For reference, I live in the suburbs of Portland, OR, USA

I’ve never lived in a house with AC, so I’ve always used my window unit, which is made for a vertically opening window.

Seems like I only ever see them in horizontally opening windows unless it’s an ancient house with those single pane counterweight style ones. I definitely have seen modern homes that have vertical windows, just seems like far and away not the norm to the point where it’s strange to me there seems to be none that have a vertical flyout to plug the hole. I know they make them but I can’t recall ever seeing them in the wild. Just lots of DIY wood or plastic or even cardboard panels.

37 comments
  1. I have never lived in a place with horizontally opening windows, and I’ve lived in 8 states from MA to HI.

  2. I’ve seen them in older homes, in my neighborhood all the houses have windows that open out like a door

  3. I’ve never opened the windows in my house except to run a portable AC’s exhaust through when my power went out. I live in Florida and if you open the windows, you’ll get a swarm of mosquitos.

  4. I have both double-hung (vertical) and sliding (horizontal) windows in my house, depending on the size of the opening.

  5. I have vertically opening single-hung windows. They’re pretty common in my area, although I also see horizontal sliders and casement windows.

  6. Double hung windows that open vertically are the standard in my area and they are extremely common. What is a horizontal opening window? It slides to the side? Like a sliding glass door?

    We also have casement windows. Our main house (older, 1876) has all double hung vertically opening windows. These are new, the original windows also opened vertically but only the lower sash moved, the uppers were fixed in place.

    Our kitchen addition is also older (~1890) but it was extensively renovated. There we have casement windows that open outward.

  7. Now that I think about it, I’ve never lived in a place with them either.

    They’re extremely common, just a weird coincidence.

  8. All of the windows in my house slide vertically aside from two casement windows in our kitchen and the basement egress windows, which tilt.

    I’m not sure if I’ve been in a house with horizontally sliding windows.

  9. The norm here seems to be side opening for quite large windows and vertical for the small to medium ones. My house has both and follows that rule of thumb, as do most I visit.

  10. I’ve only ever lived in WV and VA, but to me, seeing a house with horizontally opening windows would seem really, really unusual.

    Every house and apartment I’ve ever lived in, including the house that I had built five years ago, has what I would call typical, double hung, vertical opening windows.

  11. Vertically-opening windows may seem old-fashioned compared to “sliders,” and most window AC units, maddeningly, are still made for verticals even though sliders appear to be more popular by far.

    Even so, they still appear in new construction. My 2007 home has both styles: 2 sliders, 5 vertical. So the vertical window’s demise has been greatly exaggerated.

  12. We had horizontals in most of our apartments in San Francisco. But that was irrelevant re AC, as it is unnecessary. But other than that, I’ve lived in NJ, PA, Central Valley (i.e., VERY HOT) California, and have always had vertical windows in those places.

  13. Also in Oregon, in a house built 25 years ago. Our larger windows are sliders, but the narrow windows in the upstairs bathrooms are double-hung. We have a heat pump, so window units aren’t an issue.

    It seems odd to think that anyone would build a modern house to accommodate window units.

  14. I grew up near Portland OR and hardly ever saw vertical windows, always horizontal. Now I own a house in southern Oregon and my house (old house) has all vertical windows.

  15. Vertically opening windows are very common in my area and what is in my house. Maybe it is an older home thing.

  16. My house has windows installed in the last 10 years and also some windows from the 1950s. Both open vertically.

  17. Probably regional. In New England I almost never saw horizontal windows, all vertical. Sometimes you’d see one with a crank where you turn it and the window opens vertically, though I see those a lot more when visiting family in Florida. When I lived in France and Italy though, all the windows in homes I lived in or visited were horizontal, opening outwards on a hinge kind of like a door.

    A vertical fly out would be more complicated as you’d need some kind of lock on it to keep it from sliding down from gravity. And you have to account for more sizes as in my experience window height varies more than width. Nothing insurmountable though, so I can only assume the lack of them means that most areas that still rely primarily on window units have mostly vertical windows. Anecdotally I’ve seen more horizontal ones in Florida than I have in New England, but everyone there had central. When I lived in France and Italy people mostly had horizontal windows too, but nobody used window ACs. Usually wall mounted if any.

  18. Single/double hung windows are standard in my area. Though casement windows have been popular on new construction for the past 30 years, often houses have a mix of different types of windows.

    When I was picking new windows for my house I went with single hung, because I like the simple look, they’re cheaper, they’re simpler (less to break), and they’re slightly better sealed from outside noise and weather because there are fewer seals to maintain.

  19. I’m in the Bay Area and my bathroom has a vertical window. When I lived back East, you see it all the time.

  20. The majority of my windows open both ways Left to right or right to left, I live in Colorado.

  21. I live near Pittsburgh and the windows in my house open side-to-side. One of the few homes in the area that are like that. It was built in 1975.

  22. I’ve only seen horizontally opening windows in Europe. I’ve lived in a dozen states over the past 20 years

  23. I think my grandparents’ houses in Ohio might have had side opening windows because I have vague recollections of cranking open the windows. I can only remember living in houses with vertically opening windows.

  24. Pretty common for both vertical and horizontal, even on the same house. It depends on if you want tall windows or wide windows. Tall windows have 2 windows with one sliding up and down. Wide windows have two windows with one that slides side to side

  25. Think it depends on the style of house/window. Most places I’ve lived had the horizontally sliding ones, but at least one or two of the places I have lived, had the ones that open vertically as well.

  26. I have 6 windows in my current apartment. 4 open vertically and 2 open horizontally

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