Monday, January 21, 2013

Windows arrived! But....

Well the last several years of agony, research, and fights with the wife (ok not fights, rather me talking and her getting mad since we "already talked about this so many times and I just don't care!")
is finally to an end.  The windows arrived today.  Feel free to comb through previous posts on window selection, but the important thing at this point is I settled on Kolbe and Kolbe Ultra EP (true 1 3/8" triple pane) windows.  The rep and local salesman was great to work with, and put up with my many tweaks and changes.

The package showed up on a truck for us to unload. I was a little surprised they came not wrapped in plastic like most do, rather just cardboard corners.
My front dining window (the one shown installed) did come with straps attached to it for easier carrying. In fact without them, carrying would be near impossible. It weighs close to 300 lbs.
Here are the windows in the garage. Black frames. They look fantastic.
 
 

Their glass options are nearly endless, which was one of the main reasons I went with them.  However, just because they are endless, does not mean they will be made that way.

So comes the first issue with them.  For those of you following glass selection and why would know the issue looking at the sticker.  Hint, this is one of my south windows. 

While the u value is impressive for an aluminum wood clad window, the SHGC number is about half of what it should be.  The south windows should have had 180/180 glass combinations, while the north has 270/180 combinations.  The order sheet submitted by the local salesman was correct, but the factory did not make them that way for whatever reasons.  They sent all 270/180 glass in all windows. 
A quick call to the rep and they are working on fixing the issue.  They will come down with the correct glass and change them out to resolve the issue.  I am confident it will get taken care of without issue, however I will update if anything arises from it.

Below is the tag on the large fixed dining room window.  While the u value is quite good indeed, the SHGC again should be about 2x what it is.  The u will suffer slightly and probably bump up to around .21, but the heat gain bump is well worth it. 

 
The front door, one of the coolest parts on the house for us, turned out to not disappoint in any way (as of yet).  It looks just as good as we hoped, and already got several comments from the guys helping me unload as well as the delivery man.  Doors like this are not too common, so we are pretty excited to have found it.  Cost wise, it was really no more than others we were looking at. 
The blue color is a little off in the picture, but it is about a perfect grey-blue color.  It is a Kolbe Ultra clad door, 3'x8' tall with a 4 panel frosted glass design. 








 

2 comments:

  1. Windows must be delivered to you with extra care because it can be dashed with one wrong move. It's a good thing that nothing happened to the windows. Anyhow, the blue windows with a frosted glass design looks wonderful. Where did you install those?

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  2. that is the front door. you can see everything installed on later posts.

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