A marketing service, not a licensed contractor. Window work is performed by independent licensed local contractors.
Chicago Window Guide

Storm windows in Chicago, and why the city treats them differently

Chicago does not require a building permit to install a storm window. The city's published list of work that does not require a building permit includes "Installing, maintaining, or removing a storm window", and that entry sits on the part of the list applying in any building, at any height, rather than on the shorter list limited to residential buildings up to four stories (chicago.gov, read 2026-08-11). A storm window is a second layer of glazing fitted over a window you already have, so the original sash stays in the opening and nothing about the size or shape of the opening changes. On Chicago's vintage housing stock that is frequently the point rather than a compromise. The city's own adopted guidance for landmark property says the "first and best answer to the question of how to treat windows is not to replace them but rather to retain and repair the existing sash and frames".

This page sits under the window types hub, which compares every type against the openings Chicago's housing stock actually has. How every claim here is sourced, and what this site refuses to publish, is set out on our methodology page. Two standing notes for this page. Where it describes how a storm window is built or mounted, that is a general description of the product category and is labelled so. And this page carries no dollar figure anywhere, because nothing read for this site prices a storm window.

What Chicago actually says, quoted

The city splits its no-permit list in two, and storm windows land on the more generous half. One list applies "in any building". A second, longer list applies only "in a residential building up to 4 stories above grade or an associated accessory building (such as a garage) on the same lot". Replacement windows are on the second list. Storm windows are on the first.

That distinction is worth stating out loud, because it is the one case on this site where a high-rise owner and a bungalow owner get the same answer. The exemption for "Installing, maintaining, or removing a storm window" carries no height limit and no building-type qualifier at all.

The work Which city list it is on Building permit?
Installing, maintaining or removing a storm window Any building, no height limit Not required
Installing, maintaining or removing an insect screen Any building, no height limit Not required
Repairing damage to an existing window or exterior door Any building, no height limit Not required
Replacing glass in an existing window sash or door frame Any building, no height limit Not required
Replacing a ground-level window in kind, including the frame, where no part of the exterior wall is cut away Any building, no height limit Not required
Repairing or replacing an exterior window in kind in the existing opening Residential building up to four stories above grade Not required, inside that height
Cutting a new opening in an exterior wall for a window Neither list A permit job, and named as not eligible for the streamlined Express Permit route
Any of the above on landmark property or in a landmark district The city states its exceptions "may not apply". Settle that before anything else

City of Chicago, Guide to Building Permits, work not requiring a building permit, exterior, and the Express Permit Program instruction for exterior window or door replacement. Both read 2026-08-11. The wording is the city's; arranging it into rows is our reading, and the Department of Buildings decides permit questions. The full treatment of both lists is on do I need a permit.

A no-permit job is still not a no-rules job

This is the sentence most people skip, and the city puts it directly under the exemption list: "Any work performed without a building permit, as allowed by Section 14A-4-402 of the Municipal Code, must still comply with all applicable requirements of the Chicago Construction Codes. Section 14A-4-402 does not waive any applicable requirements of the Chicago Construction Codes or of the Municipal Code other than the requirement to obtain a building permit."

Read plainly, the exemption removes the paperwork and nothing else. What it does not do is tell you which code provisions apply to a storm window, and this site has not read a Chicago provision that speaks to storm windows specifically. So the honest position is this: no permit is required, the codes still apply, and if your job touches a bedroom window, a fire escape, or an assembly the rest of this page does not describe, the Department of Buildings is the body that answers it. Asking costs nothing and the answer is checkable.

City of Chicago, work not requiring a building permit, exterior, read 2026-08-11.

Interior storms against exterior storms

These are two different products that share a name, and a quote that says only "storm windows" has not told you which one is being priced. Everything in this table is a general description of the product category rather than a Chicago rule or a sourced claim. The single Chicago-specific row is marked as such.

Exterior storm Interior storm
Where it mounts On the outside face of the existing window, against the blind stop or over the exterior trim On the room side of the existing window, inside the jamb or against the interior trim
Visible from the street Yes. It becomes part of the elevation No
Typical construction Often aluminium or wood framed, frequently in a two-track or three-track arrangement holding glass panels and a screen Often a light frame holding glass or acrylic, held by magnets, compression or a channel
Seasonal handling Usually stays up year round, with a screen track used in summer Often taken down and stored for the summer, which needs somewhere to store it
Access on upper floors Installed and serviced from outside, so a two-flat or three-flat means ladder work Installed and serviced from inside the room
Water and drainage Sits in the weather, so drainage at the sill matters. Ask how the unit drains Not in the weather. The moisture question moves indoors, below
Chicago-specific note Named in the Chicago Bungalow Association guidelines, which recommend "thin profile wood or metal storm windows and screens similar in size, shape and color to existing windows" (dated 6/21/2012, read 2026-08-11) Not named in anything read for this site. Absence of a mention is not a prohibition, and this page does not treat it as one

One physical point worth understanding before you choose, and it is general building knowledge rather than a Chicago rule. Put any second layer over an existing window and you create a cavity between the two. Where that cavity sits relative to the tighter layer decides where moisture collects on a cold morning. An exterior storm that is tighter than the primary window behind it tends to trap indoor air in the cavity, which is why exterior storms commonly carry small vents or weep openings at the sill. An interior storm reverses the order, so the tighter layer is on the warm side and the primary sash stays colder. Neither arrangement is wrong. Both want the primary window reasonably weather-stripped, which the city's own preservation guidance also happens to recommend for a different reason, quoted in the next section.

What the city's own preservation guidance says about replacing windows

This is the passage that reframes the whole storm window question in Chicago, and almost nobody selling windows will show it to you. The Commission on Chicago Landmarks adopted its Guidelines for Alterations to Historic Buildings and New Construction on March 4, 1992, and that document is still the version the city publishes. Its windows section opens like this:

"WINDOWS. Windows are frequently the most difficult aspect of any rehabilitation project. The first and best answer to the question of how to treat windows is not to replace them but rather to retain and repair the existing sash and frames. Where this is not possible, replacing only deteriorated parts an new sill or a sash for instance is preferable to total replacement."

Then it takes on the argument most replacement quotes are built around:

"Often, window replacement is dictated by concerns for energy conservation, particularly replacing single-glazed sash with double-glazed sash. A wide variety of double-glazed units are available, some designed especially for historic buildings. However, properly weather-stripped, single-glazed sash can greatly reduce or eliminate air infiltration between sash and frame where most energy is lost. The cost of weather stripping is nominal compared to the price of replacement windows, yet the effect can be considerable."

City of Chicago, Commission on Chicago Landmarks, Guidelines for Alterations to Historic Buildings and New Construction, adopted March 4, 1992, read 2026-08-11. The odd phrasing in the first quote is the city's, reproduced as published.

Three boundaries on that, because the passage is easy to over-read and this site would rather draw the line than let you walk into it.

What it does establish is that the case for keeping and improving an existing window is the city's own published position for its historic stock, not a fringe preference. If your window is original and sound, a contractor telling you that replacement is the only path to a warmer house is arguing against the city's adopted guidance, and you can ask them to address it directly.

Where a storm window fits Chicago's housing stock

The bungalow, where storms are already documented in place

The Chicago Architecture Center and the Chicago Bungalow Association both put more than 80,000 bungalows in the city, roughly one third of its single-family housing stock, in an arc four to seven miles from downtown. The federal definition describes one to one-and-one-half stories, brick, a rectangular plan, a full basement and a low-pitched roof with overhanging eaves, built in Chicago between 1907 and 1930, though sources put the era out to the mid-1930s, so treat it as a range rather than a pair of dates.

The most useful documented fact for this page comes from the National Register nomination for the Portage Park Bungalow Historic District. It records that "thirty-three of the buildings in the district maintain their original and art glass windows, with some even retaining the mirrored angel gilding", and that "Most of these art glass windows hang behind protective storm windows in the bays of the primary facade, featuring grids of metal muntins, abstracted florals, or Prairie-style motifs". Storms are not a hypothetical retrofit on this housing type. They are the documented existing condition on the front elevation.

Two practical things follow. First, if the front bay looks tired, work out which layer failed before pricing anything, because a cloudy or bent storm and a failed art glass panel are completely different jobs and only one of them touches the historic fabric. Second, the muntins in that documented art glass are metal rather than wood, so a quote written around wood muntin repair may not be describing your window.

The bungalow association's design guidelines put storms on its "Do" list directly: "Add thin profile wood or metal storm windows and screens similar in size, shape and color to existing windows." The same document asks owners to retain and repair original frames and to "Maintain historic muntin/grille pattern", and its "Don't" list warns against removing art glass and against enlarging or reducing window openings to fit a stock window frame. That last one is the line with money attached, and it applies to storms as much as to replacement units: the storm has to fit the opening, and the opening does not get adjusted to fit the storm.

One more consequence for the bungalow front. The National Park Service documentation for the type names four bay forms, flat, square, polygonal and curved, and describes the flat bay as generally featuring "one set of ribbon windows in a grouping of three or four windows into a single architectural frame". A ribbon of three or four units is three or four storm panels, not one, and a quote that prices "the front window" has not told you how many panels it includes. Ask for the count in writing, the same way you would on a replacement quote.

Chicago Architecture Center, Chicago Bungalow; Chicago Bungalow Association, Chicago Bungalow; National Park Service, Chicago Bungalows Multiple Property Documentation Form, prepared by Daniel Bluestone, University of Virginia; National Park Service, Portage Park Bungalow Historic District nomination, NRHP reference 14000620; Historic Chicago Bungalow Association Design Guidelines dated 6/21/2012, read in full at a third-party mirror hosted by oldnorthend.org, with the association's own live windows page carrying the same language. All read 2026-08-11. The guidelines are cited from a mirror and we say so rather than hide it.

Two-flats and three-flats, where the decision repeats by floor

The Chicago Architecture Center describes two- and three-flat apartment buildings as a quarter of Chicago's housing, with more than 76,000 two-unit buildings alone, most completed between 1900 and 1918, typically with an entry porch to one side and a projecting bay of windows on the other. A separate Center article widens the grouping to two-, four- and six-flats and puts that at more than 30 percent of the housing stock. Those are two different groupings measured two different ways, so this page reports both and blends neither.

The city's East Village District landmark designation report establishes the original sash type on this stock, noting that "Some original double-hung window sash has been replaced with later double-hung or single-pane sash", and classing that swap, inside a landmark district, among "changes considered minor and reversible". The same report describes "fine architectural details such as pressed-metal bay windows, cornices, and gracious entries", which matters here because a pressed-metal bay is a different substrate to fix a storm to than brick or limestone, and the person quoting should say how they intend to attach to it.

The choice between interior and exterior storms is sharper on this building type than anywhere else in the city. The bay repeats on two or three floors, and an exterior storm on the third floor is a ladder job every time it needs cleaning, servicing or a screen change, for as long as you own the building. That is not a reason to rule exterior storms out. It is a reason to decide it deliberately rather than discover it in year two.

Chicago Architecture Center, Two- and Three-flats, and The tale of the Chicago two-flat; City of Chicago, East Village District landmark designation report. All read 2026-08-11.

Greystones, where the opening is part of the ornament

Greystone openings are cut into dimensional Indiana limestone, which the Chicago Architecture Center describes as fine-grained and light-coloured, known for its strength, ease of carving and ability to weather gracefully. Carved sills, lintels and surrounds mean the opening itself is a piece of the ornament, and greystone appears on workers cottages, two-flats, three-flats and row houses on the same lot pattern, so sizes are not standardised across the type.

For storm windows that produces one clear consequence and one honest limit. The consequence: storms on a greystone are custom-size work, the same as replacement units, and any quote built around stock sizes should be questioned before it is compared against another quote. The limit: nothing read for this site is a greystone-specific window guideline. The original sash type is documented here only through the city's East Village report covering the same era of brick and greystone flats, so treat this section as more thinly sourced than the bungalow material above.

Chicago Architecture Center, Limestone, and The tale of the Chicago two-flat; City of Chicago, East Village District landmark designation report. All read 2026-08-11.

High-rise condominiums, where the exemption applies and the declaration may not let you use it

The storm window exemption is the one window rule in Chicago that reaches a high-rise: it applies in any building with no height limit, while the in-kind replacement exemption stops at four stories and the streamlined Express Permit route stops at seven stories without drawings from an Illinois-licensed architect or structural engineer.

City permission is not the binding constraint in a condominium, though. The Illinois Condominium Property Act sets a default in Section 4.1(a) that opens "Except to the extent otherwise provided by the declaration or other condominium instruments". Under that default, where perimeter walls are unit boundaries, "all portions of windows in perimeter walls shall be deemed part of the common elements", and Section 4.1(a)(5) deems windows in perimeter walls a limited common element appertaining to that unit exclusively. Section 18.4(a) puts the operation, care, upkeep, maintenance, replacement and improvement of the common elements on the board.

Whether a storm added to such a window is treated the same way is not answered in the statute text read for this page, and in any case the declaration overrides the default. So the order of operations in a condo is the declaration first, the board second, and the city's exemption third. Two honest gaps go with this section: nothing read for this site documents storm windows on Chicago high-rise stock at all, and many buildings of that type have sealed or fixed glazing where a storm is not a physical option in the first place.

Illinois Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605, full text effective January 1, 2023, published by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, read 2026-08-11. City of Chicago, work not requiring a building permit, exterior, and Express Permit Program instruction, read 2026-08-11. This is a general description of a statute and not legal advice.

Landmark property, and the question the city does not answer

Start by separating two designations that get confused constantly, because the confusion runs in the expensive direction. People assume a federal listing restricts them and never check the local designation that actually does.

Designation What it does to a private owner Source, read 2026-08-11
National Register listing, including the 15 Chicago bungalow districts Nothing by itself. "Listing in the National Register places no federal restrictions or requirements on a private property owner. You may do with the property as you wish, within the framework of local laws or ordinances" National Park Service, National Register FAQ
Chicago Landmark, or property in a Chicago Landmark district Real review. The Commission reviews permit applications for work on designated and proposed landmarks and anything in a designated or proposed district, and the Department of Buildings routes applications to Commission staff inside the normal permit process City of Chicago, landmarks permit review, and Commission permit application submission requirements

Now the part this page cannot resolve, stated as plainly as we can. Chicago exempts storm window installation from a building permit in any building. It then says that "These exceptions may not apply to work on a property that is a proposed or designated Chicago Landmark or part of a proposed or designated Chicago Landmark district", and tells owners to contact the Historic Preservation Division for more information. Note the hedge: "may not apply", not "do not apply". The city does not publish a list of which exceptions survive landmark status, so this page does not guess at one.

There is a structural oddity underneath that, and it is worth understanding before you call. The Commission's review runs on permit applications: the Department of Buildings routes them to Commission staff as part of the building permit process, and the Commission itself states that "No additional City permits are required for Landmark buildings." A job that needs no permit generates no application to route. That is our reading of two quoted passages, not a statement the city makes, and it is exactly why the answer here is a phone call rather than an inference.

Two further facts are worth having in hand for that call. The Commission reports reviewing some 2,000 permits a year for landmark properties, "most of which are approved in one day", so the review process is not the ordeal people expect. And on scope, the Commission states that "For most landmark districts, the significant features typically are the exterior building elevations visible from the public right-of-way except regarding work involving demolition." Our reading is that an interior storm, invisible from the street, touches nothing on that description, while an exterior storm becomes part of the elevation. The city publishes no statement about storms either way, so that stays labelled as our reading.

Windows also do not appear on the Commission's published list of project types taken to a public meeting, which covers new infill construction, garages on corner properties, additions and dormers visible from the public way, signage needing City Council approval, driveways and curb cuts, and demolitions of 40 percent or more. Our inference is that routine window work is handled at staff level unless staff refer it up. The city never says that in those words.

The contact the city itself points to: the Historic Preservation Division, Department of Planning and Development, (312) 744-3200, landmarks@cityofchicago.org. The city also encourages a pre-permit conversation, stating that it "encourages applicants to seek its advice and guidance before filing a permit application", and that a first staff review typically needs minimal information such as photographs, a plat of survey and a description of the proposed work.

City of Chicago, work not requiring a building permit, exterior; landmarks permit review; Commission on Chicago Landmarks Permit Application Submission Requirements dated December 5, 2024; Commission on Chicago Landmarks Questions and Answers; National Park Service National Register FAQ. All read 2026-08-11. Full treatment on landmark buildings and districts, which also covers the permit fee waiver and its deadline.

What a storm window will not do for you

A storm is a layer added in front of or behind an existing window. It does not repair the window it covers, and a contractor proposing one instead of addressing a real defect is proposing a cover, not a fix. The honest list:

City of Chicago, work not requiring a building permit, exterior, read 2026-08-11. Whether repair or replacement is the right answer for a specific window is worked through on repair or replace.

You may not need a storm window either

This site is paid a referral fee when a homeowner asks to be matched with a window contractor, which is set out in full on how we make money. So it is worth being blunt about the cases where storms are the wrong purchase, because a quote will not raise them.

Questions to ask before anyone quotes storm windows

Write these down and ask every contractor the same list. The answers, not the totals, are what make two quotes comparable, and this page has no totals to offer you.

What we could not confirm, and will not guess

Related pages

Sources

All read 2026-08-11: City of Chicago, work not requiring a building permit, exterior; Express Permit Program, exterior window or door replacement; Commission on Chicago Landmarks, Guidelines for Alterations to Historic Buildings and New Construction, adopted March 4, 1992; Commission on Chicago Landmarks, Permit Application Submission Requirements, December 5, 2024; Commission on Chicago Landmarks, Questions and Answers; City of Chicago, landmarks permit review; East Village District landmark designation report; National Park Service, Portage Park Bungalow Historic District nomination; Chicago Bungalows Multiple Property Documentation Form; National Register FAQ; Chicago Bungalow Association, windows; Chicago Architecture Center, Chicago Bungalow; Two- and Three-flats; Limestone; Illinois Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605. No competitor page, contractor marketing page or search-engine summary informed any statement above, and no dollar figure appears anywhere on this page because none could be attributed.

If you want quotes to hold against these answers, the form below passes your details to an independent licensed window contractor working in your part of the city. Ask them to price the storm work as its own line. What that relationship is, and is not, is set out on the about page.

Free, and no obligation

Get matched with a Chicago window contractor

A marketing service, not a licensed contractor. Window work is performed by independent licensed local contractors.

When you submit this form, your information is shared with a licensed window contractor for the purpose of scheduling your free quote.

Straight answers

Questions Chicago homeowners ask

Do I need a permit to put storm windows on my Chicago house?
No. Chicago publishes a list of work that does not require a building permit, and "Installing, maintaining, or removing a storm window" appears on the part of that list that applies "in any building", with no height limit and no residential qualifier. The insect screen entry sits directly beside it. That is a stronger exemption than the one covering replacement windows, which is limited to a residential building up to four stories above grade. Read at chicago.gov 2026-08-11. Two things it does not mean. The city also states that work done without a permit "must still comply with all applicable requirements of the Chicago Construction Codes", so no permit is not no rules. And the city says its exceptions "may not apply" on a designated or proposed Chicago Landmark or in a landmark district, without saying which ones survive.
Is a storm window a real alternative to replacement, or just a stopgap?
On Chicago's vintage stock the city's own adopted guidance points at keeping the existing window. The Commission on Chicago Landmarks' Guidelines for Alterations to Historic Buildings, adopted March 4, 1992 and still the published version, state that "The first and best answer to the question of how to treat windows is not to replace them but rather to retain and repair the existing sash and frames", and that "properly weather-stripped, single-glazed sash can greatly reduce or eliminate air infiltration between sash and frame where most energy is lost". The Chicago Bungalow Association's design guidelines go further and recommend adding "thin profile wood or metal storm windows and screens similar in size, shape and color to existing windows". Both read 2026-08-11. Note the boundary: the Commission passage quoted names weather-stripping and double glazing, not storms, and it is guidance for landmark property. The storm recommendation comes from the bungalow association, which is not a regulatory body.
Interior or exterior storm windows, which one should I be asking about?
They are different products and they solve different problems. An exterior storm mounts on the outside of the existing window and is visible from the street. An interior storm mounts on the room side and is not. That difference matters in Chicago because of what the city protects: its Commission on Chicago Landmarks states that "For most landmark districts, the significant features typically are the exterior building elevations visible from the public right-of-way except regarding work involving demolition" (read 2026-08-11). Our reading is that an interior storm touches nothing on that list, but the city publishes no statement either way about storms specifically, so treat that as our reading and put the question to the Historic Preservation Division at (312) 744-3200 or landmarks@cityofchicago.org before ordering. The mechanical differences between the two are described further down this page and are general product knowledge, not a Chicago rule.
My bungalow has art glass. Does a storm window protect it?
Storms are already doing that job across at least one documented Chicago district, and knowing it changes which layer you price. The National Register nomination for the Portage Park Bungalow Historic District records that "thirty-three of the buildings in the district maintain their original and art glass windows", and that "Most of these art glass windows hang behind protective storm windows in the bays of the primary facade, featuring grids of metal muntins, abstracted florals, or Prairie-style motifs" (read 2026-08-11). Two consequences. If your front bay looks tired, the failed layer may be the storm in front rather than the art glass behind, and replacing a storm needs no building permit in any building. And the muntins in that documented art glass are metal, not wood, so a quote describing wood muntin repair may not be describing your window at all.
What do storm windows cost in Chicago?
We could not attribute a figure, so we are not publishing one. Nothing read for this site prices a storm window: not in Chicago, not nationally, not interior against exterior. The cost pages on this site carry replacement-window bands with a named author, a named reviewer and a date on every row, and no source in that set covers storms. A number nobody can check is worse than no number, so this page has none. What to do instead: price the storm work as its own line, separate from any replacement quote, and ask two or three contractors to quote the same scope so the comparison is between like things. How every figure on this site is sourced is set out on the methodology page.
My property is in a landmark district. Can I just put storms up?
Do not assume so. Chicago exempts installing a storm window from a building permit in any building, then states that "These exceptions may not apply to work on a property that is a proposed or designated Chicago Landmark or part of a proposed or designated Chicago Landmark district", and tells owners to contact the Historic Preservation Division. It does not publish which exceptions survive. Separately, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks reviews permit applications routed to it by the Department of Buildings, which means the ordinary review route runs through a permit application that a storm window does not generate. That gap is real and the city does not resolve it in anything read here. Call the Historic Preservation Division at (312) 744-3200 or email landmarks@cityofchicago.org, and note the city encourages a pre-permit conversation before you file anything. All read at chicago.gov 2026-08-11.
I own a Chicago condo. Can I add a storm window to my own unit?
Read your declaration first. The Illinois Condominium Property Act sets a default in Section 4.1(a), and that section opens "Except to the extent otherwise provided by the declaration or other condominium instruments". Under that default, where perimeter walls are unit boundaries, "all portions of windows in perimeter walls shall be deemed part of the common elements", and Section 4.1(a)(5) deems windows in perimeter walls a limited common element serving the unit exclusively. Section 18.4(a) makes the board responsible for the operation, care, upkeep, maintenance, replacement and improvement of the common elements. Whether a storm added to that window is treated the same way is not something the statute addresses in the text read, and the declaration overrides the default in any case. Statute text published by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, effective January 1, 2023, read 2026-08-11. This is a general description of a statute and not legal advice.

Before you sign anything

Still not sure what your job should cost?

Every number on this site carries the source it came from and the date we read it. If you want real quotes to compare against those numbers, we will pass your details to an independent licensed window contractor working in your part of Chicago.

Get quotes