Bay & Picture Windows in Westbrook, Maine

In Westbrook the view is more often a backyard, a wooded lot or the Presumpscot River than the ocean, but big glass still changes a room. A picture window on a new subdivision home can open a living room to the yard, and a bay window adds seating and light to the front room of an older house on a narrow city lot. On closely spaced city lots, orientation and privacy shape where large glass belongs.

Cold winters make performance important. Large fixed units should have low-E, argon-filled insulated glass to limit heat loss, and a bay window needs a well-insulated seat and roof, because the projection sits outside the heated wall on three sides. The small roof over a bay collects snow and ice, so it needs ice barrier, careful flashing into the wall and proper support from below. Combining a fixed center with operable casements or double-hungs on the flanks keeps ventilation in summer. Deep bays also need a solid support bracket or foundation, not just the cantilever of an old floor joist.

The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey estimates about 9,580 housing units in Westbrook, with a median year built of 1975. The stock splits into two eras. About a quarter of homes were built before 1940 and roughly 37 percent before 1960, while close to a quarter were built in 2000 or later, reflecting the city's recent growth. Only about 44 percent of units are single-family detached houses; the rest are duplexes, apartment buildings, condominiums and other attached housing. Around 61 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied. The older layer includes the mill housing inside the Cumberland Mills Historic District and wood-frame homes like the 1914 Vallee Family House on Monroe Avenue, a clapboard American Foursquare with a hip roof and full front porch.

Originally called Saccarappa, Westbrook was incorporated in 1814, took its current name in honor of Colonel Thomas Westbrook, and became a city in 1891. The S.D. Warren paper mill on the Presumpscot River at Cumberland Mills was once the largest in the world, and the mill complex and its nineteenth-century worker and management housing make up the Cumberland Mills Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1974. Residents still name neighborhoods such as Cumberland Mills, Prides Corner, Frenchtown, Deer Hill and Woodland. Other listings include the Federal-style Nathan Harris House on Main Street, the Warren Block, Walker Memorial Library and the Old Westbrook High School.

Westbrook's Code Enforcement Department at City Hall, 2 York Street, issues building permits. The department publishes a building permit application specifically for basic renovations, alterations, sheds and decks, and enforces the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code: the 2021 International Residential Code and the 2021 International Existing Building Code. Inspections should be booked 48 to 72 hours ahead, and a permit lapses if work does not start within six months. The city also has a Flood Hazard Permit for work in mapped flood zones, and lots near the Presumpscot River may fall within Maine's mandatory shoreland zone, which covers land within 250 feet of a river.

Picture windows are large fixed units that frame a view and pour light into a room. Bay and bow windows project out from the wall, adding floor space and light from three or more directions. Both are heavier and more exposed than an ordinary window, so the structure, support, roof and flashing around them matter. The Cumberland Center colonial on this site received Andersen 400 Series bay, double-hung and picture windows.

• The opening, header and framing are checked; widening an opening may need a new header.
• Bay and bow units are supported with cables, brackets or a framed seat so they do not sag.
• The small roof over a bay is flashed into the wall and roofed or capped to match the house.
• Insulation goes into the seat and head so the projection is not a cold spot.
• Interior seat boards, casing and exterior trim are finished to match.

• A view you want to see more of from the main living space
• An old bay that sags, leaks at the roof, or feels cold at the seat
• Fogged glass in a large fixed unit
• A dark room that needs more daylight

• Size and configuration: picture, bay or bow, number of units
• Whether the rough opening changes size
• Support method and seat or roof finish
• Glass package and brand
• Interior finish carpentry

Every job is priced from a free on-site visit. Typical ranges for the trade are on our window replacement page, and the details of this service are on the bay and picture windows overview.

Back to the Westbrook exterior services overview, or see every town on our Cumberland County service areas page.