Window Replacement (Part One)

The only thing made certain by window replacement is more window replacement.

This property recently exchanged its high-efficiency, noise muffling, value adding aluminum windows for....high-efficiency, noise muffling, value adding vinyl windows.

With some wood windows in continuous use for over 500 years, you gotta feel good about those everlasting aluminum windows and their nearly 20 years of yeoman service, er planned obsolescence. Which is probably more than the owners will get out of this improved vinyl product. But who cares? Seemingly not the gullible consumer and certainly not the window industry, which peddles energy efficiency and cost savings--responsible virtues, whilst stoking a needless consumption cycle and contributing to a land-fill of old-growth lumber, lead ballast, cord, and glass.

Of course, wood windows can be double paned too (though sound reduction depends on the distance between panes, an often overlooked consideration), are reparable (unlike many other materials), and can be made as energy efficient (through weather stripping, et al). While vinyl window systems can limit draft, most conductive (energy) losses occur around the frame, so the unit's efficiency actually depends on the installation. (Note the expanding foam around the far window.) Unsurprisingly, sloppy installations abound: daylight leaks around undersized frames or gaps filled with ply scrap and wood shims. This is also why homes often stucco (over clapboard) in combination with window replacement, because the new off-the-rack windows don't fit the old custom casings.

Consider the side view image again, not a lot of glass face, eh? Another by-product of the stucco/re-fenestration coupling, windows are down-sized or eliminated altogether (to avoid the cost of custom sizes and the intrusion of re-framing for larger windows). Consequently, houses (or commercial buildings, see next) lose natural light and become more energy and climate control dependent.

END PART ONE