Door and window repair in San Francisco

Keeping San Francisco's old windows and doors working

In San Francisco, every type of window replacement needs a building permit, wherever the window sits on the building. SF Planning lists wood sash windows, set in ganged groups of four or five, among the defining features of the Sunset's barrel-front Mediterranean Revival houses from about 1925 to 1931. The hardware and screens on windows like these wear out, and they can be serviced without replacing the window.

Window replacement is a permitted job we don't take on; what we do is keep the existing windows working, with locks, cranks, balances and new mesh in the frames you already have. On doors we adjust hinges and strikes, plane edges, and put pocket doors and closet sliders back on track. Replacing an interior door is on DBI's no-permit list unless fire protection requires otherwise.

Worth knowing about San Francisco

• Summer brings cool marine air and persistent fog. Mornings typically start overcast across the city, then clear on the warmer bay side and only partly on the cooler ocean side.
• SFPUC's 100-year storm map puts about 2,100 parcels in the flood zone. Water can enter through street-level doors and garages, foundation cracks, or a sewer connection without a backflow preventer.
• Sunset tract houses of the 1920s to 1940s often had colorful polychromatic ceramic tile in bathrooms and kitchens, and wood or parquet floors.