Last March I went to the Salt Lake Tribune Home show, I wanted to look at windows. I have been in my house for 24 years and for the most part my AC is on all Summer and my heater is on all winter and my house is freezing all winter. My current windows were a double pain glass with an aluminum frame. I had updated the insulation in my attic a few years ago and I think this helped a bit with the heating and cooling, when I stand in my bedroom bay window, I could feel the winter chill very well. I think I was just 1 or 2 degrees from seeing the winter steam in my breath.
I stopped at a couple of window booths and was left a little cool by most of the salesmen, several didn't want to show me much of the product, they just wanted to schedule an in home demo.
I did stop in and visit with Mountain States. Dave was actually pretty chatty and was happy to show me his product. He spent a half hour or so showing me his windows, why a triple pain window is a good way to go and how their vinyl frames would be so much better then my aluminum frames. He said that he knows that his windows would definitely help keep my house warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
I decided to invite him out to the house for a demo and to provide a bid. I also selected two other window dealers to come out and do the same.
I have a total 23 windows in my house, the front of my house has 9 windows. I had the three dealers come out, about a week apart from each other, and I had each of them just bid the 9 front windows as I really didn't want each of them going from room to room measuring the windows over and over.
The first bid came in and I thought that it was outrageously overpriced for just the 9 windows, and this was for double pain windows. They were thick double pain windows but still just double pain. Mountain States came in at about 1/3 of that cost for their triple pain windows and the other vendor was just above Mountain States and were also a triple pain window. Why do I think triple pain is better then double pain? If you look at the Questar and Utah Powers rebates, they give you a bigger rebate for triple pain windows. I would have received about $120 from the double pain windows and I received about $1100.00 for the triple pain windows that I had installed. I figured if they were giving a higher rebate they are probably better windows.
After visiting with the three dealers I ended up choosing Mountain States, I liked the product and I liked Dave. I invited him out to measure all windows and to give me a quote. The quote ended up being less then I thought it would be for all 23 windows. I went to the bank, got the funds and ordered with Dave about a week later.
The windows were delivered and installed about a month after I placed the order. Willy (the installer) called and scheduled an installation date and time. Now the installation is a little intrusive and a bit messy but Willy and his assistant did a great job with the install. Willy came with a tarp that he put down before he started working on the window, a vacuum to clean up any debris, loads of caulking for the new windows and all the tools needed. He didn't need anything from me except to move any furniture out of the way.
It took him two days to install all the windows, they looked great and it was nice how little outside noise I could hear compared to the old windows. Another nice thing about Willy is that he doesn't try to hide any issues that came about. I had two windows with rounded tops. He explained that sometimes the sheetrock around these type of windows easily break because there isn't wood behind the whole length of the rounded sheetrock. He installed these windows on the first day as they were more challenging and they did break a little but he patched them up. On day two he sanded what he had patched and they were good as new. He also found a crack in one of the windows. He came to me and showed me the problem, he let me know that he was going to install it anyway but that a new window had been ordered and he should be able to deliver and install it in about 2 weeks. He did indeed call two weeks later and setup a time to fix this one window.
The reason it took me so long to write this review is because I wanted to see how these windows would change the airflow, heating costs and feel of my house, especially my freezing bedroom. It is now January and it is truly amazing how comfortable my house is now. I can't tell you how big of a difference the feel is, the bay window is comfortable, I can sit in my chair next to it and not be chilled. My heating bill is probably about 35 to 40% cheaper then in the past years. I am definitely happy that I replaced the windows and happy that I went with the folks at Mountain States Windows. read more