Windows & Doors in Vankleek Hill: Preserving the Gingerbread Capital

Vankleek Hill calls itself the Gingerbread Capital of Ontario, and one walk along its streets explains why: red-brick Victorians with lacy bargeboards, turned spindles and bay windows, most of them built after the fire of 1855 and dressed up by local mills in the decades that followed. Replacing windows in a house like that is a matter of respect as much as of insulation. Unisson Groupe now serves Vankleek Hill directly from our factory in Saint-Laurent, with windows built to the proportions of those openings and installed by our own bilingual crews.

Why Unisson now serves Vankleek Hill

Vankleek Hill is a town of roughly 1,800 people in Champlain Township, on Highway 34 about ten minutes south of Hawkesbury and a short hop from the 417. It is known well beyond Prescott-Russell for its architecture — somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250 Victorian-era buildings with ornamental trim — and, more recently, for a brewery that put the town on a lot of weekend itineraries. Its agricultural fair is among the oldest in the province, and murals downtown tell the story of a place founded by Loyalist settlers that became a mixed anglophone and francophone community over the following two centuries.

Homeowners here have plenty of window sellers to choose from; what they have lacked is a manufacturer. Unisson Groupe builds UPVC and hybrid windows and entry and patio doors at our own plant in Saint-Laurent, roughly 120 kilometres away — an hour and twenty minutes by the 40 and the 417. We now schedule measurement visits and installations across the Ottawa River corridor from Hawkesbury to eastern Ottawa, and Vankleek Hill sits comfortably inside that loop. Factory-direct means the estimator, the plant and the installation crew all belong to one company: no distributor margin, no divided responsibility, one warranty.

Vankleek Hill is more anglophone than the villages around it, but Prescott-Russell as a whole is majority francophone and many households here switch languages without thinking about it. Our crews and office do the same. Quotes, contracts and warranty documents come in French or English, whichever you prefer.

• Manufacturer with our own factory in Saint-Laurent, about 1h20 from Vankleek Hill
• RBQ licence 5670-0248, ENERGY STAR certified UPVC and hybrid windows
• Bilingual estimators, crews and documents

Homes in Vankleek Hill: Victorian brick and its window openings

The signature house here is a two-storey red-brick Victorian from the 1860s to the 1900s, often with a steep front gable, a bay window on the ground floor, and window heads finished with a segmental brick arch or a stone lintel. The openings are tall and relatively narrow, with the original double-hung wood sashes divided into two or six lights. The gingerbread itself — bargeboards, brackets, spindles and porch columns — came from local mills that, by the 1880s and 1890s, were producing decorative millwork for the whole region. Around this Victorian core are Edwardian and interwar houses, post-war bungalows and, on the edges of town, subdivisions from the 1970s onward.

In the Victorians, the windows that fail are usually the original wood sashes or, more often, a first round of replacements from the 1980s or 1990s that were never a good fit: white vinyl sliders squeezed into tall openings with filler panels, or aluminum storms over sashes that no longer close. Rope-and-weight mechanisms have seized, glazing putty has fallen out, and the top sash has been painted shut for decades. In the post-war homes the story is the familiar one of failed sealed units, fogged glass and cold aluminum frames. Entry doors on both are often handsome but thermally hopeless.

The climate is the same as the rest of the Ottawa Valley: −30 °C cold snaps, wind that finds every gap in an old sash, and a long freeze-thaw shoulder season in spring that drives water into brick joints and behind sills. On a brick house, a leaking window is not just a comfort problem — repeated wetting and freezing of the brick around the opening leads to spalling, and that is expensive masonry work to put right.

Keeping the gingerbread look while modernizing the glass

The goal in a Vankleek Hill Victorian is to modernize the glass and the seal without changing what the house looks like from the sidewalk. That starts with proportions: we build windows to the actual opening, tall and narrow if that is what the brick arch dictates, rather than filling the gap with panels. Simulated divided lites on the exterior, with a spacer bar between the panes to keep the shadow line, recreate a two-over-two or six-over-six pattern convincingly. Frame colours matter as much as grilles — a cream, a deep green, a dark brown or a black frame against red brick is far closer to the original than bright white.

Whether any of this is required rather than simply advisable depends on the property. Some buildings in Vankleek Hill are designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, and Champlain Township may have expectations for others. We are not the authority on that, and we would rather say so plainly: if your house is designated or you are unsure, contact the township before ordering, and share what you learn with our estimator. We will then propose profiles, grilles and colours that satisfy both the township and your heating bill. If your house is not designated, the same choices are still the ones that will look right in twenty years.

• Built to the original proportions — no filler panels in tall openings
• Simulated divided lites with spacer bars for a true two-over-two or six-over-six look
• Heritage-appropriate colours: cream, deep green, dark brown, black
• Check designation status with Champlain Township before ordering

Products that fit Vankleek Hill homes

For a Victorian, our hybrid windows — UPVC inside, aluminum-clad outside — are usually the best match, because the aluminum takes a dark heritage colour that will not fade on a south-facing brick façade, while the UPVC interior keeps the frame warm to the touch. Where budget is the priority, our UPVC windows in a coloured exterior finish achieve much of the same effect. Both are fusion-welded, multi-chamber frames built to measure in Saint-Laurent. For the tall openings, casement windows with a horizontal divider give the vertical emphasis of a double-hung with a far better seal; for those who want the sash to move as it always has, a UPVC single- or double-hung is available.

We recommend triple glazing with Low-E and argon for the north and west elevations and for any bedroom above the porch. All of our standard units meet the single national ENERGY STAR specification that has applied across Canada since 2020 — a U-factor of 1.22 W/m²·K or lower, or an Energy Rating of 34 or higher — and the triple-glazed configurations exceed it by a clear margin. On a house with a bay window, we build the bay as a unit so the angles are factory-true rather than improvised on site.

For doors, a fibreglass entry door with a wood-grain finish and a multi-point lock keeps the character of a Victorian entrance and stops the draft; a steel door in a heritage colour is the economical alternative. At the back, a garden door — two hinged panels — usually suits an older house better than a wide slider. Details on every model are on our windows page.

• Hybrid windows in dark heritage colours for red-brick façades
• Casement with horizontal divider or UPVC hung windows for tall openings
• Triple glazing, Low-E, argon on exposed elevations; factory-built bays
• Fibreglass or steel entry doors, garden patio doors for older houses

Ontario rules: building code, rebates and permits

Vankleek Hill is governed by the Ontario Building Code, and for a window replaced in its existing rough opening with no change in size or structure, a building permit is generally not required. Changing the size of an opening, adding one, or altering a bedroom window in a way that affects egress normally does require one, and Champlain Township's building department is the place to confirm. Separately, a heritage-designated property may need heritage approval for visible changes even when no building permit is needed — we raise this during the estimate so there are no surprises.

On rebates, we prefer to be cautious. At the time of writing, Ontario's main residential program is the Home Renovation Savings Program, delivered by Enbridge Gas and Save on Energy with support from the Ontario government. It has offered a fixed rebate per ENERGY STAR certified window or door opening, but only within a project that includes a home energy assessment and at least two upgrade categories — windows alone have generally not qualified. Homes heated with oil, propane or electricity have been eligible alongside gas customers. Confirm the current rules and deadlines directly with the program before you count on it, because terms have changed more than once.

Programs such as the Canada Greener Homes Grant are closed to new applicants; if someone quotes you a rebate under a program you cannot find on a government site, be skeptical. Our estimators will tell you plainly what is open.

How it works from Montréal: measurement to installation

It begins with a free in-home estimate. Our technician visits Vankleek Hill, measures every opening, inspects the brick arches, sills and interior trim, and works through styles, grille patterns, colours and glazing with you. In an older house we photograph and note the interior casings so the installation can preserve them. You receive an itemized written quote with no obligation.

Once approved, your order goes into production at our Saint-Laurent factory — typically four to six weeks in peak season, often less in winter. Installation is by our own crew, who arrive from Montréal with the units, remove the old windows one at a time, prepare and flash each opening, set and shim the new frame, insulate, seal and finish inside and out. A Victorian with fifteen to twenty openings usually takes two days; a bungalow, one. Winter installation is entirely practical because the house is never left open.

Your contract carries the manufacturer's warranty on the products and our own warranty on the installation. Financing through our partner Financeit is available from 12 to 240 months with weekly, bi-weekly or monthly payments. And as the manufacturer, we are also the only phone number you need afterward.

• Step 1: free measurement visit, notes on trim and brickwork, itemized quote
• Step 2: production in Saint-Laurent, typically 4–6 weeks in peak season
• Step 3: installation by our own crews, 1–2 days, interior casings preserved
• Step 4: written warranties, financing 12–240 months, single contact for service

Frequently Asked Questions