Charlie: Let me tell you what’s going on with David. He writes to us from Katy. He’s got a house is built back in ’92, he says. It has the standard, what we were talking about, those aluminum, single frame windows, right?
Tom: Sure, that’s what was used back then.
Charlie: And then he says, time to get a replacement, so he got meetings with four window replacement providers, which is, he’s a thorough guy. First, guy comes out, Tom, and he talks about vinyl replacement windows. He presented everything, looked good, and then seemed like a good option, but then he started thinking about the durability of vinyl under the sun and over time and all that. So he had this other guy come out, and he talked about composite windows, but these guys also sell wood windows. I think you know who I’m talking about.
Tom: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Charlie: They’re composite, he says, it looked good, so he’s going back and fourth. He’s replacing 28 windows in his house, so this is not a small project. So he’s wondering, vinyl or composite?
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Tom: Well, it depends on the composite, and it depends on the vinyl. You can see, some vinyls just got destroyed in the heat and everything, and then you see the real good virgin vinyl windows, like I have on my home for 20 years. They still look like the day they were put in, but are they the window of today? Not really. The composite window, the good ones are.
As far as some of the composites you see on the market, and some of the most expensive windows you can get your hands on, they’re actually glue with wood chips and vinyl chips all mixed together. They have a great appearance at the beginning, but are they for the Houston area? I say, no way. Don’t do it, because of the way the frames are made up.
Charlie: Those ones.
Tom: Of those. Now, if you get into a composite window that Gulf Coast Window has, it’s a totally different animal. I can’t tell you the exact make-up, but it’s more of a PVC type, solid material. They can explain everything to you, so I would tell him, before you make your choice on either of those windows he’s looked at, there, take a look at the composite windows at Gulf Coast Windows, and I think maybe you’ll see the difference, but it’s what you choose, not just the name.
Charlie: That’s right, because it’s not just the window, and David if you’re listening, the thing to keep in mind is it’s the install. That’s every bit as important.
Tom: Now we can go all down the road there. You got a factory trained installers. You want to have, make sure the windows are put in right. You’ve got the warrantees that aren’t gonna be passed back and forth, from some installer to some window manufacturer. You want to be able to deal with one good company, with a reputation like Gulf Coast Windows.