The Story Behind the Emerald Isle Job
Emerald Isle sits high on the ridge above Chevy Chase Canyon, the highest and most private pocket of the Verdugo hills on Glendale’s east side. The homes here mostly went up in the 1960s and ’70s, larger two-story floor plans with brick accents and long views back toward the mountains. This one had a problem that had nothing to do with age and everything to do with how its windows had been put in.
At some point the house had been fitted with retrofit windows, the kind that slip into the existing frame instead of being tied back into the wall. Done well, retrofits have their place. Done poorly, they leave the weatherproofing behind the window incomplete, and that is exactly what had happened here: water was finding its way in around the openings. By the time the owners called us, this was no longer a cosmetic question. It was a keep-the-water-out question.
The owners decided to do it right rather than patch it again. They chose new-construction Fleetwood windows, slim black aluminum frames that would modernize the whole front of the house, and while we were in there, we corrected the waterproofing at every opening so the leaking would stop for good. To finish the transformation, we brought in a CBW custom entry door, a modern vertical-plank wood design with a full-height pull handle, sized to the existing opening. Between the black Fleetwood frames and the new door, the front of the house went from dated and leaking to clean, modern, and dry.
The Problem
The home's windows were retrofit units that had been poorly installed, slipped into the old frames without the weatherproofing being properly tied back into the wall. The result was water penetration around the openings, the kind of problem that only gets worse and can't be solved by resealing the surface. On top of the leaks, the dated white frames and the traditional arched-glass double entry door left the front of the house looking older than it needed to.
The Solution
The owners chose to replace the failing retrofits with new-construction Fleetwood windows. Our in-house crew removed every old window, took each opening back so the waterproofing could be corrected and integrated properly, then set, flashed, and sealed the new Fleetwood units in black aluminum frames throughout. We also brought in a CBW custom-built modern entry door sized to the original opening. As an authorized Fleetwood dealer, we sourced the windows and coordinated the custom door, and our own licensed crew handled demo, waterproofing, install, and finish, with no subcontractors.
The Result
A front elevation that's both dry and modern. The water intrusion is resolved at the source, not covered over. Every opening was re-waterproofed before the new units went in. The slim black Fleetwood frames sharpen every window against the pale stucco, the new CBW door gives the entry a real focal point, and the house reads as one deliberate, up-to-date design instead of a dated exterior with a hidden leak.