a firm's certification are explained on the painting page.

Yes. The City of El Paso lists exterior door and window replacement among the work that needs a building permit, and a residential window replacement permit expires one month from the day it is issued, with no extension and no completion permit (City of El Paso, When Do I Need a Permit?; El Paso Municipal Code 18.02.105.23), so a window permit is pulled once the units are on hand and the install dates are set. The code's one-month rule names window replacement permits; how long a door-only permit runs is confirmed with the City when it is pulled.

Sage pulls the permit for its own scope under its City of El Paso registration, LCCR26-00183. Window work sits inside that registration's scope: the City's general contractor registration, which Sage holds, lists Window among its residential categories, next to additions, alterations and roofing (City of El Paso, Contractor Registration Requirements, Rev. 07/2024).

These are City of El Paso rules. The permits guide lists every project on the City's sheet and how long each kind of permit lasts, and an address outside the city limits answers to a different permit office.

A U-factor of 0.30 or lower (0.32 for a house above 4,000 feet) and a solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.25 or lower. Those are the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code's limits for replacement windows in climate zone 3, and El Paso County is zone 3B, the B marking the dry moisture regime, in the code's county table (2021 IECC Table R402.1.3 and its footnote i; Table R301.1; PNNL-33270). The City's design table puts El Paso at 3,918 feet (El Paso Municipal Code 18.10.050), just under that line, and the code ties the 0.32 value to where the building sits, so the elevation at the address is checked at the Feasibility Audit; a unit rated 0.30 or lower meets the limit at any elevation. The City adopted the 2021 IECC (El Paso Municipal Code 18.70.020), and its local amendments in that chapter leave the window limits unchanged.

The code applies those limits to replacements, not only to new houses. When some or all of an existing window is replaced with a new product, sash and glazing included, the new unit has to meet the U-factor and SHGC values in Table R402.1.3; when several units are replaced, an area-weighted average of all the replacement units can show compliance instead (2021 IECC R503.1.1.1). New glass set into an existing sash and frame, with nothing else changed, is classed as a repair rather than a replacement (R504.2). Storm windows over existing windows, and film applied to existing single-pane glass to cut solar heat gain, are exceptions, as long as the energy use of the house does not go up (R503.1.1).

The numbers come from the label. U-factor is rated under NFRC 100, and SHGC and visible transmittance under NFRC 200, by an accredited independent laboratory, then labeled and certified by the manufacturer. A product with no label is assigned the code's default values, and the defaults are far off the limits: a double-pane window in a plain metal frame defaults to a U-factor of 0.80, and double-pane clear glass to an SHGC of 0.7, nearly three times the 0.25 limit (2021 IECC R303.1.3 and Tables R303.1.3(1) and R303.1.3(3)).

Which units meet the limits on their own and whether a set is averaged is written into the Feasibility Audit findings. The City's inspector decides compliance at inspection.

Because in an El Paso summer the heat a window adds on a sunlit wall comes mainly from sunlight passing through the glass, which SHGC measures and U-factor does not. The City's design table shows how small the air-temperature side of summer is: an outdoor summer design temperature of 98 F against an indoor 75 F, a 23 degree difference, while winter runs 25 F outdoors against 72 F indoors, a 47 degree difference (El Paso Municipal Code 18.10.050). On air temperature alone, the winter difference is about twice the summer one, so in July it is the sun on the glass, added on top of that 23 degrees, that a window rating has to answer for.

The code's table makes the same point. It holds glazed windows and doors to an SHGC of 0.25 in climate zones 0 through 3, relaxes it to 0.40 in zones 4 and 5, and sets no SHGC limit in zones 6 through 8, while zone 3 carries the same 0.30 U-factor limit as the colder zones (2021 IECC Table R402.1.3).

Where the sun hits matters as much as how much. The same City table puts El Paso at 31 degrees north latitude. At that latitude the summer sun stands high at midday, so a south window under a real eave or a patio cover sees little direct sun at noon, while east and west windows take the low morning and afternoon sun straight on. West-facing glass in a bedroom or a family room is usually where a low SHGC earns its keep, and where shade outside the glass can carry part of the load.

A low SHGC comes from coatings on the glass, and it can take away daylight. The visible transmittance on the same label says how much light still comes through, which is the number to compare when two units both meet 0.25 and the room is already dim.

Because the stucco usually went on after the original window was set, so the window's outer edge is locked under it, and the way the new unit goes in decides whether any stucco comes off. The residential code El Paso adopted requires approved flashing at exterior window and door openings, applied shingle-fashion so water cannot get into the wall cavity or reach the framing (2021 IRC R703.4; El Paso Municipal Code 18.10.020). Every replacement approach is a different answer to how that flashing is kept or rebuilt.

An insert replacement leaves the old frame in place and sets a new unit inside it. The stucco stays untouched, the trade-off is some glass area, and the new window is only as sound as the frame it sits in and the flashing that frame already has. A full-frame replacement takes the old window out entirely, which means cutting back a band of stucco around the opening to release the old frame and to lap the new window's flashing into the water-resistive layer behind the stucco. Retrofit units with an outer flange that laps over the face of the stucco sit between the two.

The choice is made opening by opening, not by product preference. A square, sound old frame with no history of water usually suits an insert. A frame that is bent, a sill that has held water, or stains on the wall below point to full-frame, because the flashing is the part that failed, and it can only be rebuilt from the outside. That read, and what the wall below the sill shows, is part of the Feasibility Audit.

A full-frame install leaves a stucco return to close at each opening. Matching new stucco to the texture and color of an older wall is its own question, which the stucco page explains, including why new windows are a good moment to consider a recoat. If a window leak has already damaged the wall and an insurance claim is involved, keep one rule in mind. Your claim stays between you and your carrier. Texas law bars a contractor from acting as a public adjuster on a property it may work on, and from waiving or covering an insurance deductible.

Mostly, yes. The City's permit sheet lists exterior door replacement beside window replacement, so a new entry door or patio door needs a permit too (City of El Paso, When Do I Need a Permit?). A sliding or hinged glass door is rated and labeled the way a window is, with U-factor and SHGC on the label (2021 IECC R303.1.3), and a replacement unit is held to the same limits (R503.1.1.1).

The energy code also caps air leakage through the closed unit: 0.3 cubic feet per minute per square foot for windows and sliding glass doors, and 0.5 for swinging doors, tested by an accredited independent laboratory and labeled by the manufacturer (2021 IECC R402.4.3, which the code's alteration rules carry over to replacements in R503.1.1). In a city where spring wind carries dust, that number is worth reading on a patio door.

Glass in a door is safety glass territory. The residential code treats glazing in the fixed and operable panels of swinging, sliding and bifold doors as a hazardous location, and glass in a panel within 24 inches of a door with its bottom edge less than 60 inches above the floor generally is too (2021 IRC R308.4.1 and R308.4.2). That is why a patio door's fixed panel and an entry door's sidelights are ordered as safety glass.

The part of a patio door that decides whether it leaks is at the bottom. Where a patio slab was poured level with the door's sill or above it, monsoon water has a path under the track, and a new door does not change that on its own, so the sill and the slab edge are read together at the Feasibility Audit. Iron entry and security doors are covered on the wrought iron page.

It can, as long as the replacement follows the code's rule for replacement windows. The 2021 International Residential Code, which El Paso adopted without changing this section (El Paso Municipal Code 18.10.020), exempts a replacement window in an emergency escape opening from the minimum size and sill-height rules for a new opening when three conditions hold: it is the manufacturer's largest standard size that fits the existing frame or rough opening, it is the same operating style as the old window or a style with equal or greater opening area, and it is not part of a change of occupancy (2021 IRC R310.5).

That rule is why style matters in a bedroom. Swapping an operable window for a fixed picture window, or choosing an insert smaller than the largest standard size that fits, takes the window outside the exemption. Bedroom windows are identified at the Feasibility Audit before any style is chosen. Security bars over a bedroom window are a separate question, answered on the wrought iron page.

Yes, after the City reviews it. Sage's historic-district window and door work is for homes built in 1978 or later, because replacing them in an older home is lead-regulated work Sage does not take on. The City's historic preservation FAQ lists installing windows, and replacing exterior doors with doors that match the originals, among the work its Historic Preservation Office reviews administratively, usually without a Historic Landmark Commission hearing. The FAQ is undated, so the current process is confirmed with that office before a schedule depends on it. The administrative review application asks for shop drawings, cut sheets and dimensioned elevations of the windows and doors, plus color photographs of current conditions (City of El Paso, Administrative Review Application).

The City's design guidelines set what that review looks for. They prefer repair over replacement. Where a window is past repair, the replacement on the main facade matches the original's type, style, operation, configuration and finish, a single-pane picture window or a horizontal slider is not used where the original was neither, and a window similar in appearance is allowed regardless of material. The opening is not resized. Exterior muntins that match the originals may be approved, while grids applied only on the inside are not appropriate. Windows on secondary facades are reviewed case by case, and a visible door has to match the building's architectural style or it goes to the Commission (Design Guidelines for El Paso's Historic Districts, Sites, and Properties, pages 28 - 30).

Which district an address sits in, and how a certificate of appropriateness works for larger changes, are covered on the whole house remodeling page.