The Old Way to Buy a Window
Here’s how most people think you buy a window.
A guy shows up at your house. He sits at your kitchen table for three hours. He gives you a big number. Then a smaller number. Then he tells you the smaller number expires the minute he walks out the door.
You sign. Months later, a crew tears out a window that was mostly fine.
There’s another way.
Figure out which part is broken. Order that part. Put it in.
That’s what we’ve done at Fenster Components in Noblesville, Indiana, since the summer of 2000.
Our Website Is the Showroom
We have a showroom. It’s for local folks who want to stop by.
For everybody else, fensterusa.com is the showroom.
Ryan Schwartz started Fenster with a table saw, a tape measure, and a garage. Twenty-five years later, he still calls this a new idea. His reasoning is simple. Until we’re a household name, it’s still new.
The idea isn’t complicated. Replace the part that’s broken.
Got a Caradco double hung with a rotted bottom sash? You don’t need a new frame. You don’t need new trim, new drywall, or a demo crew. You need a sash.
That usually runs 50 to 70 percent less than replacing the whole window.
Why Your Contractor Says It Can’t Be Done
Ask a contractor about a replacement sash for an older wood window. You’ll usually hear one of two things.
- “That doesn’t work.”
- “They don’t make those anymore.”
Here’s the honest version. Most contractors don’t know it exists.
That’s not a knock on their skills. It’s how the trade buys. Most contractors aren’t shopping for parts online. They head to the big box store, pull what’s on the shelf, and build the job around it.
A wood sash for a 1994 Norco casement isn’t on that shelf. So it never comes up.
Caradco, Norco, and Pozzi don’t sell replacement sashes for those old windows anymore. That’s why the parts feel like they vanished.
They didn’t. We build them. And as far as we can find, nobody else in the country builds them and sells them straight to homeowners.
The Three Things People Worry About
Ordering a custom wood sash online feels risky the first time. It usually comes down to one of these.
“I can’t see it before I buy it.” Fair. That’s why we post installation videos, shop videos, and tutorials. Read the customer reviews. Give it 20 minutes. Most people stop worrying.
“If something goes wrong, I won’t reach anybody.” Request a quote and it goes to Ryan. Not a queue. Not a chatbot. AI isn’t writing his emails. Call the shop and Ellie picks up at the front desk. Every sash also carries a 10-year factory warranty.
“They’re some big faceless manufacturer.” There are six or seven of us building these full time. People find out halfway through an email that the guy answering owns the company.
Some can’t believe it. Others can’t believe more companies don’t work this way.
“You’re the Sash Guy!”
A lot of our sashes ride to your door on our own truck, with our own driver.
Ryan has dropped off orders on the way to a family vacation. One stop was a couple in Alabama. The wife came outside, took one look at him, and said, “You’re the guy from the videos.”
Then Ryan shut the hatch. She saw the license plate.
SASH GUY.
So think about it. Which manufacturer have you bought from in the last five years that drove the product to your house themselves?
Who Builds Your Sash
Fenster is a family business. Literally.
Ryan’s sons work here. So do his friends’ sons. Every sash gets built like it’s going into one of our own homes.
Some days the dogs are here too. They’re no help with the sanding.
How to Order a Legacy Sash
Got a failing sash in a Caradco, Norco, Pozzi, or another older wood window? Here’s the whole process.
- Find the brand. Check the hardware, corner brackets, glass etching, or jamb liner label. Take photos.
- Name the part. Top sash, bottom sash, or casement sash. You’re replacing the part that moves, not the frame.
- Measure the sash. Not the rough opening. Measure twice.
- Send it in. Submit your photos and measurements at fensterusa.com.
- Put it in. Most homeowners can swap a double hung sash in an afternoon with hand tools. Your siding, trim, and drywall never get touched. Doing a casement? Watch our casement installation videos first.
Two Myths to Retire
Myth: Buying online means no support. Here, buying online means you skipped the salesman. You’re talking to the people who cut the wood.
Myth: If this were possible, my contractor would have offered it. Your contractor offers what’s on the shelf. Nobody stocks a 30-year-old Pozzi sash. We build each one to order in Indiana.
The Bottom Line
Your window probably isn’t the problem. The sash is.
Twenty-five years of building one thing has taught us this. Most homeowners are one part and one afternoon away from a window that works again. Not a demo crew. Not a financing plan.
Your home is worth saving.
Send your measurements and photos to fensterusa.com. We’ll build the sash.
Windows is all we do.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Ryan: Back to how we’re doing this. We’re a different kind of company doing things different.
The remodeling industry is antiquated with its use of technology. The average contractor, I believe, is not using the internet to shop for products. They’re not researching.
Go back to the last topic, the contractors who say it doesn’t work. Well, they don’t know if it works. Shout out to big box retail, Lowe’s, Home Depot. They go to those stores and pluck things off the shelf.
If we had an opportunity to have some kind of customer ordering kiosk in their window and door department where people could access our type of products, that’s where we need to be. Because their contractor isn’t telling them.
Co-Host: They’re not. No.
Ryan: The contractor isn’t utilizing the internet for that type of service. So for them to say it doesn’t work, the better thing to say is they don’t know it exists. They’re not using the internet for that purpose.
So why are we so different? We’re taking a new idea. And I know, 25 years in, we’re still calling it a new idea. Until we’re a household name, we’re still going to call it that.
New concept. And we use the word perspective. We’re trying to change the consumer’s perspective on what window repair is versus window replacement. We’re changing that perspective, but we’re also changing the way you make that purchase.
It’s a new idea. It’s a different idea. And we’re even trying to sell it to you different.
Competition? No competition. There’s nobody I can think of, or find, or at least Google will tell us, that there’s no other company out there selling these types of products on the internet directly to the consumer.
The old school way is either you have a salesperson come to your house and beat you down for three hours until you sign the deal, or maybe you’re a builder or a next level up contractor and you’ve got a salesman who comes to you, or you’ve got a window and door company with a showroom.
We’ve got a showroom, but that’s for local customers only. Our website is the showroom.
It’s a different idea. A different concept. A different way of purchasing windows as a whole. Now put in repair parts, identifying parts, identifying the sashes you need or whatever the case may be. It’s a completely new way of doing things than what people have been using.
So that is a challenge. It’s a challenge we’re still trying to overcome.
I just had a thought. Can you think of any examples where people have spoken to that, where doing it online was difficult, or where they appreciated it?
Co-Host: If I’m in somebody’s driveway with windows, they’ve already figured it out.
I think some people go back into that initial hesitancy. Not being able to go see it at a store. Not shaking hands with somebody.
But what you guys have done with the website and the tutorials and the videos and the YouTube channel is that a lot of those objections, for most people, are pretty much wiped out. If they allow themselves to see what we’ve got, to read what we’ve put out there, to look at our customer reviews.
Even people who think we’re some kind of mega corporation don’t realize there are six or seven of us full time cranking these out.
Ryan: Yeah. To that, I’ve got “the sash guy” in my signature line.
From one end of it, they can’t believe they’re talking to the owner of the company. To the other end, they realize they’re talking to the owner of the company. It goes both ends of the spectrum.
That’s maybe not unprecedented, but it’s unheard of anymore.
I’m the sales guy. Other than what Ellie handles directly off the website, if you’re submitting a request for a quote, it’s coming from me.
Co-Host: Once people go through the process, if their situation has required some interfacing with you, they are so complimentary. They’re kind of gobsmacked. Ryan was great. He owns the company.
Here’s a little card. See that guy in the middle there with the beard? That’s him. That’s me over here on the edge. This is an extended family company. It’s us. It’s us.
Ryan: That’s been something I’ve focused on, and our marketing team has focused on. How do I be as accessible as possible?
Like we talked about, some people just need to know there’s another human being on the other end of the line. AI is not typing my emails. Those are coming from me. Ellie is a real person sitting up at the front desk.
We’re real people doing that. But the more visible I can be, I think that translates into some trust. Oh, that’s the guy. I don’t have an actor filming those videos.
They see my personality. They see who I am as a person. And hopefully not just my personality, but my integrity as a business owner comes through in a lot of that.
So even if they never talked to me, or they made a purchase I wasn’t involved with, they understand who I am. And when I’m talking on the phone, it’s just me. The guy in the videos.
There was somebody, I don’t want to use her name, who I made a delivery to the last time we went on vacation. Folks in Alabama that we stopped and saw on the way down to Florida.
Made the delivery, and the wife comes out and she’s like, you’re the guy. You’re the guy on the videos.
I’m like, yeah. That’s me.
Co-Host: Did you encourage her to take a selfie with you?
Ryan: No. No.
Co-Host: I’ll even sign it, right?
Ryan: So we’re exchanging pleasantries and wrapping up, and they’re asking about the product. We’re at my truck, my wife is with me, and I close the hatch on my truck. And they go, the sash guy. You’re the sash guy.
Because my license plate says SASH GUY.
Co-Host: And just like so many of the interactions you get. You’re the guy. You’re the guy. And you just delivered my window.
Ryan: That’s what we do here. That’s what we’re doing different. Just another one of the things.
Co-Host: I was tying that into what you hear, what I hear a lot. The whole delivery thing. Oh, you’re the white glove guy. I said, well, I left my gloves at home, but I can put some on if you want me to.
So my point is, another thing we’re doing different.
Ryan: Absolutely. What company is doing that? Please, somebody come forward.
What manufacturing company is loading their product on their own truck, with their own driver, and driving it and delivering it to your front door?
Who else is doing it?
0 Comments