Casement & Awning Windows

IRC Section R310, adopted by New Jersey under N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.21, requires every sleeping room to have at least one emergency escape and rescue opening (EERO). The numbers we design to: minimum net clear opening of 5.7 sq ft above grade (5.0 sq ft at grade floor), minimum 24 inches clear height, minimum 20 inches clear width, and a sill no more than 44 inches above the finished floor.

Net clear opening is where double-hungs fail and casements win. A 32x48 double-hung gives you roughly 2.6 sq ft of net opening because only half the sash slides up. A casement of the same RO swings the whole sash out and clears closer to 6.0 sq ft — comfortably above the 5.7 threshold. That's why every bedroom remodel we do in NJ that needs egress gets quoted with a casement first.

Watch the hinge type. Standard butt hinges only swing the sash 90 degrees and steal ~3 inches of clear width on a 24-inch sash. Egress hinges (4-bar hinges with a slide track) let the sash slide away from the jamb as it opens, recovering that 3 inches and giving you a true 20+ inch clear width on smaller units. Marvin calls them 'Egress' hinges; Andersen calls them 'Wash Mode'; the spec sheet matters more than the marketing name.

Three companies make most of the operating hardware inside North American casements and awnings: Truth Hardware (Owatonna, MN — owned by Tyman), Roto North America (made in Chesterfield, MI), and Amesbury Truth (the merged entity that now produces most OEM hardware for Andersen, Marvin, Pella, and the major vinyl brands). Knowing which is on your window matters because replacement parts are not cross-compatible.

On a 15-20 year old window the cam-action lock handle is usually the first thing to fail — the zinc casting cracks at the cam. Truth Encore and Maxim handles are stocked items we carry on the truck. Roto X-Drive operators are slightly trickier; we order them as needed. The crank operator (the actual gear box you turn) usually outlasts the handle but is the second failure point, typically at the 20-25 year mark. We rebuild the operator with the original hardware brand when possible — replacing a Truth dyad with a Roto Series 50 means re-drilling the sash, which we avoid.

Hinges are the third failure. Standard steel 4-bar hinges rust at the pivot pins, especially on south- and west-facing elevations. We replace with stainless equivalents — Truth 16.10 stainless or Amesbury Truth Maxim stainless — sized to the original sash weight. On Shore properties we never reinstall plated steel hinges; they'll fail again inside the warranty period.

The wind off the Atlantic carries chloride aerosol several miles inland. Anywhere east of the Garden State Parkway in Atlantic, Cape May, Ocean, and Monmouth counties, we treat the install as marine environment. Standard zinc-plated hardware will show rust bloom within 12 months and seizure within 36.

Marine spec: 316 stainless steel hardware (not 304 — 304 will still pit in chloride), stainless fasteners throughout, marine-grade weatherstripping (TPE rather than EPDM for better salt resistance), and an exterior finish on the sash that's either fluoropolymer (Kynar 500/Hylar 5000 PVDF) for aluminum-clad or a marine-grade vinyl formulation. We spec Andersen 100 Series (Fibrex), Marvin Coastline (which is engineered for this exact use case), or ProVia Endure with the marine hardware upgrade.

Screws into the frame anchor go in with stainless or hot-dipped galvanized — never zinc-plated. We bed every anchor in butyl or PowerHouse sealant so the fastener shaft never sees standing salt water. On the interior side, hardware boxes for the operator get a thin film of marine-grade dielectric grease at install. None of this is overkill at the Shore; it's the difference between a 25-year window and an 8-year window.

Casements: bedrooms (egress), kitchens over the sink (the crank lets you operate without reaching across a hot range), home offices (full sash opens for ventilation), and any opening where you want maximum glass area with a clean sightline. Casements perform best on east and west elevations where the sash can be tilted to scoop or shed prevailing breezes.

Awnings: bathrooms (privacy with the sash open in rain), basements above grade (when the sill is too high for a casement to be operable from inside), high transom windows above fixed picture units, and stacked configurations where you want ventilation at the top of a tall window wall. Awnings shed rain naturally when open and are the right choice on any elevation that takes wind-driven precipitation.

Combination units — fixed picture with flanker casements, or a fixed center with awning transoms — are how we hit modern open-concept window walls without sacrificing operable area or egress. We mull these in-shop with structural mullion covers and warranty the combined assembly as a single unit.