Historic Wooden WIndows Pressure TEsted Performance

by Matthew Wiley | Apr 18, 2023 | Historic Restoration, Wooden Windows

In order to pass installation and certification in some of the larger commercial restorations our windows have been placed in testing chambers to prove their durability against other industry products. So far, we have passed with flying colors. With the insight from these tests we did add a special weather beating feature to the windows that assists in bridging the gap between historic building methods and modern materials. If you’re buying a thousand windows, we’ll show you what it is! We can produce any type of complex multi-pane wooden historic window.

Wooden Window Restoration for Historic Churches

Historic Window Builder VA

Gepetto Millwork shop is tooled up to support your large historic restoration project and can meet your demands for up to 100 window frames and 200 sashes per month. Several of our large restoration projects across the south like the Montgomery Building in Spartansburg SC and the Bull Street District renovation of the State Hospital Building in Columbia SC. Both of these multi year renovations of existing structures were driven by Historic Tax credit incentives that hinged on finding a supplier for historically accurate windows.

Montgomery Building Spartansburg SC

by Matthew Wiley | Apr 18, 2023 | Historic Restoration, Wooden Windows

Montgomery Building

Spartansburg SC

Unique wooden and Historic Window Makers in the South East US

Montgomery Building Spartansburg SC Project Details

Project Awards:

Preservation South Carolina, Honor Award, 2021
Spartanburg County Historical Association, Peggy T. Gignilliat Preservation Award, 2021
Traditional Building Magazine, Palladio Award for Adaptive Reuse, 2021
CREW Upstate, Development Impact Award, 2019
ENR Southeast, Best Projects Award of Merit for Renovation / Restoration, 2019

In 1924 the Montgomery family, a very prominent family in Spartanburg’s textile manufacturing industry, commissioned Lockwood Greene to design and build the building. Completed in 1925, the 10-story Montgomery Building is one of the first Chicago-style construction projects ever built outside of Chicago.

In 2016, local developer BF Spartanburg came forward with a plan that city officials praised as a “next-level” catalyst for downtown Spartanburg. After engaging McMillan Pazdan Smith on a feasibility study, the development team created plans to restore the 92-year-old, iconic high-rise into a mixed-use retail, commercial, and residential project in the heart of the city’s central business district.

Our design team worked carefully with the National Park Service to meet their criteria for preserving and updating the building appropriately. The building façade’s pre-cast concrete panels were very innovative for their time, making it possibly the only remaining historic pre-cast Chicago-style building in the region. McMillan Pazdan Smith was able to source new concrete panels that replicate the old panels closely enough to receive approval in accordance with the building’s protected status on the National Historic Register of Places. Many of the building’s original Renaissance Revival style architectural details on the interior were also be preserved, including the decorative plaster ceilings and marble floors and walls. The renovated and restored Montgomery Building features 9,000 SF of select boutique retail stores and intimate restaurants on the ground floor. The second floor is dedicated office space, and the eight floors above are residential units, with approximately 92 one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging in size from 422 – 1,374 SF. The CM-At-Risk project was completed in 2019.

^From : McMillan Pazdan Smith Architectdure

montgomery building spartansburg sc wood windows

Featured in Traditional Building Magazine

McMillan Pazdan Smith revives the Montgomery Building, one of the only remaining pre-cast buildings in the Chicago School of Style in the country.

Gepetto Built Historic Replica Wooden Windows Installed in the apartments of the Montgomery Building

Custom by Architects

WholeSale to Builders

MADE IN VA

Sustainable & Reparable

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“Work was underway on the Montgomery Building in Spartanburg, South Carolina, when a consultant with the South Carolina State Historic Preservation Office noticed a slight discrepancy between the original column capitals and a new capitol mold awaiting approval.” ~Restoration of the Montgomery Building – Traditional Building Magazine

Montgomery Building historic millwork supplier

Old Window Restorer

Montgomery Building reconstruction to be honored by governor

For two decades, the 127,000-square-foot Montgomery Building, located along downtown Spartanburg’s North Church Street, remained vacant.

After years of neglect, the 10-story building’s precast concrete façade had deteriorated to the point that it was necessary to erect scaffolding along the buildings’ perimeter to protect pedestrians on the street from falling debris.

With the restorative hand of Harper General Contractors and design of McMillan Pazdan Smith, however, the Montgomery Building has reached new heights since its 2018 reconstruction.

On July 23, the team will be recognized by Gov. Henry McMaster in a ceremony at the Statehouse with Preservation South Carolina’s 2021 Honor Award.

“This is one of the most extraordinary projects that has ever been submitted,” Mike Bedenbaugh, president and CEO of Preservation South Carolina, said in a news release. “The challenges that had to be overcome with this building, most of the time, would have led to the demolition of other buildings. That’s why it deserves this award.”

Preservation South Carolina, the S.C. Department of Archives and History, and the governor’s office have recognized accomplishments in the preservation, rehabilitation and interpretation of the state’s architectural and cultural heritage with a series of awards since 1995.

In order to be considered, projects must have been completed, including all phases, within the last three years, made a positive impact on the community and the state, and achieve a degree of project difficulty while serving as an example of outstanding commitment to historic preservation and exemplary preservation techniques, according to the release.

Projects like this are why people like me become architects,” McMillan Pazdan Smith’s K.J. Jacobs, principal in charge and lead architect on the project, said in the release.

Virginia Window Restorers

Historic Replica Windows Made to Order

Southeast US Window Rehabilitation

Wooden Window Fabrication

Arch, Round Top, and Radius Window Builder

by Matthew Wiley | Mar 20, 2023 | Church Restoration, Reclaimed Wood Builder, Wooden Windows

Round & Arc Top Windows

Arch & Round Top Radius Wooden Windows Custom Built to Order or Restored in Virginia by local craftsmen with historically accurate methods

Gepetto craftsmen have been restoring windows with half-round lights above the window or full arc keystone panes (pictured in next photo) for over 15 years. Restoration of water rot or damaged sashes, or completely new solid wood replication to fit your historic Virginia home or church. Gepetto uses a mixture of modern shop tools and hand assembly to speed the building process. Historic homes of the 18th and 19th century relied heavily on the natural light from windows as remember it was either candles or oil lamps for light after the sun had hit the horizon.

Made with Love in the Blue Ridge Gepetto Craftsmen supply plantation house, row house, and all manner of 18th and 19th centrury historic replica windows. Specifically hard to find are craftsmen skilled and trained to replicate or repair uniquely shaped round windows or upper window panes of various arc lengths.

Rounded Top Replica Historic Windows

Arch & Round Top Radius Wooden Windows Custom Built

If you are a homeowner who needs window service, it’s best to bring in a local contractor because Gepetto acually supplies local contractors. If your local contrator or handyman seems shy to work with your historic wooden windows, have them give Matthew a call and we’ll be glad to assure them of the skills or techniques they would need to have the hardware fabricated at our millwork shop, and installed by them locally. Our craftsmen are generally millwrights and while they can install windows, it’s simply not time efficient for us as most general contractors can do a good job.

Arch & Radius Arc Wooden Window Builder

Historically Accurate Round Windows

Arc top classic southern historic window builder supplying replacement windows from our Virginia shop. Built by hand to historic standards and matching solid wood mortise and tennon construction of the original windows. Whether it’s a specific wood rot, that just needs some restoration we can replace anthing from a section to the whole window. Bring in a single sash to our shop in the blue ridge and we’ll gladly restore it by hand. We have also handled large scale commercial restorations supplying as many as 900 sashes (450 windows and frames) to a single building historic restoration.

Historic Church Restoration Wooden Doors & Decorative Elements

We Also Make Rounded Top Doors

Round Window Builder Virginia

Historic Renovation | Replica Wooden Windows

by Gepetto Millworks | Jun 5, 2018 | Historic Restoration, Wooden Windows

Replica Wooden Windows being built on our shop assembly line.

We have finished one of our single largest historic renovation contracts creating 860 historic replica windows. Built by hand from African mahogany they passed all physical wear and environmental challenge tests before we began building. The Montgomery Building in Spartansburg SC renovated by Harper Construction. Our team has put in overtime, thought through materials problems and worked diligently through some long hours to make sure we met the project deadlines. Thank you all for your skills and dedication!

Built on a Modern Timeline

Gepetto craftsmen specialize in matching and remaking historic pieces for accurate and lasting renovations qualifying for historic tax credits. While the woodworking may not have changed, people’s expectations as to how long something should take sure have!

The solid mahogany window frames are to the millimeter replicas of the originals, however our bid and the general contractor’s timeline called for a 100 day turnaround on 860 windows. We had to devise a workflow that built 5 windows a day to meet that timeline!

Wooden windows over 70 inches tall

When the tallest guy on your team can walk through a window frame without ducking, it’s a big job. The window frames are of pine, and so sourcing stable quality pine planks 8×2″ over 6ft long is also a trick of the trade that you’ll have to hire us to take advantage of fully. Part of our ability to meet detailed project requirements are our network that sources the raw wood materials right for your construction. The window frame boxes must be accurately joined to square and plumb and so in the video you see us filling the window frame boxes with the window sashes. We have a few more trade secret tips for weather sealing and glazing that helped us pass the stress and efficiency tests that were required by the contractor before they signed off on the whole project. Historically accurate, but meeting modern energy efficiency and weather resistance standards are a modern manufacturing success.

Master Craftsmanship Passed On

Matthew (with the logo t-shirt in the foreground) intently solving the positioning and fit puzzle that manufacturing wood projects presents on a daily basis. He teaches the craftsmen who are observing the process as well as the sensibility for checking the work. Unlike metals, cement or fiberglass – wood can only be shaped once. Forming a miter joint must be done with exacting precision or it’s too loose and fails. The solid wood construction of these windows include over 20 joints that must be tended to individually. The decision making process of the craftsman guides the fitting and because we have such a large manufacturing scale – the craftsman makes better choices. If piece A is too tight, he can choose from the source stack of forty or fifty pieces to find a better fit without creating wasted pieces or time.

Manufacturing scale at your service

Contact us to bid your historic renovation and you might be surprised at the price. We have managed many large construction orders for clients across the Eastern United States. The windows in the video are shipped to South Carolina where the coastal towns of Charleston and Savannah Georgia have beautiful sections of historic homes. We supply warehouse and industrial space reconstruction projects in Maryland, Delaware and as far north a Connecticut as the move to re-purpose industrial spaces trends throughout the building and architectural trades.

Project Management

20 years of experience in the field of mill-work has brought Matthew to the level of managing million dollar contracts for large scale production. Nothing in the wood construction field is quite as organized as you might assume, in the above picture Matthew is measuring and calculating the quantity of raw beams needed to be transported from the warehouse to the shop. Materials management, time management and building a skilled workforce that can solve problems as they develop in manufacture all contribute to meeting your project demands.

Big Projects Lost in Small Details

Raw lumber comes from raw nature – she’s not perfectly uniform. These planks are from 8ft to 12ft long and any width from 4 inches to 34 inches! We have to mill the mahogany from it’s beam size to a 3.8 ” wide window sill. The plank mahogany will be sorted and ripped before the decorative edge is milled into the side to replicate the historic windows from the 1920’s era building.

Replica Wooden Windows

Wooden Window Assembly Line

Timelapse video of Replica Wooden Windows being built on our woodshop assembly line in Richmond VA. Built for a historic renovation in Spartansburg SC our craftsmen forge raw mahogany planks into finely tuned handmade windows.

Custom by Architects

WholeSale to Builders

MADE IN VA

Sustainable & Reparable

Request Historic Window Restoration

Virginia Window Restorers

Historic Replica Windows Made to Order

Southeast US Window Rehabilitation

Wooden Window Fabrication

Historically accurate wooden window supplier South Carolina

Gepetto Millworks makes to order any type of historic replica of existing windows. For historically accurate renovation or commercial re-purposing projects that wish to keep the historic charm and effectiveness of mahogony built windows.

Custom built wood skylights

by Gepetto Millworks | Sep 23, 2017 | Wooden Windows

Original skylights were designed in historic buildings to play a significant architectural role in illuminating the magnificent interior spaces below them. Historic skylights were placed to catch the light not have easy access for repair so and so are poorly maintained. Biannual inspection and repair are recommended because the work to restore these old skylights often involves rebuilding and re-designing structural elements. Gepetto craftsmen will use historic methods and materials if requested, or we can blend modern materials with the historic look. Either choice our replacement or restoration will result in decades of service.

Houses designed before electricity

Used windows for light

Something our architects and designers were not forced to do after the turn of the 20th century. So for houses built after 1900, you are less likely to find skylights and other natural light gathering features because the designer or builder just assumed you would switch on a lightbulb. Gepetto craftsmen have specialized in renovating, repairing and building true to original wooden skylights in historic homes across Virginia. Contact us to get a site visit or quote scheduled.

Common repair or replacement issues:

glass – single and double pane; historic glass; stained glass
glazing and sealing of the wood to glass joinery
flashings and skylight to roof joints
structural members supporting the elevated glass
sealants

Many of mother nature’s subtle and pervasive forces work against a skylight! Thermal shifting, structural movement from settling or shifting, high UV radiation, wind vibration and water pressure. The glazing system must defend against all mother nature offers as disturbance. Shed and drain water, support and cushion the glass, avoid mechanical pressure points, and seal against thermal leakage.

Solid Wood Spiral Staircase Manufacture

by Gepetto Millworks | February 23, 2017 | Commercial Spaces, Office Interiors | 0 Comments

Are you renovating an old warehouse into office space? Adding to your home or business and want the interesting architectural element and compact design of a spiral for access?If you don’t have room for a conventional stairway use a spiral staircase! Outdoor spiral...

Creative Office Interior Design & Construction Services

by Gepetto Millworks | January 19, 2017 | Office Interior Fabrication, Office Interiors, Richmond VA Woodworkers | 0 Comments

$89 to $142/SF Upgraded with some drywall ceiling areas with indirect cove lighting, architectural woodwork doors and frames, glass office fronts in matching wood framing; 30% of wall areas as premium-grade architectural woodwork, 40% with acoustical fabric...

District of Columbia Historic Decorative Windows

by Gepetto Millworks | Jun 21, 2017 | Wooden Windows

Decorative Windows manufactured in Northern VA by dedicated local craftsmen able to repair and or replace all sizes and finishes to achieve the historic look. Whether you’re applying for historic tax credits or finishing your new construction with an older architectural style that includes gables, imperfect glass, decorative panes, intricate diamond window panes or round windows.

Washington, D.C. Decorative Window Fabrication

The windows on many historic buildings set and define the architectural character of the buildings in which they allow light into. The external window casings and their decorative elements show the difference between the architectural styles and historic periods in which they were favored. Restore or renovate your home or multi-story building to historic standards eligible for tax credits using classically created wood products from here in Virginia.

Arlington, Virginia Historic Window Custom Builder

Design, craftsmanship, and glass qualities make wooden windows worthy of preservation. We regularly restore windows 100+ years old and expect our solid wood newly built windows to last as long with regular maintenance.

Alexandria, VA Unique & Odd circular window order for manufacture

This is self-evident for ornamental windows, but it can be equally true for warehouses or factories where the windows may be the most dominant visual element of an otherwise plain building.

Bethesda, Maryland Wooden Architectural Decorative Elements made to order

Evaluating the significance of these windows and planning for their repair or replacement can be a complex process involving both objective and subjective considerations which our experienced estimators and installers will take care of for you.

Frederick, MD Architectural Millwork Custom Fabricated to measure

Gaithersburg, Maryland Fit and Finish Wood Trim for windows, doors, and interior rooms. Historic Window builder using authentic construction techniques for solid wooden windows.

Reston, Virginia Handmade Custom Millwork for Historic Homes and Buildings

Rockville, Maryland Area Wooden Architectural Elements that stylize homes and offices

Top of the window called the head casing has a drip cap to keep water from entering through gaps in the top of the opening. A cornice or crown molding can add decorative detail to the physical effect and structure. Exterior window trim has a windowsill, which, like the drip cap, keeps the interior dry and blocks the elements but it’s width, ornamentation, and corner detail create a style out of a line.

Silver Spring, Maryland Built to Order Wooden Windows, Doors and Architectural Elements of any architectural style

Legal Disclaimer:

Gepetto Millworks does not install or service windows directly in the District of Columbia. Local Liscensed Contractors may deliver window sashes and or frames to our Virginia facility outside Charlottesville for restoration services provided by our experienced craftsmen and pickup for installation from our shop.

American Siding and Windows is a local contractor available for on-site service.