A basement storm window from iFixBasements is a permanent, clear panel mounted on the inside of your foundation wall over an existing window and sealed around the opening. It lets daylight in, stops drafts, and cuts heat loss through old single-pane basement windows.
I personally inspect and design the fix; a licensed & insured certified dealer crew installs it. The estimate is free, and no-money-down financing is available.
This can go in at any phase of my three-phase approach to basement finishing. See all three phases.
Walk down to your basement on a cold January morning and put your hand near one of those little windows. That draft isn’t your imagination, and it isn’t just the basement it’s cooling. Builders tend to put the simplest windows in the basement: single pane, with sashes that don’t seal. They’re some of the leakiest openings in the whole house.
Signs your basement windows are costing you
- A cold draft you can feel at the window, even when it’s shut
- A basement that stays cold all winter and floors upstairs that feel chilly
- Frost, condensation, or dampness on the glass or the frame
- Old, rusted, or warped frames and sashes that don’t close tight
- Dirt, leaves, or insects coming in around the edges
- Windows you haven’t opened in years and never plan to
If a couple of these sound familiar, those windows are probably worth a look.
Why small basement windows leak more than you’d expect
In heating season, warm air rises through a house and escapes near the top, which pulls cold air in to replace it at the bottom. The easiest way in is the gaps around your basement windows. That cold air makes the basement colder, makes the heating system work harder, and chills the floors above it. There’s also very little reason to open a basement window. In winter it lets cold in, and in summer it lets warm, humid air in that condenses on the cooler basement surfaces. That’s how a leaky window ends up feeding the same dampness behind wet basements and crawl spaces.
How the panel works
- Clear, so the light stays. Daylight comes through the panel just as it did through the window.
- Mounted on the inside. It goes on the interior face of the foundation wall, over the existing window, so there’s nothing to dig and nothing to change outside.
- Sealed around the opening. That’s where the air gets through, and the seal is what stops it.
- Sized to the opening. I measure each window so the panel covers the opening and seals to solid wall all the way around.
- Permanent and fixed. It stays in place. That also means the window behind it no longer opens.
Where this should never go
I want to be straight with you about this one. Because the panel is fixed, the window behind it no longer opens. A basement window that serves as an emergency escape opening, for example the window in a basement bedroom, has to stay openable so someone can get out in a fire. I never recommend a fixed panel over a window like that, and I’ll tell you at the estimate which of your windows are good candidates and which need to stay as they are.
How I handle it
- I look at every window. Size, condition, the wall around it, and whether anyone could ever need to climb out of it.
- I design the plan. Which windows get panels, which don’t, and what each opening needs.
- A dealer crew installs it. I personally inspect and design the fix, then a licensed & insured certified dealer crew installs it.
My name and my reputation are on every job, so I’m not walking away after a proposal; I’m involved in making sure it’s done right.
Why homeowners call me
I’ve been doing this long enough to have over 100 five-star Google reviews from people in exactly this situation, and I share a lot of real basement footage — the good, the bad, and the genuinely gross — with about 10,000 followers on Instagram (@ifixbasements) so you can see what these spaces actually look like, not just stock photos.
Where I work
I estimate jobs throughout New York — all five NYC boroughs, Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk), Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Ulster, Dutchess, Sullivan, Greene, and Columbia Counties — plus northern and central New Jersey (down through Mercer and Monmouth Counties) and Wayne and Pike Counties in Pennsylvania. See the service-area map →
Straight Answers
Frequently asked questions
What is a basement storm window?
It’s a permanent, clear panel that mounts on the inside of your foundation wall, over an existing basement window, and seals to the wall around the opening. Daylight still comes through, and the drafts don’t.
Will it block the light?
No. The panel is clear, so the window keeps letting daylight into the basement. What changes is that the gaps around the old window are sealed off.
Can I still open the window behind it?
No. The panel is fixed, so the window behind it no longer opens. That’s the tradeoff, and it’s the reason I only recommend it on windows you don’t need to open.
Can this go over a bedroom window or any window needed as an emergency exit?
No, never. A basement window that serves as an emergency escape opening, such as one in a basement bedroom, has to stay openable. I won’t recommend a fixed panel over it, and I’ll tell you at the estimate which windows are and aren’t good candidates.
Will it stop condensation?
It can help. Old single-pane windows are cold surfaces where humid air condenses, and sealing and covering them reduces that. If moisture is also coming from the walls or floor, that’s a separate problem and I’ll tell you what I find.
What drives the cost of a basement storm window project?
The number of windows, their sizes, and the condition of the wall around each opening. I don’t quote a number until I’ve seen them in person; the estimate is free, and no-money-down financing is available.
Who installs it?
I personally inspect and design the fix, then a licensed & insured certified dealer crew installs it.