info@csidewindows.com
(978) 354-5544
Alside Window Installers on the North Shore
We install Alside vinyl replacement windows across the North Shore of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Marblehead, Salem, Swampscott, Beverly, Peabody, Lynn, Gloucester and the towns around them. Alside is the line we reach for when a homeowner wants a real energy upgrade without moving into wood or fiberglass money.
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- 5.0 Google (28 reviews)
- Marvin & Andersen Certified
- Licensed & Insured
- Serving the North Shore since 2014
How we work with Alside
We buy Alside direct and we install it ourselves
Alside does not sell to the public. It sells only to professional contractors and builders, through its own supply centers and a small number of independent distributors. That is how we get Alside windows, and it is why you cannot price these at a big box store and hand them to a handyman. Alside also does not warranty installation, in writing. The manufacturer covers the window. The crew covers the fit. Both have to be right, and we do not subcontract ours.
What we install
The Alside lines available on the East Coast
Alside builds several window lines and not all of them ship to New England. These are the ones our supply region carries. The practical difference between them is glass, frame reinforcement and how many shapes and colors you can get, not whether the window will last. If you are replacing every window in the house, the line you pick changes the quote more than any other single decision. We will tell you which one your house actually needs.
Sovereign
Alside calls this one Ultra-Premium and it is the top of their range. Fusion welded frame and sash, foam inserts in the mainframe, a fiberglass reinforced meeting rail, and it carries the AAMA Gold Label. Available in double hung, slider, casement, awning, bay, bow and garden, in thirteen exterior colors and six interior woodgrains. Triple pane available. This is the Alside you choose when you want a vinyl window to stop looking like a vinyl window.
Mezzo
The line we quote most, and it is built specifically for Alside's Eastern region. Narrow frame and sash so you lose less glass, composite reinforced meeting rails, a telescoping sill dam and multi chambered frames. Four glass packages from ClimaTech up to ClimaTech PriME, which is triple pane with three low-E surfaces and two argon spaces. Double hung, slider, picture, casement, awning, and fourteen specialty shapes including eyebrow, ellipse, octagon and trapezoid.
Fusion
The straightforward option. Fusion welded frame and sash, multi chambered extrusions, composite reinforced interlocking meeting rails, Super Spacer warm edge glass. It comes in double hung and slider only, in white or beige, with no woodgrain interiors. If you want the energy numbers without paying for shapes and colors you will not see from the street, this is the honest pick.
Casement and Awning
A separate Alside product rather than a variant of the lines above. Alside builds it with extra thick extrusion walls, a step down frame with a compression bulb seal, stainless steel hinges and multipoint locking. Available two, three, four and five wide. Casements seal by compression rather than by sliding, which is why they read tighter than a slider on a windy wall.
Bay and Bow
Built as an assembly, not a single unit. Furniture grade hardwood head, seatboard and jamb, solid wood mullions with laminated strand lumber lag bolted through, an internal sill pan and an adjustable turnbuckle chain hanging system. Bays come in three window configurations, bows in three to six. Worth knowing before you sign: the individual windows carry the lifetime limited warranty, the bay or bow assembly itself carries ten years.
Glass you can actually choose
Four ClimaTech packages, not one. Standard ClimaTech is low-E with argon and a warm edge spacer at a published U-factor of 0.295. ClimaTech PriME is three panes, three low-E surfaces and two argon spaces at a published 0.19. Massachusetts code needs 0.30 or better. We will show you both numbers and what the upgrade costs on your house.
See what your project costs
Salt air does not corrode vinyl
Corrosion is an electrochemical process and it acts on metal. Vinyl is not metal. That is the whole argument, and it is why the standards that govern rigid vinyl window profiles contain no corrosion test while the top aluminum coating standard requires 4,000 hours of salt spray. On the water, the frame is the part you stop worrying about.
Windows in SwampscottWhy Alside on the North Shore
Old houses, expensive heat, salt in the air
The housing stock here is genuinely old, and the numbers are not close. In Swampscott 52.5 percent of homes were built in 1939 or earlier. In Beverly 41 percent predate the Second World War and 82 percent were built before 1980. In Gloucester it is roughly half. In Marblehead under 3 percent of the housing stock has gone up since 2000. Houses that age were framed before anyone measured air leakage, and most of them are on their second or third set of windows already.
Then there is the cost of heating them. Essex County sits in climate zone 5A, and Boston averages 5,371 heating degree days a year. Massachusetts households paid 29.35 cents per kilowatt hour in 2024 against a national average of 16.48, and in January 2026 residential gas here ran 25.77 dollars per thousand cubic feet against 13.96 nationally. That is roughly 78 percent above the national average on electricity and 85 percent above it on gas. A window that leaks costs more here than the same window costs in Ohio.
Alside fits that problem well. Massachusetts code requires a replacement window at U-factor 0.30 or lower and SHGC 0.40 or lower. Alside's standard ClimaTech package, low-E with argon and a warm edge spacer, is published at U-factor 0.295 and SHGC 0.305, so it clears code as ordered. Step up to ClimaTech PriME, three panes and two argon spaces, and it is published at U-factor 0.19 and SHGC 0.21, which is inside ENERGY STAR Most Efficient territory for our zone. That is a real spread, and on a whole house it is the difference worth paying for.
The coastal part is where most window marketing gets silly, so here is the actual mechanism. Corrosion is electrochemical and it acts on metal. Vinyl is not metal, so salt does not corrode it. The aluminum industry's top coating standard, AAMA 2605, requires 4,000 hours of salt spray testing on a scored finish precisely because aluminum needs that protection. The standards governing rigid vinyl window profiles, AAMA 303 and ASTM D4726, contain no corrosion test at all, because there is nothing to test for. On a Swampscott or Gloucester wall that is a straightforward advantage for the frame.
One more thing worth saying out loud, because it surprises people. None of these towns is in a Wind Borne Debris Region. Massachusetts lists those municipalities by name and they are all Cape Cod, the Islands and the South Coast. Design wind speed here is 119 miles per hour, and Nahant is 120. So no, you are not required to buy impact rated glass in Marblehead, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
What Alside looks like finished
Thirteen exterior colors and six interior woodgrains across the Sovereign line, and black exteriors have become the most requested finish we quote. A few combinations worth seeing before you decide.
When Alside is the wrong answer
Three situations where we will tell you no
If your house is in a local historic district, vinyl is usually not permitted. Marblehead's guidelines say plainly that vinyl clad and composite windows are generally not appropriate in the historic districts, and replacement inserts are not either. Salem's four districts require materials matching the original. Check before you shop.
If you are within two miles of the water, read the warranty. Alside covers the vinyl for life but excludes corrosion of hardware and screens within two miles of any coastline. The frame is fine. The locks and screens are on you, and we would rather you heard that from us.
And if you want true divided lites, a wood interior or a deep historic sightline, Alside is not the line. That is a Marvin or Andersen conversation and we do those too.
We install. We do not sell windows over the counter, we do not have a showroom, and we do not do glass-only repairs. If you are buying units to install yourself, we are not your supplier. Alside will not sell to you either. It sells only to professional contractors and builders, not to the public.
What the Alside warranty actually covers
Alside covers the vinyl frames and sashes, the moving parts, the screens and the sealed glass units for as long as the original buyer owns and lives in the house. It transfers once, to one later owner, if the transfer happens inside the first twenty years, and coverage then steps down on a schedule. Two limits to know. Glass breakage is excluded from any cause, and is only covered if the separate breakage warranty is added. Hardware and screen corrosion is excluded within two miles of any coastline. Alside also does not warranty installation, in writing. That part is ours, and we put it in the contract.
What Alside installation costs on the North Shore
Price per window moves with four things. Which Alside line you pick, which glass package goes in it, the opening size, and what we find when the old unit comes out. Rotted sills and undersized headers are common in houses this age and they change the number. We measure every opening and quote the job, not a per window average. The estimate is free and the price we give you is the price.
Alside window types we install
Frequently asked questions
Are Alside windows a good choice this close to the ocean?
Will Alside windows meet Massachusetts energy code?
Can I put Alside windows in a Marblehead or Salem historic district?
Which Alside line should I get?
Does the Alside warranty transfer if I sell the house?
Do you install on the North Shore and in New Hampshire?
Do you sell windows without installation?
How do I get a price?
Window replacement by town
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We measure first and quote the whole project exactly. Serving the North Shore and New Hampshire.