• Interior Stop – To the untrained eye, it looks merely like a common piece of trim on around your window.  Upon closer review, it helps creates part of the “track” between itself and the Parting Bead to allow the sash to open and close.
• Lite – Another bit of wood window jargon.  To the common Muggle it is referred to as a “pane”.  Wood wizards call them “lites” when discussing the number of separate pieces of glass in a sash.
• Muntin – Not only is this a fun word to say but it’s also the small divider that creates more beauty in your wood window.  Over time, these can become damaged or rot due to extreme condensation and lack of proper care.
• Stool/Apron – Most people call this the interior window sill but these are the technical names in case you want to impress your friends at your next party.

what makes a sash?

We already covered some of the minor parts like muntins but what actually makes a sash?  To the left you can see a diagram that outlines the major pieces of your wood window sashes.

1.  Stiles – These are the left and right pieces of a sash.  They can suffer from mild to severe rot and may need to be replaced during restoration.
2.  Rails – The top and bottom pieces of the sash.  The bottom rail is typically the one that must be replaced because it sets directly on the sill and if water gets caught underneath, the rail can literally fall apart from rot.
3. Meeting Rails – Getting more specific, this is the bottom rail on the upper sash and the top rail on the lower sash.  Years of heavy condensation and a lack of proper sealing with paint or clear finish can cause these to get very soft and/or rot.

sash configurations

There are a multitude of sash configurations and quite honestly too many to try and name them all.  So regardless of the configuration, we are going to focus on helping you identify the type of sash configuration in your own home and your local neighborhood.

Above are three of the most popular sash configurations you will find here in the Oklahoma historic districts located in Oklahoma City, Norman and Guthrie.  Because these are so prevalent in our area, we thought it might be nice to give you some examples you will readily see on a daily basis and many of you probably already have at least one of these in your home currently.

Anytime you want to determine the sash configuration of a wood window, you have to start with counting the number of lites in each sash (if you need to scroll up to review what a lite is then go ahead, we won’t tell).

[Upper Sash Total Lites] Over [Lower Sash Total Lites] ed-hrvatski.com

Looking at the first example, there are three lites in the upper sash and one lite in the lower sash.  The configuration is always notated by giving the total number of lites in the upper sash first and then the total number of lites in the lower sash last.  In fact, the format reminds you to put down the upper sash by adding the word “over” between the two totals because the upper sash is “over” the lower sash.  Therefore, you come up with the sash configuration of “3 Over 1”.

Congratulations on passing the exam!  Hopefully you learned some new words today that will help you better understand wood windows and how to more clearly communicate their needs to a professional wood window restoration expert.  Knowing the lingo is half the battle in winning the preservation war!