For more than 150 years, windows and doors have been crafted from solid hot-rolled steel. Many of our nation’s historic buildings and mansions dating from the Civil War era and earlier feature these handcrafted materials. Today, it is common for new homes and structures to utilize wood or aluminum windows and doors, not because these materials are superior – they’re simply less expensive.
Join us for a look at what makes Hope’s solid, hot-rolled steel and bronze windows and doors the best long-term investment for your property.
Unmatched Strength
SOLID HOT-ROLLED STEEL
What makes solid hot-rolled steel a superior material? For starters, it is three times stronger than aluminum and sixteen times stronger than wood. This strength allows Hope’s to make windows and doors with the slimmest frames, the greatest amount of glass, and in virtually unlimited scale, shapes, and configurations.
SOLID BRONZE
For centuries, bronze has been the material of choice for the most prestigious structures. Bronze is unmatched for its ultimate durability and timeless beauty. Solid bronze offers exceptional resistance to corrosion, even in coastal environments.
CUSTOM FORMED STEEL OR BRONZE
To achieve certain performance or aesthetic requirements, Hope’s also handcrafts windows and doors by transforming heavy gauge steel, stainless steel, or bronze into custom formed profiles.
Narrow Sightlines
These words often describe the unique look of Hope’s windows and doors. The narrow and graceful lines belie their formidable strength and ultimate durability. Hope’s windows and doors are timeless in appearance and endure generations.
Frame Dimensions by Material
Owing to the inherent strength of solid hot-rolled steel, the extremely narrow frame dimensions maximize glass area.
Sightline – Width and Depth
When choosing windows and doors, it is important to consider the entire field of vision by evaluating both the width and depth of a frame. Windows with a shallower depth let you see more when viewing at an angle than those with a deeper depth.
Design Flexibility
Every Hope’s window and door is custom designed by you – the architect, designer, and homeowner – to achieve your specific aesthetic and performance criteria.
Hope’s helps guide you along the way to ensure your vision is achieved. Hope’s has earned a reputation for continuously achieving new possibilities in window and door design. Offering more interesting forms on the grandest scales and with more dynamic functionality, no design is too ambitious for Hope’s.
Whether new construction, remodel, retrofit, or historic preservation, architects and designers incorporate Hope’s windows, skylights, and doors into every variety of architectural style from grand renaissance and gothic revival to imaginative avant-garde and postmodern luxury homes.
To achieve the longest life cycle potential for Hope’s steel windows and doors, Hope’s provides the world’s most advanced finishing system available. Developed in cooperation with top U.S. metallurgists and architectural coatings suppliers, Hope’s finishing system is engineered to ensure that windows and doors remain pristine and free from corrosion decade after decade, even in the harshest of environments. For the top coat there are unlimited color choices, including metallics and patinas. You can also work with Hope’s to create a custom color to perfectly integrate with your design.
Monumental Sizes
Hope’s solid, hot-rolled steel can sustain the load requirements and achieve the exact aesthetics desired for immense openings, even in areas with the most strict building codes and environmental considerations such as High Velocity Hurricane Zones (HVHZ).
Historic Replication
Hope’s partners with historic and landmark preservation committees to maintain the traditional aesthetic of historic buildings while upgrading performance and efficiency to modern standards. Hope’s offers specially designed hot-rolled steel profiles along with unique glazing beads and muntin bars to replicate early steel window elements such as putty glazing and historic sightlines.
Retrofit and historic replication projects benefit from over a century of manufacturing and technical advancements – insulated and low-E glass, integral groove weatherstripping and advanced protective coatings to name a few – coupled with slim, historically accurate sightlines. Modern safety features such as hurricane resistance – even blast mitigation – can be incorporated into steel window systems and simultaneously complement the visual integrity of period buildings.
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard
Hope’s Creates New Steel Window System for Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Historic Retrofit Project
Indiana War Memorial
National Historic Landmark in Indianapolis Restored with Hope’s Custom Bronze Doors
University of Chicago
Hope’s Solid Steel Windows Help Transform Historic Building at the University of Chicago
Grand Victorian Lakefront Home
Home in Upstate New York Features Hope’s Empire Bronze Windows and Doors.
Energy Efficiency
The intrinsic properties of Hope’s solid, hot-rolled steel windows and doors provide optimal thermal performance. The raw material conducts heat and cold at one-fifth the rate of aluminum substrates. Aluminum products require a thermal break just to match the natural thermal performance of steel. The minimal frame dimensions of steel windows and doors further lessen thermal transfer by reducing surface exposure.
In addition, Hope’s has developed Thermal Evolution™ technology. This advanced thermal-break technology provides exceptional thermal performance and condensation resistance without splitting the steel frame, thus maintaining the proven structural integrity of solid hot-rolled steel windows and doors. The patented Thermal Evolution technology is third-party tested and NFRC certified.
Minimal Maintenance
Every Hope’s custom crafted window and door is built to last several generations with minimal maintenance. Hope’s low-maintenance protective coating and finishing system provides incomparable long-term protection against corrosion and abrasion whether your building is inland or oceanfront. Hope’s coating and finishing processes exceed the most rigorous testing standards and are carefully scrutinized to ensure products will perform, both aesthetically and functionally, for decades to come.
Environmental Responsibility
Hope’s manufactures windows and doors that are energy efficient and impervious to air and water infiltration, crafted from recycled steel, and finished with environmentally friendly coatings. Hope’s strong and durable windows and doors achieve unparalleled life cycle value. Hope’s will also assist building owners and architects seeking LEED® certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Longevity and Life Cycle
Hope’s is committed to crafting windows and doors only from materials with proven ability to last for a century or longer, while providing timeless aesthetic appeal. It is not uncommon for Hope’s steel windows and doors to outlast the buildings in which they are installed. Compare this long life cycle to alternatives such as wood and aluminum, and it’s clear that Hope’s is the best long-term investment both environmentally and financially.
Proven Performance
Hope’s custom crafted windows and doors set the standard for performance excellence. Hope’s prides itself on its long-standing commitment to testing and certification, subjecting its products to more third-party testing and certifications than any other steel window and door manufacturer. The process of exceeding both rigorous, independent testing and customer expectations begins with the engineering and design of Hope’s products – expertise derived from more than 100 years of experience.