Spending 20 years renovating an 18th-century farmhouse Rod Ferguson inherited in southern Virginia didn’t make him tired of old things. On the contrary — he decided to make a career out of restoring old windows and doors.
Ferguson’s interest started to take shape when he was a teenager helping his uncle conduct farm and antique auctions. Some properties had been in one family for 100, sometimes 200 years.
“I developed an interest in these wonderful old houses, and I got to meet all the antique dealers and restorers who taught me what was good, what was bad and how to [restore] things right,” he told a Homes.com reporter over breakfast at Satterwhite’s, an eatery on Richmond, Virginia’s far west end.
Around four years ago, Ferguson made his career change after three decades operating a business selling orthopedic equipment to doctors. He had been fixing up homes as a side gig for many years. It bothered him that so many owners of old houses choose to replace their original windows and doors with modern ones. With a little care, he could extend their lifespan.
“They don’t even know that this is an option,” he said. “It’s like mattresses. Everyone says, ‘Replace your windows!’ And you really don’t have to.”
Along with handblown glass, the old windows were handmade with wood from trees allowed to grow much taller than they would be today. The wood was denser, enabling it to better resist rot due to moisture, Ferguson said.
There is a higher labor cost to paying a restoration specialist rather than buying something new, he said. But the trade-off is that the old materials have a much longer shelf life, and they add rather than detract from the value of historical homes.
“If you have a '65 Mustang with the original upholstery versus one that someone redid, which is going to sell for more money?” he asked. “It’s like that with an old home. A house that’s been there 250 years is going to be there long after you — you need to preserve its historical integrity.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How can people tell if their old windows or doors are worth preserving?
You look at the date of the house. I’d say 80% of what we do is houses from the 19th century. Starting in the 1930s, everything was mass-produced, and nowadays usually they don’t use wood or they use different technologies to press or glue wood together.
Why shouldn’t people just get new, energy-efficient windows?
If you’ve got weather-stripping and a storm window, you’re recreating the efficiency of a high-end, double-pane glass window. But you’re keeping the character of your house. Same thing with your doors. I’ll never beat vinyl windows [on price], but they might only last you 15 years. A high-end replacement might last 25 or 30. But you’ve got a window that’s already lasted 150 years, and [it] will last a lot longer if you restore it. We have architectural glass storm windows available that can be invisible but be just as efficient as a high-end window.
What’s this about wavy glass?
A lot of old houses have this cool wavy glass in their windows that gives them a lot of character. It’s that way because it was handblown. Then [in the 20th century], people figured out how to flatten out the glass. I say, "Save the wave."
What do you do if the wood in your house has rotted?
With windows, the moisture is often at the bottom of the sash. We can take out the rot and make a replica for that one part.
Where do you source your materials?
I collect a lot of it — I’ve got a store of old wavy glass and wood pieces out of old windows from houses that were being torn down or that are having their windows replaced. They’re almost like pieces of art to me.
