Windows & Doors in Hammond: Country Homes in Clarence-Rockland

Hammond is where Clarence-Rockland stops being a suburb and becomes the country: big lots, long driveways, the golf course on one side and the pines of Larose Forest on the other. People move here for space and quiet, and then discover that a house with a lot of glass facing a lot of open field is expensive to keep warm. Unisson Groupe now brings factory-direct, made-to-measure windows and doors to Hammond, with bilingual in-home estimates and installation by our own crews.

Why Unisson now serves Hammond — and what factory-direct means

Hammond sits in the southern part of the City of Clarence-Rockland, between Bourget and the Ottawa city line, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. It grew up in the 1880s along the rail line that J.R. Booth's Canada Atlantic Railway pushed through the bush — first as a lumber camp settlement called North Indian, then as a farming village once the land was cleared, with a post office from 1895 and a building that served as chapel, school and hall by 1902. The railway is long gone, but the pattern it left is still visible: a small village core surrounded by farms, and increasingly by country estate lots where families from Orléans and Ottawa build the house they could not afford in the city. Part of Larose Forest, the huge conifer plantation started in 1928 on eroded farmland, lies within Hammond's territory, and the Hammond Golf & Country Club draws players from across the county.

It is a small community, a couple of thousand residents at most depending on where you draw the line, and like the rest of Clarence-Rockland it is largely francophone. For Unisson, that is a natural fit: our advisors, contracts and installation crews all work in French as well as English, which is not something every Ottawa-based window company can say when they arrive in Prescott-Russell. Hammond is also about two hours from our factory in Saint-Laurent, Montréal — close enough to sit on our regular Eastern Ontario route rather than being a special trip.

Factory-direct means we manufacture what we sell. Unisson Groupe builds its own UPVC and hybrid windows, entry doors and patio doors and sells them straight to homeowners, with no dealer, distributor or subcontracted installer in the chain. The person who measures your openings, the plant that builds the units and the crew that installs them all work for the same company, so you get one quote, one warranty and one number to call. Our RBQ licence 5670-0248 is a Quebec credential; in Ontario we work to the Ontario Building Code and carry the insurance and worker coverage the province requires, with certificates available on request.

• Bilingual service from the estimate through installation
• Manufacturer, not dealer: our own Saint-Laurent factory, our own crews on the county roads
• Made to measure for large custom openings and old farmhouse frames alike
• Free in-home estimate throughout Hammond and rural Clarence-Rockland, financing available

Homes in Hammond: estate lots, farmhouses and a lot of exposed glass

Hammond's housing is dominated by two things: space and glass. The newer country homes on estate lots — built from the 1990s through today, often on an acre or more — tend to be large bungalows and two-storeys with big windows on every side to take in the view, oversized patio doors onto rear decks, and sometimes a wall of glass in a great room. Around the village core and along the concession roads are the older farmhouses and the 1960s to 1980s houses built by farming families on severed lots, generally smaller, with more modest windows, but often with additions and mismatched replacements accumulated over decades.

What fails is predictable. On the estate homes, the culprit is usually builder-grade vinyl and double glazing chosen to hit a price on a house with a lot of window area: frames that have bowed on the sunny south side, crank operators that have stripped on the big casements, patio doors that drag and leak at the sill, and large fixed units that radiate cold across the room in January. On older houses it is the familiar rural story — rotted wood sills under paint, aluminum sliders that frost on the inside track, first-generation double-glazed units with failed seals, and three window generations on one house, each sealed differently.

The climate makes all of it worse. Hammond gets full Ottawa Valley winters — −25 °C to −30 °C cold snaps with wind sweeping across open fields with nothing to break it — followed by humid summers and long freeze-thaw seasons from November to April. Wind-driven cold is the specific problem here: a house on a treeless acre loses far more heat through leaky windows than the same house on a sheltered village street. Add the Champlain Sea clay under much of Prescott-Russell, which shifts foundations and pulls openings out of square over the decades, and a made-to-measure window built to the actual opening stops being a luxury and becomes the only thing that will seal properly.

• Estate homes, 1990s–today: large builder-vinyl casements, bowed frames, oversized double-glazed patio doors
• Farmhouses and 1960s–80s houses: rotted sills, aluminum sliders, failed seals, mismatched replacements
• Wind exposure: open fields on every side mean drafts cost more here than in town
• Clay soil: foundation movement leaves openings out of square — measure every one

Which windows and doors make sense for country homes

For Hammond, our recommendation starts with triple-glazed UPVC casements and awnings for every opening that opens, and triple-glazed fixed units for the view windows that do not. UPVC multi-chamber frames do not conduct cold the way aluminum does, a casement's compression seal closes against wind far better than any slider, and triple glazing with two low-e coatings and argon fill keeps the inside pane warm enough that you can sit in front of the great-room window in January without feeling cold pouring off the glass. On large openings, we build reinforced frames so a big casement stays rigid and the hardware lasts.

Homeowners who want a dark exterior to match a modern country house — black or charcoal against board-and-batten or stone — usually choose our hybrid windows, which pair a UPVC interior with an aluminum-clad exterior that holds its colour through years of full sun. Every window we build is ENERGY STAR certified under Canada's single national specification, in force since 2020: a U-factor of 1.22 W/m²·K or lower, or an Energy Rating of 34 or higher. We encourage you to compare label numbers on any quote you receive, ours included, and to ask about the stricter Most Efficient tier if you want to go further.

Doors are the other big heat loss on a country house. An oversized sliding patio door onto the deck is often the coldest surface in the home; a triple-glazed replacement with a thermally broken sill and smooth, adjustable rollers changes the whole room, and a garden door or French door is an option where the opening allows. At the front and the mudroom, an insulated fibreglass or steel entry door with a multi-point lock and an adjustable threshold closes the gap the wind has been using. Browse the full range on our windows page, then let the in-home visit match each opening to the right product.

• Triple-glazed UPVC casements, awnings and fixed units: the standard for exposed rural lots
• Hybrid UPVC/aluminum windows: black and charcoal exteriors for modern country homes
• Patio, garden and French doors: triple-glazed low-e, thermally broken sills, reinforced for large openings
• Entry and mudroom doors: insulated fibreglass or steel, multi-point locks, adjustable thresholds

Ontario specifics: building code, permits and rebates

Hammond is in Ontario, so the Ontario Building Code governs your project, not Quebec's construction code. We build and install to Ontario requirements: bedroom windows must provide the minimum egress opening the OBC specifies, safety glazing is required near doors, floors and tubs, and replacement units should not reduce the energy performance of the wall assembly. Our advisors flag anything code-related during the in-home measurement so it is handled in the quote rather than discovered on installation day.

For permits, the City of Clarence-Rockland's general position is that replacing windows or doors requires a permit only when the structure must be modified — enlarging an opening, cutting a new one, changing a header. A like-for-like replacement in the same opening typically does not. Because many Hammond homes are newer and owners often want to enlarge a window or add a patio door onto a deck, this comes up more often here than in town; rules and interpretations change, so confirm with the City's building department for your address, and we will tell you plainly when a plan needs that call.

On rebates, the federal Canada Greener Homes Grant and Loan are closed to new applications. At the time of writing, the Ontario Home Renovation Savings Program, delivered by Save on Energy and Enbridge Gas, offers a per-opening rebate on eligible ENERGY STAR windows and doors, generally conditional on a home energy assessment and on pairing the windows with at least one other qualifying upgrade such as insulation or air sealing. Eligibility depends in part on how your home is heated, and many rural homes here use propane, oil or electricity rather than natural gas, so read the conditions carefully. Amounts and deadlines change; verify on the official program site before you count on it. We can help you understand what applies, but we will not promise money that is not ours.

• Ontario Building Code: egress dimensions, safety glazing, energy performance of the wall
• Permits in Clarence-Rockland: generally required only when the structure changes — common when enlarging openings; confirm with the City
• Federal Greener Homes programs: closed to new applications
• Ontario Home Renovation Savings Program: per-opening ENERGY STAR rebate with conditions, including heating type — check current terms

How it works from our Montréal factory to your door

It starts with a free in-home estimate, in French or English. A Unisson advisor drives out to Hammond, walks the house with you, measures every opening precisely — including the oversized ones that stock catalogues do not cover — and notes what only shows up in person: a sill that has softened, a patio door that has dropped on its rollers, a great-room window that has never been properly sealed. You receive a written quote with actual products, actual dimensions and a clear installation scope. Book it through our free estimation page; evenings and weekends are available.

Once approved, the order goes straight to our Saint-Laurent factory. Lead times depend on the season and the mix — large custom units and hybrid windows in dark colours take longer than standard white UPVC — so expect several weeks and a realistic date rather than a hopeful one. Hammond is about two hours from the plant, so your units come on our own truck with our own crew, not through a freight terminal, and the crew brings the equipment needed to set a large unit safely. A typical house takes one to three days; a big country home with many openings may take longer, and we plan for it.

You are covered by our manufacturer's warranty on frames and sealed units and by our workmanship warranty on the installation, with the exact terms written into your contract. Financing with monthly payments is available, subject to approval, so a whole-house project on a large home can be spread out. And because Hammond sits on our regular Ottawa–Hawkesbury route, a service visit after the job is a scheduled stop, not a special trip from Montréal.

• Step 1: free bilingual in-home measurement, including oversized openings; written quote
• Step 2: made-to-measure production in Saint-Laurent, realistic lead time
• Step 3: delivery on our truck, installation by our own crew, usually 1–3 days
• Step 4: warranty on product and workmanship; financing by monthly payments

Frequently Asked Questions