How to Prepare for Window Installation Day: A Homeowner Checklist

On installation day, a crew will carry heavy, fragile windows through your house, open holes in your walls one at a time, and close them again. What you do beforehand decides how smoothly that goes.

This checklist is organized by when to do each thing. It is part of our California window guide. If you want to know what the crew itself does, step by step, see our window installation process page.

A week or more before: ask your installer these questions

Companies divide the work differently, so do not guess. Milgard publishes a list of questions to ask your installer before the day, and it is a good one. The questions worth settling in advance:

• Do I take down curtains and blinds, or do you? Can the mounting hardware stay up?
• Do I need to cut back shrubs or tree branches near any window?
• Will you bring drop cloths and protect the floors?
• Should I move furniture away from the windows, and how far?
• Who removes and reinstalls alarm sensors?
• What should I do with pets that have to stay indoors?
• Do you need access to electrical outlets?
• Do I need to be home?
• Do you haul away the old windows, and who sweeps up inside and outside?
• Who registers the warranty?

Add a few of your own:

• What time does the crew arrive, how many people, and how many days?
• In what order will you do the rooms?
• Where will the new windows be staged, and where will the old ones go until they are hauled off?
• Where do you want to park, and do you need the driveway?
• Will any opening be left without a window overnight? (The answer should be no.)
• What happens if you find rot or water damage behind a window?
• If the house was built before 1978, what lead-safe practices will you use?

A few days before

Call your alarm company

If your windows have alarm contacts, the old sensors come off with the old sashes. Tell the monitoring company the dates, ask them to put the system in test mode during work hours, and find out who will reinstall the sensors. Hardwired contacts set into the frame are a different job from stick-on wireless ones, and your alarm company may want to send a technician. Glass-break detectors on the wall or ceiling are usually unaffected, but may be set off by the noise.

Deal with window coverings

Blinds, shades, curtains, valances, and shutters all have to be out of the opening. If you are taking them down yourself:

• Label each one with its room and window as it comes down.
• Bag the brackets and screws and tape the bag to the blind.
• Store them flat, away from the work.

Think about whether they will fit afterward. A retrofit window sits inside the old frame, and an inside-mounted blind may no longer fit the slightly smaller opening or may hit the new frame or hardware. Plantation shutters mounted in the opening are the most likely to need refitting. Ask about this before the windows are ordered, not after.

Clear the outside

Installers work from outside as much as inside, especially on retrofit jobs where the new window goes in from the exterior. Walk around the house and look at the ground under every window:

• Trim shrubs and branches back from the windows so there is room to stand and to set a ladder.
• Move patio furniture, grills, potted plants, hoses, and garden ornaments.
• Take down exterior window screens, shutters, awnings, and hanging planters, or ask whether the crew will.
• Unlock side gates.
• Turn off sprinklers for the installation days so the ground and walls are dry.
• Point out anything fragile below a window: a new planting bed, a pond, an AC condenser, landscape lighting.

Tell the neighbors, and check with the HOA

There will be a truck, noise, and possibly a trailer or dumpster. A word to the neighbors goes a long way, particularly if the crew needs to reach a side of your house from a shared path. If you live in an HOA, check its rules on work hours, contractor parking, and where materials can be stored.

The day before

Move furniture and clear a path

The crew needs to stand at each window and needs a clear route to it from the door they will carry windows through.

• Pull furniture well back from every window. A few feet of clear floor is the goal.
• Clear hallways and stairs of rugs, shoes, toys, and anything to trip on.
• Move beds, desks, and dressers that block a window. Heavy pieces you cannot move yourself should be discussed with the installer ahead of time.
• Empty windowsills and the tops of furniture near windows.
• In the kitchen and baths, clear the counter under each window.

Take things off the walls

Removing an old window involves prying, cutting, and sometimes hammering. Vibration travels through the wall. Take down pictures, mirrors, and shelves on the walls next to and below the windows, and anything fragile on shelves nearby. This matters more for full-frame replacement than for retrofit.

Protect against dust

The crew should bring drop cloths. You can help yourself further:

• Cover furniture, electronics, and bedding near the windows with old sheets or plastic.
• Close closet doors and the doors of rooms not being worked on.
• Put away toothbrushes, dishes on drying racks, and food on counters near kitchen and bath windows.
• If stucco or plaster is being cut, ask how the crew controls dust, and consider turning off the central air while cutting is under way so dust is not pulled through the house.

Plan for kids and pets

There will be open wall openings, glass, sharp metal, ladders, and tools. Doors and gates get propped open for carrying.

• Pets. Keep dogs and cats in a closed room that is not being worked on that day, with a note on the door, or board them or take them out. Tell the crew lead where they are. Move them when the crew moves to that room.
• Children. Keep them out of work areas, inside and out. Plan somewhere else for naps, because the work is loud.
• Fish tanks and caged pets near a window should be moved or covered.

Sort out access and parking

• Leave the driveway clear, or ask where the truck and trailer should go.
• Move your own cars out of the garage if you will need them. The driveway may be blocked.
• Know which door the crew will use and clear the path to it.
• Show the crew lead a working exterior outlet or an interior one near the door.
• Decide which bathroom the crew can use, or ask whether they bring their own facilities.

The morning of

1. Walk the house with the crew lead. Go window by window with the order schedule. Confirm which windows are being replaced, which way each one opens, and where obscure or tempered glass goes.
2. Point out your concerns. The window that has leaked, the fragile tile, the new floor, the plant you care about.
3. Agree the order of rooms. If someone works from home or a baby naps upstairs, say so. In summer in the Sacramento Valley, ask for the west-facing rooms to be done early in the day.
4. Set the thermostat sensibly. Windows will be out one at a time, and conditioned air will leave through each opening. Many people turn the system off while openings are exposed.
5. Exchange phone numbers with the crew lead if you are leaving.
6. Put the alarm in test mode.

During the work

You do not need to hover. Stay reachable, keep kids and pets clear, and expect to be asked about anything unexpected. The most common surprise is damage behind an old window: rotted wood at a sill, staining on the framing, or evidence of an old leak. A good crew stops, shows you, and explains the options before covering anything. That is how the installation standard reads too: AAMA 2410 says deficiencies found in the existing frame are to be reported and corrected before the new window goes in.

If the house was built before 1978, the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule requires firms doing paid work that disturbs paint to be certified and to use lead-safe work practices that minimize occupants' exposure. In practice that means the work area is contained and cleaned in a specific way, and you and your family stay out of it. Our pages on lead-safe work on pre-1978 homes and lead paint and window replacement explain what to expect.

Before the crew leaves each day

• Every opening has a window in it and every window locks.
• The house is secure: doors, gates, and any ground-floor windows.
• Debris is picked up inside and outside, and old windows are stacked where agreed or hauled away.
• You know what is happening tomorrow and when.

When the job is finished

• Leave the stickers on. If the job has a permit, the NFRC labels on the glass need to stay until the building inspector has seen them. The Energy Code says the temporary label is not to be removed before inspection.
• Ask about sealant and paint cure times before you wash windows, hang coverings that touch the frame, or let sprinklers hit fresh sealant.
• Do the walk-through. Operate and lock every window with the crew lead present. Our window installation inspection checklist lists what to look at.
• Collect your documents. Milgard's advice is to make sure you have copies of all receipts and product labels before the installer leaves.
• Reinstall alarm sensors and take the system out of test mode.
• Rehang window coverings once sealant has cured, and check that inside-mounted blinds still clear the new frames.

California-specific things to plan around

• Valley heat. From June through September in Sacramento, plan for the house to warm up. Early starts help.
• Rain. Winter installations may shift a day or two. See the best time to replace windows.
• Smoke. During a wildfire smoke event, ask to reschedule rather than open the house.
• Stucco. If stucco is being cut, expect more noise and dust, and a return visit to finish the patch. See replacing windows in stucco homes.
• Snow country. In Truckee and Tahoe, clear snow from under the windows and from the path to the door before the crew arrives.

The one-page checklist

Where installation day falls in the overall project is laid out on our window replacement timeline page.

Sources

• Milgard, How to Plan for Your Window Installation Project
• Milgard, What to Expect
• Milgard, When Is the Best Time to Replace Windows?
• FGIA, AAMA 2410-13, Section 5, pre-installation inspection (licensed copy published by Anlin)
• U.S. EPA, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program
• California Energy Commission, 2025 Building Energy Efficiency Standards, Section 110.6(a)5 (temporary labels)

Working with Heritage Exteriors

Before your installation we will tell you what we need moved and what we handle ourselves, and you can walk the house with the crew lead before a window comes out. Ask us anything on this list ahead of time; none of it is an unusual question. Licensed in California, CSLB #1055919. Call (916) 546-2991.