A Complete Guide to Replacement Windows ?? Unique Home ...

A Complete Guide to Replacement Windows

Indianapolis South and Indianapolis North LIVING WELL Magazines

Windows seem so simple; they let light into the house and they let you view the outside.

So, why is there so much confusion as to what makes a low or high quality window?

After all, isn?t a window just some panes of glass? And hasn?t glass been around forever?

Glass-making is over 5,000 years old. It was first learned by Egyptians who observed that desert sand was fused into solid glass by the heat of lightning. It was first used for decorative purposes and for vessels that held liquids.

Colored glass came first

Melted sand had many other chemicals in it, and was never clear in the way we know it. It wasn?t until the 1290s that glass makers in Venice perfected a way to make both colored and Crystallo glass, which was nearly clear. ?Stained? glass appeared in early Gothic cathedrals, but it would be centuries until windows were made of clear glass.

George Ravenscroft, an English glass-maker, added lead oxide to his formula to produce glass clear enough to make telescopes and other optical instruments from. This was ?leaded glass,? and had nothing to do with the use of melted lead to hold panes of glass together. It?s why fine crystal glasses? are so heavy.

Window glass in America

The first American glass making operations started in Jamestown, Virginia in 1608. That operation was mostly occupied with the production of ?cut? glass for fine bowls and platters. It wasn?t until the early 1820s that a fore-runner of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (now PPG Industries) mass produced window glass on an affordable basis. It involved spinning molten glass with air that produced clear glass, yet those very old windows had bubbles in them from trapped air.

Modern American Windows?

All early American windows were encased in sashes of wood, with a single pane of glass. Wealthy Americans had ?French Windows?, small panes with mitered wooden mill work around each pane.

Yet, there was a single pane of glass between them and the outside.

After World War II, the ?storm window? appeared. This was an aluminum frame that held a single pane of glass and allowed for window screens. Their purpose was to keep rain and snow from the wood frames. They could not insulate at all, because plain glass cannot insulate.

In the 1980s, the same company that mass produced windows found a new technology to coat glass to make it reflect heat energy back to where it came from.

The ?bounce? effect of nano-coating

A New Breakthrough

Heat wants to travel from high to low. A college professor might talk about the First Law of Thermodynamics. If you want to sound New Age, talk about balance in nature. Either way, if it?s cold outside, the heat in your home wants out. If it?s hot, and you have AC, the heat wants in. The newest coated glass has an outside coating to bounce the heat away, and an inside coating to bounce the heat back in.

Advanced-technology glass also has filters that protect against ultraviolet rays from the sun. If you have a treasured family picture framed, the framer will recommend the same kind of glass. ?Bargain? windows have none of this.

Why multiple panes?

Bob Dillon, owner of Unique Home Solutions of Indianapolis explains, ?If you have three panes of glass, that means you have two spaces between panes that can be filled with harmless insulating gas like Argon, between them.? Without these inert gasses,? you just have air between the panes with barely noticeable insulation.

Can the gas escape?

?Sure it can,? says Dillon. ?That?s why we have spacers between the glass that flex as the glass does with temperature. If the spacers between the glass can?t flex with the glass, the seal will break. If you notice a fog between your multiple-pane windows, you have broken seals. That?s why we buy only from American manufacturers. Yes, we?re patriotic, but it doesn?t hurt our business to give our customers the finest materials.??

Why different frames?

There are four types of frames and sashes on the market now:

1) Wood

There are still wood-frame windows, yet the cheap ones are never solid hardwood. They can be attractive, but even with very high quality paint, they are subject to wet rot. Frost or fog on the inside of your windows in winter is moisture condensation, and the wood will absorb it. Wood that is basically compressed sawdust will ?de-laminate? with moisture. At that point, they begin falling apart.

2) Aluminum

Popular in the 1950s, aluminum looked great when new, but radiates heat very quickly. A sheet of aluminum foil out of a hot oven can safely be touched within a minute. These window frames radiate the heat quickly to the outside.

3) Vinyl

Most vinyl window frames and sashes are hollow plastic. They flex with raising and lowering the window, resulting in warping and energy-wasting gaps. They will be difficult to raise and lower after just a few years.

4) Re-enforced composite

These are advanced co-polymers that are stiffened by internal composites for rigidness. They are also filled with additional insulating materials to prevent energy loss. They retain their shape and add insulation.

Notice the warranty

No matter where you buy replacement windows, ask about the warranty. If the warranty is for five years, it will be rare for you to get seven years of the performance promised. Also ask about ?pro-rating.? As Dillon of Unique Home Solutions points-out, ?A pro-rated warranty means that if you try to redeem your fifty-year warranty after 40 years, they will deduct for the 40 years you have had the product. Our warranties are never pro-rated.?

Also ask about the labor coverage on the warranty. Many warranties only cover the product, and not the labor involved in replacement. Ask where the product was made. If the answer is ?China,? then you have no enforceable warranty at all.

The retailer will tell you to contact the manufacturer; the manufacturer will tell you to contact the retailer. The installer will tell you to contact both. Importers of Asian-made windows (including well-known brands), have reduced their costs by eliminating inspection and quality control operations. The consumer becomes the quality control operation, leaving you on your own to obtain satisfaction. Unless the windows in your home are literally rotting away, and you are considering cheap Asian-made windows, you are likely better-off just keeping the windows you have now.

?You work too hard for your money to waste it on things that won?t last,? says Dillon.

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Source: http://www.livingwellmag.com/complete-guide-replacement-windows-unique-home-improvement/

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