Full-Frame Replacement on Older Homes
Aluminum and wood windows on the 1970s streets and downtown come out to the rough opening, as in the photo above, and new units go in with new flashing and matched siding.
Woodland is the top of IE Pro Exteriors’ territory, about thirty minutes up I-5 from Vancouver, and it is the one city we work in that is mostly outside Clark County. The Lewis River runs through the middle of town and forms the county line: most of Woodland, including downtown and the neighborhoods east of the freeway, is in Cowlitz County, and the south bank is in Clark. For a homeowner that mostly matters on permit day, and it is the first thing we check.
Inside the city limits the City of Woodland issues building permits regardless of county. Outside them, an address north of the river is reviewed by Cowlitz County and one south of it by Clark County, and the two do not share paperwork. Same-size window and door replacement generally needs no permit in Washington, so most window jobs skip the question entirely. A changed opening or a patio cover does need one, and we file it with whichever department the address lands in.
The housing is a mix. The old downtown grid by the river has early-1900s houses with wood windows and cedar siding, the kind of carpentry work that takes a careful quote. East of I-5 the neighborhoods from the 1970s through the 1990s have the aluminum-then-vinyl progression the rest of the region has, with hardboard siding on the older streets. Up the river the addresses go rural. The measuring visit is free anywhere in Woodland, and there is no trip charge for the distance.
What We Do Most in Woodland
Glass Inserts on 1990s Vinyl
The east-of-I-5 neighborhoods from the 1990s have vinyl frames that are fine and sealed units that have fogged. A new glass unit fixes it for a fraction of a new window.
Hardboard and Cedar Siding
Swollen hardboard replaced in fiber cement, and cedar patched and matched on the downtown houses where a window opening has changed.
Patio Covers, Either County
Attached covers drawn, framed and flashed to the house, and permitted through the city, Cowlitz County or Clark County depending on the address.
Everything else we do is on the services page.
Two Counties, One River
The county line running through a city is a quirk that trips up contractors from out of the area. It does not change how a window is set or a wall is sided, but it decides who inspects a patio cover footing and whose energy-code form goes in the file, and getting it wrong costs a week. We check the parcel before we quote anything that needs a permit and we say which department it is on the quote.
The river also decides the weather. Fog off the Lewis in winter keeps the shaded elevations wet for weeks at a time, and the north- and east-facing walls on the houses near it carry moss and hold water at the bottom of the siding. That is where the soft boards are and where we look first.
Downtown Woodland and the Newer Streets
The old houses between the freeway and the river are the ones we spend the most time on. Wood double-hungs with rotten lower rails, sills that have been filled and painted more than once, cedar lap siding that has been patched around them by three previous owners. Where a window can be repaired it is; where it cannot it is replaced full-frame in a unit that suits the house, and the siding is matched so the change does not show.
East of I-5 the work is faster: fogged vinyl units on 1990s houses take inserts, aluminum sliders on 1970s houses take full-frame replacements, and hardboard that has gone at the bottom course takes fiber cement. Two or three of those on one street can often be measured on a single visit.
Why Woodland Homeowners Call IE Pro
- We know which county you are in. City, Cowlitz or Clark: the permit goes to the right department the first time, and the quote says which.
- Registered with WA L&I. General contractor registration IEPROE*797LN, active since June 2021, valid statewide. Bonded and insured as the state requires.
- Repair where it is honest. A wood window worth saving is repaired. A fogged vinyl unit gets an insert. Full replacement is quoted when it is the right answer.
- No trip charge, owners on site. Thirty minutes up I-5 is still in range. Eric and Izak come out to measure, and the visit is free.