When constructing a house or renovating your home, you will have a long list of items that need to be attended to, one of which is your windows.
There are several situations in which you must consider window replacement such as living in or renovating an old, historic house, problems with opening and closing the windows, surviving a natural disaster or big storm, having drafty and foggy windows, cracked window panes, pest infestations, rotting frames, and poor soundproofing.
Another alarming sign may be a high electricity bill since according to a recent statistic, drafty windows result in a 10-25% higher bill. If you are facing some of these problems, then it’s time to consider replacing your windows.
Here are the 3 steps on how to choose the right windows for your home:
1. Choose Your Style
Carefully select the style you will be going for, keeping aesthetics top of mind and how that style will suit the nature of your home. Put different styles depending on the room and floor in your house, make the emergency exit plan and by it place the different styled windows in your home, because all of the windows have their own perks and flaws.
You can go with casement, awning, sliding, double hung, garden, picture, hoppers and bay windows. Some of these are good for enlarging a room such as bay and picture windows (picture windows cannot be opened). Others are good for specific rooms as an awning in bathrooms, hoppers in basements, garden windows in the kitchen and sliders in small spaces. Casements give top to bottom ventilation and double hung windows are good for airflow and definitely most child-friendly.
2. Choose Your Frame
The next step you need to take is choosing your window frame since it will have a key role in protecting you from the outer environment. There are lot of types you can choose from such as aluminum (which is the best isolator), but if you are going for more energy efficient window frames, then you should consider wood, vinyl or fiberglass.
Wood gives a beautiful look to your home and is a great insulator. Its downsides are more maintenance and possibility of moisture, movement, and rot. It isn’t recommended for humid and rainy climates. Vinyl is a cheaper material and it doesn’t need a lot of maintenance and it has the same quality of insulation as wood.
There are also clad windows which are a combination of both. They have the inside structure of wood and are also low maintenance because their surface is covered with vinyl or aluminum. Fiberglass is the best energy efficient window frames, but the most expensive ones.
3. Choose Your Glass
Make your windows double or triple pane. It gives 9 times more insulation than single pane windows. But be careful because the number of panes isn’t the only factor insulation. The air between the panes is equally important as it keeps the heat between the pines. Low-E Glass reduces the amount of heat because of its especially thin and invisible metal layers on the glass surface.
Impact Resistant Glass is more prone to damage, but the amount of glass shattered from a blow will be from little to none. There are also windows that use an inert gas (argon) between the pines. This is better for insulation.
While choosing your window look at R and U values. The higher the R-value, the more energy efficient. As for U-values, the higher the value, the less energy efficient.
About Element Windows and Doors
Element Windows and Doors is your top choice for window replacement, entry door replacement, and patio door replacement in Windsor, ON.
