The Best Window

People often ask me what is the "best window".  That is a loaded question if there ever was one.  While window design, the manufacturer, delivery competence, warranty service, and even order entry/inside sales are very important, the installing contractor is actually a more important consideration.  This is the company you as a homeowner will be interacting with the most. The factory "just" makes the window (and there's a lot going into that!) but the contractor has to measure them correctly, receive, and check them in looking for mis-orderrs, defects, missing screens, etc., then get them to your home and install correctly.  Then they are your primary contact for any issues that arise over the course of your ownership of the property.  Many window manufacturers will refer you back to the installing contractor if you contact them for service.  The biggest problems come from when the installer does a horrible installation and the homeowner is looking to the factory for help.  We just make 'em folks!  So please, for your own sake, choose wisely.  Get real references and talk to them.  Make sure the installers are trained, licensed, bonded, and insured.  As to see photos of the installers and go to the BBB and CSLB websites to check their bonafides. Internet five star reviews cannot be trusted.

As for the Best Window, I am not going to give you my biased brand recommendations as its skewed to what I see out here in CA. But I can give you some good universal window design features to look for.

Vinyl extrusions, for the most part, are very well made with a few exceptions. In California, though, we have hot summers, intense daylight, and idiotic politicians.  There is no such thing as "Virgin Vinyl" as all vinyl has a blend of impact modifiers, heat stabilizers, and color retention compounds blended in.  That term came from a very long time ago when extruders used other plastics (and recycled content).  The vinyl siding industry used that term to get exorbinate prices on their ugly vinyl siding. A few siding manufacturers got the bright idea to make windows also so the term is still persisting.  Some vinyl though has thinner interior wall thicknesses (usually .072 or less), not very many chambers, maybe less titanium dioxide than others. Some vinyl is also a weird color, sometimes a flat matte finish,  often blue-white or grey-white.  The best color is what is called a cream-white and has a semi gloss finish.  Also an easy way to check for a quality vinyl is to rub with your fingers.  If it feels rough, or chalky, it's crap.  If it feels silky smooth and the color looks good, and does not have thin walls, it's probably pretty good.  Always ask to see a corner cut extrusion and feel it up!

Look for good weatherstripping and lots of it.  Some now have anti-microbioticals to prevent mold and allergies) and look for a full interlock.  Where the sash meets the fixed portion of a horizontal slider at the lock is called the meeting rail.  The interlock is where they lock together when the window is closed.  Often companies have notched out sections to accommodate the lock(s) which is horrible as it is a gap in the primary sealing point! Look for full interlocks, with full perimeter weatherstripping, and just say no to notches. Cam locks, because they draw these components together for a tight seal,  are technically better than smart touch or positive action locks (PAL locks)   as the cam and the keeper draw the seal together. For the love of Pete, look at the screen too.  Often overlooked, but very important if you like, you know, fresh air. No plastic corners, look for better visibility mesh, and how easy is it to remove the screen. If the screen frame is flimsy and light forget it.  If you have to fight it to remove it, move on to a different series. 

Then look at the overall design.  Is it an even sight line? That is the vent glass is the same size as the fixed lite. Builder grade windows have unequal sight lines where the fixed can be two inches or more larger than the vent lite. This is really noticeable on large XOX or end vent sliders. It looks small-big-small especially from the inside looking out.  Is it a good looking window inside and out? Does it have rounded corners, some nice detail to it, or is it plain? Is the exterior flush fin flat or does it have a bevel, or some kind of characteristic that is visually appealing?  This is going on your home.  Is it a thin single wall stucco fin or a better double walled fin? Take the corner cut and hold it up to the house at the same corner you are going to replace.  It is amazing how many professional window salespeople do not do this simple check. While you're at it check the neighbors.  What have they done and does it look good? Walk your neighborhood and ring the bell of the home that had windows replaced and ask 'em who, what they used.  Most homeowners are generally happy with their purchase (sometimes even if it looks like hell and they may not even see it).  But still look at the homes and the install before you sign up with anybody.  There is nothing more expensive than regret.

Look for the next post and the most important window aspect - the glass package!

Sea Change

I guess I've been aware of dual pane windows for a long time.  My parents had a custom home built in 1979 and typical of his cut-corners-everywhere-possible-because-I-underbid-it approach to my parents' retirement dream home he used very cheap dual pane windows.  They were bronze aluminum, clear glass, with about a 1/4" airspace. Five large sliding windows faced due south and just got baked by the sun so that within a few short years condensation was permanently between the glass.  So much heat came through them that we had to install pull down shades to control the Solar Heat Gain (back then there was no such term).  Between the shades inside and outside the house, the condensation, and the heat it made the living room very special indeed.  

Then again this was a long time ago, and dual pane window technology has come a long way since. When I was first hired by All Weather in 1995 I had no idea that in that year we would offer single most significant improvement in windows and was going to change the entire industry!  That was the year we first introduced Low-E2 (pronounced low-e "squared", not "two") in our windows.  Prior to this glass "coating" low emissivity glass was called pyrolytic ("pyro" as in fire) as it was applied when hot glass came out of an oven during the manufacturing process and as it cools it becomes part of the glass itself. It is very durable, and works well reflecting a homes radiant heat loss back inside.  This "hard coat" low-e was great for the East Coast, Midwest, Northwest, and generally anywhere it was cold or it snowed.  But for California not so much. You see we have long hot summers, short intense winters.  This new glass coating (I'll tell you why I use that term in another post) was the only thing that reflected the majority of short wave intense direct radiation away from the glass.  Pyrolytic low-e did not do that very well in our state even though many sold it as high performance glass. 

Only a few years later, in 1999, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency introduced the Energy Star program for windows.  For the first time the Federal Gubmint would recommend the windows performance recommendation be based on the climate zone where they lived.  That's when everybody started paying attention to all those crazy letters and numbers like u-value and SHGC to meet these new guidelines.  The large electric utility monopoly in this state (P.G. & E) actually started classes to teach contractors about these ratings since many had no idea what the numbers meant.  We, as window manufacturer sales reps, looked at it as a marvelous opportunity to meet prospective window installing contractors to get them to sell our windows.

It worked.

Different World

So here we are in 2011.  The mortgage bubble (meltdown) has completely decimated the home improvement industry, and the window industry in particular.  Hundreds of companies have shuttered their businesses, stiffed their suppliers knowing they were going to file bankruptcy, and cost thousands of salespeople a decent living.   It is unbelievable to me that our own government caused this problem in the first place, exacerbated it with tax credits, and is still unwilling to fix the main economic problems we still face.

I for one had a great run; I sold over 10,000,000 in installed products to homeowners over nine years.  Sometimes I would sell three or four houses of replacement windows in a (12 hour) day.  It almost seems unbelievable, but it was really that way only a few short years ago.  The past four years, however, you'd be lucky to sell one whole house job a week.  I was getting lots of onesy-twoseys; a patio door here, two windows there.  Slowly going broke, working for two companies, working twice as hard and making half as much.

Looking back at my first posts it just goes to show you how busy I was.  I had one post in all of 2006 because I was busy selling windows!  Now days not so much.  But hey now that I have a iPad I can update this anytime and keep up with it like I should.  Anyways look for more fun anecdotes from a self-proclaimed window industry "expert".  We both might just learn something.

Well fellow blog enthusiasts...I'm baaaacccck! Now that I am gainfully employed with a steady paycheck expect to see more posts!