Windows & Doors in Hawkesbury: Factory-Direct From 110 km Away

Hawkesbury sits on the Ontario bank of the Ottawa River, 110 km — about an hour and a quarter — from Unisson Groupe's factory in Saint-Laurent. That makes our plant closer to a Hawkesbury home than to some Montréal suburbs, and it is why Hawkesbury is the first Ontario town where we now measure, manufacture, deliver and install windows and doors with our own crews. Bilingual service comes standard; in the most francophone town in Ontario, it should.

Why Hawkesbury Is a Natural Fit for a Montréal Manufacturer

Look at a map and Hawkesbury is practically a Montréal-region town: cross the Long-Sault Bridge and you are in Grenville, Quebec; follow Highway 40 east and you reach our factory in about 75 minutes. For years, homeowners here have bought windows from dealers in Ottawa or Montréal who subcontracted the installation and passed the driving cost along. We simply drive the other way.

Buying factory-direct changes the arithmetic. Unisson Groupe manufactures every window and door we sell at our own plant in Saint-Laurent, delivers on our own trucks and installs with our own employees. No dealer margin, no independent installer whose warranty differs from the manufacturer's, no finger-pointing when something needs adjusting. For a town of roughly 10,000 people, that also means the same crew that measured your house is the one standing in your kitchen on installation day.

And there is the language. About three-quarters of Hawkesbury residents speak French at home, and a large majority are fluent in both languages — the town is often cited as the most francophone municipality in Ontario. Our team works in French first and English just as easily, so the quote, the contract, the warranty and the conversation on site all happen in whichever language you prefer.

Hawkesbury Homes: A Mill Town's Housing Stock

Hawkesbury grew up around the river and its mills — the riverfront paper mill shaped the town for most of the twentieth century — and its housing reflects that history. The streets near Main Street and the river hold pre-war frame houses, brick duplexes and wartime-era workers' homes; the post-war decades added bungalows and modest two-storeys toward the south and west; more recent subdivisions and rental buildings fill in the edges. Roughly half of the town's dwellings are rented, so landlords with aging duplexes are as much our customers as owner-occupiers.

The failure modes follow the eras. Older homes often still have painted wood sashes behind aluminum storm windows, with sills that have rotted quietly under decades of paint. Houses renovated in the 1970s and 1980s carry first-generation aluminum sliders and early vinyl units whose sealed glass has long since fogged. Steel entry doors installed twenty years ago are warping, and back doors facing the river breeze leak around sweeps and thresholds.

Hawkesbury's climate is the Ottawa Valley's: January cold that regularly reaches -25 °C and touches -30 °C with wind, humid summers, and many freeze-thaw cycles between November and April. The river adds its own dampness — fog on spring mornings, high humidity all summer — which is hard on wood and on any window whose seal has started to go.

• Pre-war and wartime homes: rotted wood sills, single glazing, storm windows that have to be swapped every season.
• 1960s–1980s renovations: aluminum sliders that frost, first-generation vinyl with failed sealed units.
• Duplexes and small rentals: mismatched replacement windows installed one at a time over the years.

The Right Products for Hawkesbury Homes

For most Hawkesbury houses — and for landlords replacing several units at once — a welded multi-chamber UPVC window is the sensible choice: it insulates far better than aluminum, never needs paint, and stands up to the humidity off the river. Casement and awning styles seal by compression and are the tightest option for walls exposed to the wind along the water; sliders and hung styles keep the look of an older facade where that matters.

All of our windows are ENERGY STAR certified under Canada's single national specification, in force since 2020: a U-factor no higher than 1.22 W/m²·K, or an Energy Rating of 34 or better. Our triple-glazed Low-E units go well beyond that threshold, and in a region where many homes are still heated with electricity, oil or propane, the difference shows up on the monthly bill.

For doors, an insulated steel or fibreglass entry door with a multi-point lock replaces the warped slab; a Low-E patio door with proper rollers replaces the one that grinds every time it opens onto the deck. Our hybrid windows — aluminum outside, PVC inside — are there for anyone who wants dark frames on a renovated facade.

Ontario Code, Rebates and Permits in Hawkesbury

Even though our factory is in Quebec, work in Hawkesbury is governed by the Ontario Building Code, and we build and install to it: bedroom egress dimensions, safety glazing, and product performance rated to the CSA A440 / NAFS standard. Ontario does not require a contractor licence equivalent to Quebec's RBQ; our RBQ 5670-0248 remains a mark of accountability, and our crews are insured for work on Ontario job sites. Your invoice shows Ontario HST, not Quebec's GST and QST.

On rebates, Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program — delivered by Enbridge Gas and Save on Energy — has been offering a fixed rebate per ENERGY STAR window or door opening, typically tied to a home energy assessment and to bundling windows with a second upgrade such as insulation. Eligibility depends in part on how the home is heated, and the program's terms and deadlines change; check the current conditions before you commit. We supply the ENERGY STAR documentation for every unit.

For permits, a same-size replacement in the same opening usually does not require a building permit from the Town of Hawkesbury; enlarging or adding an opening does. Rules can differ between Hawkesbury and the surrounding townships of Champlain and East Hawkesbury, so a quick call to the municipal building department is worthwhile — our estimator can tell you whether your project is likely to need one.

From Saint-Laurent to Hawkesbury: How the Process Works

Book a free in-home estimate and one of our technicians drives out — an easy trip along Highway 40 and across the river, or up County Road 17. They measure every opening, inspect the frames and sills, and go over styles, glazing and colours with you in French or English. The quote comes from the manufacturer, in writing.

Your units are then custom-built at our Saint-Laurent factory. Because Hawkesbury is our closest Ontario destination, scheduling is flexible: we can fit installation around the season, and a service visit is a short drive rather than a special trip. Expect several weeks from signature to installation depending on the time of year; installation itself usually takes one to two days for a typical house, including removal, perimeter insulation, exterior capping and cleanup.

The warranty covers the product and the installation together, from the same company that made them. Financing is available for Ontario homeowners, which makes it practical to replace an entire older house in one go — the approach that pays off most when every window is the same age.

• Measurement — free, at your home, in French or English.
• Manufacturing — at our own factory, 110 km away.
• Delivery and installation — our trucks, our crews.
• Warranty and financing — direct from the manufacturer.

Beyond Hawkesbury: Prescott-Russell and North Glengarry

The same trucks that serve Hawkesbury continue along the river to L'Orignal, Alfred, Plantagenet, Wendover and Rockland, and down Highway 34 to Vankleek Hill and Alexandria. Champlain, East Hawkesbury, Alfred and Plantagenet, The Nation, Clarence-Rockland and North Glengarry are all in our service area.

Prescott-Russell as a whole is majority francophone, and the villages along Highway 17 include some of the most French-speaking communities in the province. If your family has been talking about new windows in French and getting quotes in English, that is now a solved problem.

Frequently Asked Questions