Replacement Windows | US Home Improvement

As our economy twists and turns, one thing is for certain: the number of small and home based businesses is on the rise.  Buildings that were once our residences — retreats after a long day in the office — have now become our workplace as well!

Considering the home workplace, vinyl replacement windows come to mind.  Home offices have some unique requirements: they must serve as professional space.  This means allowing in enough natural lighting for maximum health benefits: especially in the gray and cloudy Northeast, access to natural light is critical.  Vinyl replacement windows, particularly Alside Excalibur Viny replacement windows, do a great job permitting natural light to come in while keeping cold drafts and breezes out.

 Home offices need to be comfortable spaces: you can not do good work if you’re too hot or too cold — or if you’re worried about valuable heat energy escaping through leaky, drafty windows.  Experts tell us that up to forty percent of a home’s heat energy can be lost through leaky windows — not something that you want to think about when you’re working so hard to ensure there’s money to pay for the heat in the first place!

Because vinyl replacement windows are highly energy efficient, with double or triple pane glass, insulating pockets of inert gas, and high quality rigid construction, they are often an ideal choice for the home office.  Installing vinyl replacement windows in the home office helps lower costs associated with your business, enhancing your profitability.  Think of what you could do with the money you’re currently wasting on lost heat energy!  This could make a real difference in your business: how many more sales would you have in a month, for example, if you had the money you’re currently spending on lost heat on marketing or promotion?

A man’s home — or a woman’s home! — is supposed to be their castle, safe and secure from the harms and hazards of the world. A retreat from a sometimes overwhelming and hostile environment, where we can be comfortable and safe.

Yet our homes can make us sick. Often, especially in older homes, the same windows that let in the morning sunlight can also be the bearer of bad tidings, delivering environmental allergens, facilitating the arrival of mold and mildew, and worse.

Vinyl home replacement windows can eliminate some common health hazards, and significantly minimize others. Here’s how:

Vinyl home replacement windows, like fiberglass home replacement windows and wood replacement windows, are manufactured without any lead. Older windows, especially those which have been in place for more than forty years, may have at some point been painted with lead-based paint. Small children have an inexplicable fascination with windowsills and have been known to ingest this paint, with serious health consequences. While lead based paint can be ‘painted over’, the ideal solution is to remove it entirely from the household. Replacing older windows with vinyl home replacement windows completely eliminates the potential lead poisoning issues.

Asthma and other respiratory disorders are often triggered by exposure to environmental allergens, such as pollen, dust, and airborne particulates. Leaky windows let these triggers right into your home. Vinyl replacement windows, such as the Alside Excalibur line of windows, provide an effective barrier: keeping warm, comfortable air inside, and cold, drafty air laden with allergy triggers out! Double or triple pane glass windows help minimize the entry of anything but sunlight — exactly what the doctor ordered!

Every Dollar Counts: How Vinyl Replacement Windows Can Save You Money

As this entry was being prepared, the US Senate leadership was frantically working on last minute additions to make the bailout more palatable to legislators. Economic unease is the order of the day. As major Wall Street firms collapse like pine trees in a mudslide, those of us who don’t have golden parachutes to cling to have to watch every dollar.

This is especially pertinent as cold weather approaches. The cost of heating our homes this winter is likely to be higher than ever before. Saving money is the order of the day.

Vinyl replacement windows can help you save money. There’s the immediate obvious benefit inherent in vinyl replacement window’s energy efficiency. Experts tell us that as much as 40% of a home’s energy can be lost through leaky windows — stopping that loss by installing a high quality vinyl replacement window, such as an Alside Excalibur Window is one way to eliminate that waste.

Vinyl replacement windows keep the cold drafts and frigid breezes outdoors. Maintaining a warm, comfortable interior temperature is one way to help your family’s immune system stay strong, keeping everyone healthy and minimizing expensive trips to the doctor.

Additionally, because vinyl replacement windows make it easier to maintain a consistent interior temperature, your heating system runs less often. This saves money two ways: you use less fuel, and you experience less wear and tear on your heating system.

 There are a number of ways vinyl replacement windows can help you save money, from the immediately apparent to the more subtle.

“I don’t know,” Maria said. “I was pretty well convinced to go with vinyl replacement windows, but then my coworker told me they were pretty harsh on the environment. And the vinyl gives off gasses that wrecks the interior air quality.”

Maria’s been misinformed. The production of vinyl replacement windows is actually relatively environmentally friendly. In fact, vinyl is cited by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) as very energy efficient for use in buildings. At the most basic level, vinyl is a combination of salt and petroleum. Vast technological advances have been made to reduce the amount of energy required to transform the salt and petroleum into attractive vinyl replacement windows.

After the window frames are constructed, affixing the glass and hardware requires less energy and labor than either wood or fiberglass replacement windows, yet the quality of vinyl replacement windows is equal or superior to both alternatives.

Finally, vinyl replacement window frames and the scrap vinyl produced during the manufacturing process is recyclable. This is obviously an environmental benefit, reducing the amount of raw materials required for manufacturing.
Vinyl replacement windows are the green option for homeowners looking to upgrade or replace their existing windows.

Finally, about those gasses Maria was worried about. The phenomenon of ‘off gassing’, the natural evaporation of volatile chemicals from a non-metallic source, is most often encountered in paint fumes, or by the experience of opening a new vinyl shower curtain. The scents you encounter potentially carry health hazards.

However, off gassing in vinyl is associated with what are known as plasticizers, a component used to make vinyl more flexible and elastic. Vinyl window frames contain a far lower percentage of plasticizers, and are consistently rated as neutral or as non-sources of off gasses when tested. That’s one thing Maria doesn’t have to worry about — and neither do you.

If you’re a parent, you know that nothing is more precious than your child’s good health. Our first priority is to help our children achieve and maintain ultimate wellness. That’s why we buy fruits and vegetables. That’s why we visit the pediatrician so often the nurses know us by name. And increasingly, we look to our homes and the impact they have upon our physical well being.

There are three top benefits where replacement windows – whether they’re vinyl replacement windows, fiberglass replacement windows, or wood replacement windows — can help you create a healthy environment for your kids.

Benefit #1: Eliminate a Common Source of Lead Exposure

Lead — a naturally occurring element that was once commonly used in house paint — can severe negative impact on children’s health. Behavioral problems, hearing and learning imparment, and delayed growth can all result from lead poisoning. By replacing older windows, which may have been painted with lead paint, with vinyl replacement windows, fiberglass replacement windows, or wood replacement windows, you can eliminate one of the most common sources of lead exposure — interior windowsills painted with lead-based paint.

Benefit #2: Minimize Exposure to Environmental Allergens

Modern replacement windows minimize both air and moisture penetration, which means that exterior air stays outside. That’s great news, especially for children who have allergies. Many allergens are air-borne — which means that when a chilly draft sneaks through your leaky windows, pollen, dander, dust, or man made irritants come along for the ride. Replacement windows allow you to take greater control of your interior air quality, which means everyone can breathe a little easier!

Benefit #3: Reduce Ambient Noise

Honking horns, screeching brakes, the melodious early morning journey of the street sweeper. Lawn mowers and noisy neighbors. We live surrounded by noise that makes it into our homes — distracting kids who are trying to do homework, hang out with their friends, or simply sleep through the night. Healthy kids need eight to ten hours of uninterrupted sleep — and grades go up when there’s a quiet place to study! Modern replacement windows help buffer exterior noise so your home can be a restful oasis in the midst of the world’s chaos.

Home replacement windows offer superlative energy efficiency. Vinyl home replacement windows, fiberglass home replacement windows, and wood home replacement windows can all contribute to a more comfortable living environment. But can replacement windows save seniors money?

The answer may be yes. Senior citizens who live in older homes, with leaky, inefficient windows may be considering home replacement windows yet find themselves wary of making a commitment due to the relatively high price of replacement windows. Is it a wise decision for a senior citizen to replace their windows?

Consider the following:

Fuel Costs are Rising

When these words were being written, oil was hovering at over $90 a barrel. It hit the hundred dollar point earlier this month, and it’s a very real possibility that prices will rise to that point again. This has a huge and immediate impact on fuel oil prices — while many seniors live on fixed incomes. There’s simply no room in the budget for fuel prices that keep going up, up and up. This forces many seniors to choose between heat and food, heat and medicine, or heat and other life necessities.

Replacement Windows Help Conserve Heat

Energy experts tell us that as much as 40% of a home’s heating energy can escape through leaky windows and doors. That means that nearly half of the heat the furnace creates is wasted! The furnace has to run more often to make up for the loss, consuming more and more valuable fuel.

Replacement windows — vinyl, fiberglass or wood — help retain warmth indoors. Utilizing advances in window technology like triple pane glass, low E coatings, and insulating gas pockets, replacement windows can keep the indoors warm — and the furnace running far less often!

Replacement Window Health Benefits

Seniors often have a hard time maintaining their internal body temperature. This situation can worsen — dramatically, tragically so — with prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. Chilly breezes and drafts do nothing to help the situation. Replacement windows minimize air penetration, reducing the amount of cold drafts. The energy efficiency of home replacement windows allow seniors to stay in a warmer environment, making maintaining an acceptable internal body temperature easier.

It’s Not All Or Nothing

Although many homeowners opt to replace all of the windows in their home at once, to minimize the amount of time it takes to do the job, there’s no law that says it has to be done that way. Many times seniors don’t use all of their house, closing off seldom used rooms. There’s no reason to replace the windows in those rooms. Instead, focus on replacing the windows in the rooms you actually use: perhaps the bedroom, living room, kitchen and bath. This can be a substantial savings.

Discounts are Available

Finally, many manufacturers and replacement window specialists offer substantial discounts to senior citizens. These discounts may apply to the replacement window, as well as the cost of the labor to install the replacement window. Talk with replacement window specialists in your region to discover what your options are. When you factor in the discounts and the savings on your energy bill, replacement windows may be an affordable option!

Multiple chemical sensitivity, environmental allergies, and asthma are all being diagnosed with increasing regularity. Replacement windows can play a role in how individuals who suffer with these conditions enjoy their homes.

One of the main attractions of home replacement windows: vinyl home replacement windows, fiberglass home replacement windows, and wood home replacement windows, is that they create a tighter, more energy efficient home. Air penetration and leakage is minimized: sometimes to the point of virtually being eliminated.

On one hand, this is good news for those with multiple chemical sensitivity, environmental allergies and asthma. Environmental irritants, such as pollen, dust, animal dander, and other air borne irritants, can be kept outdoors, where they won’t bother you. The fertilizer and weed killers used in nearby lawns and gardens can often trigger respiratory difficulties in sensitive individuals: the virtual shield created by energy efficient home replacement windows can play a pivotal role in reducing exposure.

However, there is the question of interior air quality to consider. The air inside our homes may be invisible: that doesn’t mean it’s pure. Some of the substances we use everyday: cleaning supplies, glues and adhesives, makeup and perfume — contain agents which can trigger allergic or other reactions in asthmatics, people with environmental allergies or multiple chemical sensitivity. Additionally, the very materials our homes are constructed of: the sheetrock on the walls, the carpet on the floor, the laminate countertops and the paint that covers any type of surface, can also reduce contaminants into the air. These contaminants are known as volatile organic compounds — you can’t see them, but you can surely, if you’re one of the affected individuals, feel their impact in your breathing.

What does this have to do with replacement windows and doors? Let’s think back, before technological advances made it possible, by installing replacement windows and doors, to create a virtually air tight environment. Older single pane windows and less efficient replacement windows and doors leaked air like nobody’s business. As warm air was going out, fresh air was coming in. That may have been uncomfortable — but it also provided the fresh air needed to keep individuals healthy. An influx of fresh air minimized the effect of poor indoor air quality: the indoor air was continually cycled with and replaced by fresher, outdoor air.

As a result, we’re seeing an increase in what are known as air management systems, which allow the controlled and regulated exchange of fresh outdoor air with the air you have indoors. Rather than relying on a million haphazard drafts, cracks, and air penetration points to ensure your family’s health, an air management system leaves nothing to chance. You don’t have to hope your family has good quality interior air: you’ll know.

However, it made for a chilly, drafty, uncomfortable living environment. Replacement windows and doors make it possible to enjoy the best of both worlds: increased energy efficiency and interior air quality. Remember, unlike many original construction windows, replacement windows can be opened easily and often, as the homeowner wishes, to allow air exchange to occur the old-fashioned way!

The scenario is surprisingly common: a large family, a small house, multiple showers every single day. Moist interior air, from the showers, the washer, the dishwasher, and the staggering amount of cleaning that happens every day contributes to what can be a potentially devastating problem: mold and mildew growth on the walls.
Walls aren’t the only place mildew and mold grow. Some homeowners have reported mold growth on interior window frames — growth that can’t be addressed with bleach, cleaning, or even refinishing the frame.
What can be done? Replacement vinyl windows may be the answer. Unlike wood replacement windows, which offer a potential host site for mold and mildew growth, vinyl replacement windows resist mold.

Continual exposure to moisture can cause wood windows to rot. This is not a problem with vinyl replacement windows, such as Alside’s solid vinyl windows. Solid vinyl windows do not rot.

Often, moisture is often most problematic in two rooms: the bathroom and the kitchen. These are the rooms where the most water is used. Laundry rooms are also sometimes plagued with this issue.

Vinyl replacement windows are available in a variety of styles, many of which will work in bathroom, kitchen, and laundry or utility room applications. Double hung windows, casement windows, and awning windows are often used in these areas. Some homeowners have successfully used vinyl bay windows and vinyl bow windows in kitchens and baths, as well.

Maintaining vinyl windows in a high moisture environment is easy. Regularly wiping down the window frames will keep them clean. Mold spores can’t gain a foothold on the vinyl surface.

Controlling mold growth is essential for family health. Mold and mildew are very common allergy triggers. Toxic mold can even cause fatal reactions: not a chance any homeowner wants to take. A year doesn’t go by without news stories detailing the tragic demise of people who had black mold growing in their home — always a needless death. This can be avoided.

Mold needs three things to grow: oxygen, moisture, and a food source. Obviously, you can’t eliminate oxygen from your living environment. Moisture control is problematic: dehumidifiers and adequate venting can be helpful, but it is difficult to perfect moisture control in a residential setting. However, homeowners can affect the amount of food the mold has available to it. Replacing wood window frames with vinyl replacement windows eliminates the organic material mold uses as a food source.

It’s also important to consider the role of replacement window installation in moisture control and mold elimination. There are two options when it comes to replacement windows: the stock replacement windows available in home improvement stores, and the custom-sized windows available from manufacturers like Alside. Custom vinyl replacement windows fit better, eliminating penetration points for both air and moisture. Achieving the same result with stock windows often requires extensive and expensive retrofitting and carpentry. This may make custom vinyl replacement windows the more cost effective ways to improve your home.

Home Replacement Windows and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: What You Need To Know

We’ve got to admit it: this one took us by surprise. Is there a relationship between home replacement windows and carbon monoxide poisoning? The answer may be yes — but the relationship’s not necessarily a bad one.

Every year, as winter approaches, the news is filled with stories about carbon monoxide poisoning. Fifteen hundred people die annually due to carbon monoxide poisoning, and several thousand more seek medical attention for the condition. Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs when individuals are exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide — a colorless, odorless gas put off when heat sources are improperly vented.

In homes with older, leaky windows, some of this carbon monoxide could escape to the outdoors through the windows — along with much of the home’s heating energy. Newer homes and homes that feature replacement windows are more airtight. Warmed air remains indoors. This is of course a benefit. Home replacement windows help you save energy and enjoy greater comfort in the home.

However, if carbon monoxide levels are rising in a home, that gas will not leak through a double pane or triple pane glass replacement window the way it will through a faulty, single pane older window.

The primary way to protect yourself from carbon monoxide poisoning is to ensure that all of your heating systems are properly vented and that your home has adequate air exchange with the outdoors. Fresh air needs to circulate through your home regularly for optimum health for the homeowners.

Home replacement windows can play a critical role in providing adequate air exchange. Unlike older, faulty windows that were often painted shut, had broken weights or faulty mechanisms, modern home replacement windows open and close easily. Because you do not need storm windows, much less the ugly, thick plastic some homeowners had to staple over their windows as soon as the leaves started changing color, you can take advantage of warmer winter days by opening your home replacement windows easily and letting fresh air in.

Every home should have a CO monitor. This monitor will sound an alarm if elevated carbon monoxide levels are detected. If this occurs, the experts recommend opening all of the windows in your home — far easier if you have replacement windows that open easily and stay open — and exit the residence. Call in the appropriate emergency response teams to address the problem.

Modern home replacement windows do play a critical role in creating a more airtight home. Whether you opt for vinyl home replacement windows, fiberglass home replacement windows, or wood home replacement windows, advances in replacement window technology makes it possible to virtually eliminate unwanted air penetration. This improves the home’s energy efficiency. However, it does point to the need to have adequate ventilation for the home’s heating system and the need to have one’s heating system maintained and inspected regularly. Carbon monoxide poisoning never has to happen. Prepare now to protect yourself as winter weather approaches.

It’s that time of year again: winter’s gray skies are here, coupled with the early arrival of nightfall. Plummeting temperatures don’t help matters much. Many people find themselves in a down or depressed mood at this time of the year, and for a select few the depression becomes so bad that it becomes something else entirely: seasonal affective disorder.

Seasonal affective disorder is a serious condition that may require hospitalization. It’s symptoms mirror those of clinical depression. Whether you’re experiencing season affective disorder or a milder, seasonal depression, light therapy may help.

One of the most popular and effective treatments for seasonal affective disorder and related milder seasonal depressions is exposure to what’s known as full spectrum lighting. Full spectrum lighting mimics natural sunlight. As a rule of thumb, the more exposure one has to natural sunlight, the more relief from seasonal affective disorder symptom one experiences.

This is where replacement windows come in. Many homeowners keep the draperies closed in winter, in an effort to keep heat from leaching out through leaky, single pane windows. Draperies do keep the heat in — but they keep the light out.

Installing home replacement windows, especially those featuring triple pane glass and insulating gas pockets, allows the homeowner to slide those drapes out of the way and let the light shine in. Let the beneficial, natural sunlight fill your home or office, bathing you in the best possible light. Replacement windows let the light in while keeping the cold air, drafts, and moisture outside. Vinyl replacement windows, fiberglass replacement windows, and wood replacement windows all allow you to enjoy the comfort of your warm living environment, and the healing, mood restoring natural light.

Particularly effective for many seasonal affective disorder sufferers has been what’s known as dawn stimulation. This is exposing yourself to the changing light of the sunrise, which subtly resets the body’s responses.

Leaving the bedroom drapes open to let the morning light in is a good idea — but only if you have a good replacement window to stop those cold winter breezes from sneaking into your living space and creating frigid drafts in your bedroom! Vinyl replacement windows play a pivotal role in maintaining the building envelope and preventing air penetration.

There’s more than the glass to consider when selecting replacement windows. Cold air penetration often occurs at points in or surrounding the frame. Rigid new vinyl replacement windows offer superior framing, virtually eliminating all air penetration points. This is critical to maintaining a warm bedroom. You can lie in comfort while enjoying dawn’s early light.

Obviously, seasonal affective disorder is a serious condition and should be treated with the advice and supervision of your health care provider. However, most health care providers and experts on this condition agree that maximum exposure to natural lighting is one of the best things you can do to alleviate the worst symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. Replacement windows allow you to enjoy natural lighting and a warm comfortable environment at the same time.