Somebody spent $80,000 on new windows because a crank operator broke.
That is a $100 part. It is a ten minute fix. Nobody told them.
That happens more than it should, and it is the reason this episode exists. Before you decide what to do about your windows, you should know what is actually broken.
The Part That Fails Is Almost Never the Whole Window
First, some ground rules. Fenster makes wood window replacement sashes. Painted wood and aluminum clad wood. No vinyl.
The sash is the moving part of the window. The glass and the frame that holds it. On a double-hung, it slides up and down. On a casement, it cranks in and out.
The frame around it, the part nailed into your wall, is a different thing entirely. On a clad window, that frame is metal. Metal does not rot. Metal does not fog up.
Here is the whole idea in one sentence: just replace the part that’s broken.
Almost every window failure a homeowner notices happens in the sash or in the hardware. Almost none of it happens in the frame.
What Actually Goes Wrong
1. Foggy glass is moisture that leaked in, not gas that leaked out
This is the most common misconception in the business. People assume something escaped from between the panes.
It is the opposite. Something got in.
The part holding the two panes apart is called the spacer bar, and there is a rubber sealant running around it. Over twenty or thirty years that sealant gets brittle and cracks. Moisture works its way in and cannot get back out. Then the fog builds.
That is not something you did wrong. That is the window aging past its serviceability. It happens to all of them eventually.
Most homes we serve are mid to late 70s through the early 2000s, and about 80 percent of our customers are in an 80s or 90s era home. Those windows did not have argon fill. Most did not have Low-E coating. They were built to a different standard, and they have reached the end of it.
2. Rot starts at the joints, and the joints were never sealed
Wood rots because water reaches it. Water reached it because of how these windows were built.
A lot of windows from that era used a rubber boot to hold the glass in. Those boots cracked and separated at the corners. The joints where the sash frame met at the corners were not sealed either.
They stopped making windows that way for a reason.
3. Broken hardware is a cheap fix people pay a fortune to avoid
Crank operators fail. Weather stripping goes bad. These are $100 parts and afternoon repairs.
We have heard from homeowners who replaced every window in the house because the weather stripping was shot. If you want new windows, buy new windows. That is a fair choice. But a lot of people cannot afford that choice, and nobody offered them the other one.
4. Double-hung tracks are an $80 problem
On a wood double-hung, the technical term is jamb liner. Most people in the field call them tracks.
They go brittle. They crack. They warp. The springs and terminal ends that hold the sash in place break.
Depending on window size, that is an $80 to $150 fix and about ten minutes with a putty knife. There is no reason to tear a window out because the tracks are bad.
The Myth: New Windows Are Built Better
Take the span from the mid 70s to the mid 2000s. The wood is still wood. The metal is still metal. The plastic is still plastic.
From a materials standpoint, new windows are not better. They are the same. And the manufacturing has arguably gone the other direction. Ryan will make the claim outright: a window built in 1985 is made better than a window built in 2025.
One thing did improve, and it improved enormously. The glass. Glass technology today is a hundredfold better than what went into an 80s or 90s home.
Here is the part the quote does not mention. Fenster buys that same glass. The big names like Pella and Andersen own their supply chains and make their own. The other 90 percent of manufacturers outsource, and we are buying from the same suppliers they are.
So when you compare a new window to a new Fenster sash, you are comparing the same glass in both. One of them requires cutting a hole in your house.
The Cost Nobody Puts in the Quote
A full replacement means cutting the frame out down to the studs. That is a major remodeling project, not a window job.
Interior trim comes off, and some of it breaks. Drywall paper tears. Paint gets damaged. Caulk lines get cut. Blinds and drapes come down.
Then there is the part almost nobody asks about. That metal window frame is held in by a nailing flange, and on most homes that flange was sealed with building envelope tape and then covered by brick, stone, or stucco.
Cut the frame out and the flange goes with it. The tape goes with it.
The new frame gets screwed in through the frame and caulked on the outside. That works. But how do you seal behind the exterior facade when you cannot reach behind the exterior facade?
Water only travels one direction. Downhill. And a leak up high shows up as a stain down low.
Swap the sash instead and none of that is in play. The frame is untouched. The wall is untouched. The building envelope never gets opened. You do not even have to take the blinds down, which matters more than it sounds like when custom blinds for a whole house can run ten thousand dollars.
What We Do Differently in the Shop
Wood arrives as raw lumber. Nothing sits on a shelf. Sashes get assembled after the order comes in, with the customer’s name written on the frame in magic marker.
One process detail worth knowing. Most manufacturers glaze the glass into the frame first, then snap the cladding on. Fenster does it backward on purpose. Cladding goes on first, then the glass is directly set into the frame.
That gives you a watertight seal between the glass and the metal edge, metal folded over metal, with no exposed wood in the joint. Nobody else is doing that.
Stop Overthinking It
Windows feel complicated. The vocabulary alone is enough to talk somebody out of a repair they could have handled.
Ryan’s version is simpler. They are rectangles. It is a square peg in a square hole. Tell us how big to make the peg.
25 years of doing one thing. More than 50,000 units built. We think we’re pretty good at it.
Figure out what is actually failing before you agree to a remodeling project. If it is the glass, the wood, the tracks, or the hardware, you are looking at a part, not a house.
Your home is worth saving. Start your quote at fensterusa.com.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Speakers: Ryan Schwartz (“Ryan the Sash Guy”), Fenster Components founder. Jason, Fenster delivery driver.
Topic: What actually fails in a wood window, and why replacing the sash beats tearing the whole window out.
Ryan: Today we’re going to expose the truth behind why window replacement companies tell you windows can’t be fixed, and why Fenster has been doing just the opposite for 25 years.
Hello everyone. I’m Ryan the Sash Guy with Fenster Components. I’m here with Jason, our delivery driver. Today we’re going to talk about some window products and some options you have for repair or replacement.
You’re faced with the reality that you need to address your failing windows, and you wonder what choices you have. We’re going to talk about all of those choices today and how Fenster can help you with that.
Jason, let’s jump into the conversation and go through some of the common things people might see.
Jason: I assume water is generally the source of problems for wood windows.
Ryan: Absolutely.
Jason: How does that manifest, and what problems does it cause?
Ryan: Let me preface this whole thing. I want to be specific to our listeners, and to our customer base, about what type of windows we’re actually talking about.
Fenster is a wood window company. Exclusively wood windows. No vinyl.
Vinyl is a big part of the industry and a big part of the replacement industry, but it’s a completely different animal. Different price point, different architecture, different features.
I’ll go ahead and say the best thing about vinyl windows is they’re cheap. I don’t have any encouraging words for a vinyl window product, just to be blatantly honest.
Our key homeowner has a painted wood window or an aluminum clad wood window. So what does that mean?
Casement or double hung. A lot of window types fall under the casement category. A transom is a smaller window above a larger one. An awning window, some people call it a hopper, is usually on the bottom. A casement swings side to side on a hinge. An awning hinges from the top and opens from the bottom.
Vented or even stationary picture windows count too, as long as it’s built as a removable sash. I know we’re going to use that word a lot. It’s still a casement because it’s built as a casement window, versus a double hung, which slides up and down.
Jason: Did you ever give me that license plate, by the way? I was going to try to get Ryan to give me a “double hung” license plate.
Ryan: I tried. The state of Indiana thought that wasn’t appropriate. I tried to get “hail no” too, and they wouldn’t let that one go.
Jason: Seriously. Something’s going on. I’ll make a call. I’ll write a letter.
Ryan: You should.
Anyway. Double hung slides up and down on a track. They’ve got the springs or the balances on the side.
Jason: Or the old window weights.
Ryan: Right. So those are your two general categories.
Before we dive into parts and pieces, I want to cover some of the terminology the layperson may not know.
An aluminum clad window is a wood window with a metal skin on the outside. You can also have a vinyl skin. Don’t confuse that with a vinyl window, which is all vinyl. You can have a vinyl clad wood window with vinyl skin on the outside. All of our clad products are aluminum.
The layperson really can’t tell the difference. You have to be uber detail oriented to spot it. Or you can have a regular painted wood window that you paint the color of your house. It doesn’t have metal on it.
So I want to be specific about what exactly we’re talking about.
Now let’s get into the biggest thing. Seal failure.
The glass fogs up. It gets moisture in between the panes. The misconception is that a lot of people think some kind of gas leaked out of it. It’s what leaked in, not what leaked out.
For the period of homes we’re servicing, you’re talking mid to late 70s through early to mid 2000s.
Jason: That’s a broad range.
Ryan: Absolutely. Broad range of age of home that we’re servicing. In that core, I’d say 80 percent of our customer base is in an 80s or 90s era home.
They didn’t have any gas in them back then. It’s not like today, where we offer an argon fill as an upgrade. That just wasn’t the case. And even into the mid to late 90s, Low-E glass, which is a low emissivity coating, really didn’t come into play. It would have been a very expensive upgrade for that time period.
Jason: Can you say that word two more times?
Ryan: No. Don’t make me say that word. Let’s go with Low-E.
So you really didn’t have it. It’s about moisture leaking in and not escaping back out.
The part that holds the double pane together is called the spacer bar. Then you have a rubber sealant that goes around it. That will crack. It gets brittle and cracks. And that’s not from something a homeowner did. That’s age.
It has a lifespan. It’s the window aging past its serviceability. It’s going to happen to all of them eventually. So it’s about that seal breaking and letting moisture in, and differences in humidity and temperature. And the worse it gets, the more that fog builds up in there.
That’s a pretty common thing most people can recognize. It looks like crap. I can’t see through it. What do I do?
Jason: Right.
Ryan: Common to the wood window, of course, would be rotting wood. And you’re right, water is the contributing factor there.
The manufacturing techniques from these time periods were sus. Let me use a kid word. I’m working on the kid words.
You didn’t have joints that sealed up. A lot of the products, people can recognize this, had a rubber boot that holds the glass in. Some customers reference them. They’ve been obsolete for years. You almost think they stopped making windows like that for a reason, on purpose.
That’s a market.
So the rubber boots are gone, but they didn’t seal up. They let water in, same as the seal on the glass. Those rubber boots cracked. They separated at the corners. And the joints where the corners of the sash frame met up weren’t sealed.
All different things that we do differently now that make our product better.
So those are things all windows are subject to. Now let’s talk about casements a little bit. Failed hardware.
The cranks. The crank operators. The arms.
Jason: I’m trying to think of some terms that most people don’t know.
Ryan: No, terms that they use. The crank. I throw out “operator.”
Jason: Say operator. The cranky thing.
Ryan: All that. So Jason, I’ve heard stories from people who got talked into buying all new windows because they had operators that were failing or broken.
That’s a hundred dollar part and a ten minute DIY fix. And they spent 80 grand on new windows because nobody would tell them you can order this part online. They’ll help you identify it.
Jason: And it’s online.
Ryan: Yeah. Our life. Welcome to 2026.
It’s such an easy fix, such an easy repair, that the typical handyman can easily accomplish it. Changing weather stripping, all these parts and pieces that are easy fixes. And I hear from people, oh yeah, we just bought all new windows because the weather stripping was bad.
Jason: Why? For some people it’s like a status symbol. We just bought all new windows.
Ryan: That’s true. If you want new stuff, buy new stuff. I’m not arguing with that. But a lot of people can’t afford to do that. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.
Let’s talk about double hungs. Very popular product for us. The technical term would be a jamb liner. On a wood window, again, I want to be specific with the terminology. Still talking about a wood window. Our double hung product is specifically designed to work with a compression fit double hung wood window.
What that means is the jambs, the jamb liners, are the technical term. A lot of people in the field call them tracks.
Jason: The tracks.
Ryan: They call them the tracks. That’s legit. That works. We’ll stick to the textbook. Jamb liners.
Those go brittle. They crack. They warp over time. You’ll have the springs break, or the terminal ends that hold the sash in place. Those break.
Very popular product for us. Depending on the size of the window, that is an 80 dollar fix to a 150 dollar fix. And again, Jason, that’s a ten minute job with a putty knife. You can watch me put those in and out all day long on some videos that we have. Very, very DIY friendly.
No reason to tear windows out, double hung windows in this particular case, when the tracks are bad.
That compression fit idea is that they’re folded and squeezed into the width of the window. The window keeps them pushed, keeps them tight. When you put the sash back in, the pressure and the tension makes all that work and fit together.
So you’ve got hardware issues, rotted wood, and failed glass. Those are the big items for why you would consider doing something with your windows.
Jason: You talked a little about the history of windows and why some of them failed. How has the industry kept up? Is it sealants? Is it glass? What’s making today’s that much better?
And I hear it all the time when I deliver to somebody. They’ll say, I put in one of your windows and I noticed how much quieter it was in my bedroom.
So talk about the advancements. Not in technical terms, but in stuff people are going to understand.
Ryan: Sure. We’re going to get into some of my personal opinions here. I think we’re poking the bear a little bit.
Some of this comes down to what did I see wrong, what are we doing better, what needed to be better. What has devolved, what has evolved, and what has stayed the same.
I’m coming at it from the perspective of why I think our idea is better, to be quite frank. Don’t spend money on something that isn’t broke.
Jason: I get down with that.
Ryan: And that’s one of the biggest advantages, I don’t know if I want to say selling points, to putting repair as your first option instead of, well, I found these guys online and now I’m going to see what they’re about.
Jason: Let’s back up one second. I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I think it’s important. Explain to everybody real quick the difference between what we would do and what a brand new window is.
As I understand it, a brand new window, they’re cutting that whole frame out down to the studs.
Ryan: They are.
Jason: And there’s interior trim work, and exterior work, and mess and inconvenience and all that stuff.
Ryan: Major remodeling project. Let’s call it that.
Jason: Major remodeling project. So maybe remind everybody what we do differently than that.
Ryan: Yeah, because I don’t want someone getting lost in new or replacement or repair or replacement. I don’t want them to be confused. And I apologize if I skipped over that part when we were talking about common window failures.
All of that stuff is specific to the sash. You’ve got to understand what it is we’re offering you.
The sash, the Webster’s dictionary version, is the glass and the frame that encapsulates it. The moving part of the window. The double hung sash slides up and down. The casement sash cranks in and out. The movable part of the window.
Other than a potential weather stripping issue, there’s nothing wrong with the frame.
And again, I want to retouch on that aluminum or vinyl clad wood window. It most likely has an aluminum frame, or a vinyl clad frame. Picture our most common stuff. It’s aluminum. I throw in the vinyl because it’s out there, but the majority is aluminum.
That frame is all metal. What could ever go wrong with it? The paint fades a little bit. A Brillo pad, or even car wax. I’ve seen people buff that frame like they would a car and it’ll shine right back up. Worst case scenario, you paint them. Versus the price tag for tearing them all out.
That’s the notion we need to drive. The sash is where your seal failure comes in. A new replacement sash solves that problem.
The rotted wood, a really skilled carpenter might be able to fix that, but not to the degree that a brand new sash is a brand new product. So that’s what we’re offering. That sash product solves all of those problems without tearing the whole window out.
Now let me get back to how the industry has changed and how it hasn’t, and how that compares to what we’re doing.
Think about that span. Math wasn’t my thing. Mid 70s through mid 2000s. The wood is still the wood. The metal is still the metal. The plastic is still the plastic.
I would argue from a material standpoint that new windows aren’t better. They’re the same.
The devolution is in the manufacturing. I’m going to say some things that will ruffle some feathers, but the manufacturing techniques have declined to the point where I would say your window from 1985 is made better than your window from 2025.
Jason: Gotcha.
Ryan: I would make that claim. And that’s all manufacturing. That’s not technology. That’s not chemistry. That’s not anything.
Technology is the next part. So where all of that’s the same, where has the technology evolved? That’s in the glass itself.
And again, I’m going to poke another bear. This is big vinyl window coming. Oh, we’re going to cut your energy bills in half. That’s ridiculous. That’s a ridiculous notion that it would even be possible by changing your windows.
Argue with me. Disagree with me. You’re losing more heat energy out of your attic than you are out of your windows.
There’s some truth to it if you have a house built in 1895 and you’ve got single pane. Well, those are the windows you should be replacing, because they’re drafty and they’re shot. That’s the case where you should be replacing that old technology.
But from our perspective, the technology hasn’t changed all that much in the manufacturing or in the materials. The glass technology has improved a hundredfold. A hundredfold.
If you have a house built in the mid 80s or early 90s, compared to the glass that was used then versus what’s available today, a hundredfold better.
But the point I want to drive home is this. If you’re comparing apples to apples on why you’d go with new windows versus just a new Fenster sash, we’re using the same glass. The same glass technology, and actually from the same manufacturer.
That’s the same as everybody else. You’ve got the Pellas and the Andersens making their own glass because they own their entire supply chain. But I’m talking about the 90 percent of other manufacturers who outsource their materials. We’re buying the same glass they’re buying.
So I would throw that at anybody who wants to compare old versus new. Yeah, the glass is a hundred times better. But we’re the same. We’re hanging with the big boys because we’re using the same glass product. The same stuff.
I don’t want to go real deep into this aspect of it, because I want to be careful. There are some great companies out there. You’re going to hear me on my big family, small business soapbox, because I’ve spent my entire adult life building this company. My sons work for the company. It’s truly a family owned business. I don’t want to discredit anybody else doing it that way.
Ryan: So I don’t want to focus too much on how the sales process has changed, and how some of the selling techniques have gotten…
Jason: Shady. Yeah, do it.
Ryan: You hear a lot of it in TV commercials. Buy two, get two free. Well, we can’t make half of them for free. So how are you giving them away? You raise the price to lower the price.
Jason: Right. Everybody wants a deal.
Ryan: It seems to be working for somebody. It just doesn’t appeal to me. I’d rather be way more upfront and honest about how we’re doing it. Like I said, I don’t want to dwell on that part of it.
Jason: Everybody’s got to sleep with themselves at the end of the day.
Ryan: Right. But let me finish that point with price point versus quality of product.
We’ve certainly employed some modern manufacturing techniques. But at the end of the day, a pair of human hands is building that window frame. Human hands are putting the metal cladding on. My son Ben is our shop manager. He’s not sitting at a desk looking out onto the production floor. He has the final say. He’s second in command for the company, and he has the final say on the quality going out the door.
Jason: It’s interesting. Who’s going to tell you that? Who’s making that happen?
I tell people when I’m delivering, these windows were made specifically for you. They don’t come off a shelf. If you were to accidentally break that glass, you’re going to see your name on the frame. In magic marker. Because it was made specifically for them after they ordered it.
They kind of look at me funny, like, what are you talking about? And I’m like, no, it’s yours. It was made for you.
Ryan: We don’t have 50 different models of sash in six different colors and ten different sizes sitting on a shelf somewhere.
Truth be told, because we know a lot of the factory sizes, some of the parts are mass produced. But they’re assembled as the orders come in. Nothing is on the shelf ready to go. Everything’s made specifically for the customer.
Jason: Wood comes in as raw wood.
Ryan: It does. A lot of people are fascinated that we’re doing all of that in house. It’s raw lumber.
Jason: And part of that, you talked earlier about a customer mentioning sound control and things like that.
Ryan: You can grab that old sash from 1995 and wonder why ours is so much heavier. Because that one was processed with a cheaper species of lumber. So much of that price point is the lumber.
I just had this conversation with a customer last week. He wanted a price between a clad window and a painted window. I came back and the painted one was more. We charge more for that. And the guy said, what are you doing? How is that even possible?
Because in today’s economy, the perception is backwards. The metal skin is pennies on the dollar compared to what the wood costs.
Obviously the glass is driving 60 percent of the cost of the window, 70 percent. Then it’s the wood. If we have to make a painted wood window that’s going to stand the test of time, that’s going to outlive the warranty we stand behind, we have to use a better grade of lumber on that window than we would if we were putting metal cladding on it. The cladding protects it. It gives it more serviceability, more longevity, less maintenance.
So that’s the misconception. The painted stuff costs more money to make than the clad.
Jason: I didn’t know that about the wood. I would have guessed it was just the labor of painting. But it’s the wood.
Ryan: The labor does add some. On a painted window there’s a lot more paint prep involved, and we do some pre-caulking of joints when we assemble. So it’s a little more labor intensive. But yeah, it’s all about the price of the lumber nowadays.
Jason: That’s wild.
Why is our option, the Fenster option, better than just cutting it out and putting a whole new unit in?
Ryan: This is where I’m going to ruffle some feathers.
Jason: I’m not wearing feathers. Left your boa at home.
Ryan: I’m very proud of what we do and the products we put out. And I’m going to unequivocally stand behind our quality, the materials we use, and the people putting them together.
What I want to say to that is the intrusion to the building envelope.
We talked earlier about the aluminum clad window. Casement, double hung, it really doesn’t matter. But this is the question I have, after 25 years, well, 30 plus years in the remodeling industry in general.
You’re taking that metal frame of the window out. A metal frame window has a nailing flange. That’s how it’s nailed to the wall of the house.
Now think about it. That’s wrapped in brick, or wrapped in stone or stucco. And that material is put right up to the edge of that metal frame.
So how do you get that metal frame out? Think about that for a second.
Jason: Do they cut those out?
Ryan: For the purpose of this conversation we’re going to say a full tear out replacement. There are insert windows. That’s a different animal. Let’s talk about a full on replacement. Let’s talk about these hundred thousand, hundred and twenty thousand dollar quotes that people get.
The major remodeling project. They’re going in, tearing all the interior trim off. And we’ve seen some things happen. You cut the trim off. You broke some of the trim. You tore some of the drywall paper. You messed up some of the paint. You cut the caulk too much. You tore all the blinds down. You tore all the drapes down.
Do you see where we’re compounding here? Major remodeling project.
Now you’ve got to cut that frame out of the wall. That’s the demo guys’ fun part. That’s not too hard to figure out. They’re sawzalling that thing out of there and throwing it in the dumpster.
That window was nailed into the wall by that nailing flange. Depending on the era, depending on the area of the country and their building codes, that nailing flange was sealed somehow with some kind of building envelope tape, some sticky tape or some kind of sealant to prevent water intrusion.
Now how do you put the new frame in? Where you would nail that flange, that’s behind the brick.
So the new frames are usually manufactured specifically to fit in that hole. A good window contractor has that part figured out. I’ve heard the stories. I can’t imagine how often that doesn’t happen.
You probably have customers who have shared those stories with you. I think PJ has a story like that. How many times are we going to try to put this one window in? You ordered it wrong again. The contractor did, not the homeowner.
What did they do with the opening? They’ve already cut it out. They didn’t measure anything. Oh, the new one’s four inches too short. Nightmare after nightmare.
Again, we’re back to the compounding of the major remodeling project.
Putting the new frame in, assuming it was measured the right size and fits perfectly, that’s what the good guys have figured out. You can screw the frame into the wall through the frame. I don’t have a problem with that. That’s quick and easy. You can caulk the frame on the outside to the brick, to the stucco. I don’t have a problem with that. You can put all the interior trim back on. I don’t have a problem with that.
What do you do about water intrusion behind the exterior facade?
Because that tape, you can’t tape where you can’t get. You have no nailing flange anymore. You have no sealant tape on there, because the old tape got hacked through.
Per today’s building codes, you should see how houses are built on the coast. My wife and I spend a fair amount of time in Florida. They’re watertight before you even put any siding and trim on them, because they’re so weatherproofed in their building codes. And you can apply those same codes anywhere in the country.
So how are you sealing up that frame behind the exterior facade? Maybe somebody literally needs to tell me.
Jason: Yeah.
Ryan: If water was to leak in… I used to get this a lot in my old repair days. Well, I’ve got water leaking in through the top of my window. The seal must be bad or something.
And I’d go, no, no, no. It’s leaking in from the window up above it and running down the inside of the wall and leaking through this lower window. This window isn’t leaking.
Think about how a window is designed. Oh, the water came up, turned a right hand corner, and then came backwards? No. Water only flows one way. Downhill. It’s leaking in from up above and dripping down behind the brick, behind the siding.
Jason: So that’s the scariest problem. But for me, the bigger pain in the ass problem would be the whole construction project.
Ryan: Yeah. Major remodeling project. There’s no way around that.
And we didn’t even finish. You’re still painting. You’ve got a new frame, you’ve got more painting than you would have had. Different manufacturers, different timeframes. It doesn’t match the look and feel of the rest of the windows in your house.
Jason: They’re replacing them all anyway.
Ryan: That’s a selling point for us. We’re putting in a replica sash that matches 100 percent, or matches very close, depending on certain circumstances.
But let’s talk about wrapping up the project. Are the blinds going to fit? Did you just buy yourself 10,000 dollars worth of new custom blinds for the house because the old blinds don’t fit in the new window frame?
If you just replaced the sash, you didn’t even have to take the blinds down. Sash in and out. Nothing happened with the frame. Nothing happened to the wall. Your seal didn’t get broken. You don’t have to reseal anything. You don’t have to recaulk anything. And your building envelope is still intact, because you didn’t have to cut that frame.
That’s when we talk about cost savings and time savings. And now I’m really getting into construction nightmares.
We all know that exists. Again, I’m not trying to talk bad about the guys who are doing it right. We fight the same fight. You’re not hearing about the guys who are doing it right. You hear about all the guys who are doing it wrong.
Now you’re compounding upon compounding all of those issues that come into a major remodeling project. When are they coming? When are they coming back? When are they going to finish it? This one isn’t right. They damaged this one, we need to get it replaced or fixed. On and on and on.
You can’t tell me there aren’t enough people in America who regretted tearing those windows out.
Jason: I’m sure.
Ryan: Because they didn’t have that other option. Nobody told them, hey, have you ever thought about not doing a project like this, and doing this much instead and solving all your problems?
You talk to people all the time. Can you think of a time when, I mean, I don’t know specifics.
Jason: Well, there was a guy last week, and I think he commented on Google, that he thinks these windows he’s already put in are better than the originals he had from 43 years ago. He was an older gentleman. From his shop, from his garage, it looked like he was the handyman. So he put those all in himself.
Ryan: I’ve had this conversation, but I was thinking more about folks in the past who maybe did a couple, two or three, or did half the house. Then they found us and they’re like, oh yeah.
A lot of my argument is rooted in a customer’s experience, not me just touting that we have a better idea. It’s from experience. From horror stories. My neighbors have gone through it. Particular customers who say, yeah, we had a contractor come in and do these and they don’t match. Some of them never did work right.
Brand new window, brand new window, and it never worked right. Because, I’m going to use my dad’s word, they were cattywampus in the opening, and the contractor didn’t know how to fix it. Didn’t know any better.
Where they found us along the way. Has that ever happened? Have we sold sashes into windows that had already been replaced and had gone bad?
Jason: That scenario where they had original windows in the house and we could offer them a product for that. And then they had newer replacements, or they put in a screen porch or something. Oh no, we can do those too.
Ryan: Right. That’s how simple we’re trying to make this.
I’d want to wrap up that point with the huge convenience factor we’re offering our customers. The technology is just as good as a new window. The materials, the parts and pieces, apples to apples. Wood, metal clad. There are a lot of synthetics out there with pros and cons. Let’s just talk wood windows to wood windows. The materials are the same.
We can argue, and some of our customers can argue, that the manufacturing techniques certainly could be better. We’re doing things differently. Like I said, the rubber boots don’t exist anymore. We have a direct set glazing system. Glazing is the technical term for gluing the glass into the frame.
Jason: I don’t want to be window geek all the time.
Ryan: Right. I want to explain some of those terms.
Aside from that boot, that wet glazing, you’re putting a physical water barrier between the pane of glass and the frame of the sash. You have a watertight seal because we’re squeezing the glass into that frame. Way better than the old boot version.
Sealing joints together, when our cladding guy JP puts the frames back together, we’re putting a bead of sealant in between.
Let me say this. Not only do we have metal touching metal… I’m going serious here. Full window geek.
Jason: Full window geek on you.
Ryan: Most windows, the glass is glued in first, and the cladding is snapped on after the fact. We’re putting our cladding on first and then gluing the glass into the frame.
Now you have that watertight seal between the glass and the edge of the metal. You’re not going to find that anywhere.
Jason: That’s only Fenster stuff.
Ryan: That is only Fenster stuff. So you’ve got metal folded over metal touching metal. You don’t even have wood exposed in that joint. And we’re still caulking, and we’re still putting a bead of sealant on when JP screws those frames back together.
Jason: Nobody’s doing that.
Ryan: Nobody’s doing that. That’s just us.
So yeah, I’m going to agree with our customer. Our stuff is better than the old stuff.
The thing I want to stress, and we talked about this last time, is that buyer confidence is so important. When we’re talking about these parts and pieces, the sash, what’s the sash, what’s a doohickey, what’s a thingamajig.
Don’t overthink it. Don’t think about windows. They’re rectangles. It’s a square peg in a square hole. Just tell us how big to make the peg. That’s the hardest part about it.
Our systems and our processes are in place. We ask the questions that need to be asked so the customer isn’t all up in their head. Windows are complicated, and nope. Let us do that. Let us be the experts. Let us do what we know how to do.
Read those reviews. Understand that we have this figured out. We’ve done this umpteen thousands of times. We’re 25 years in business. Just averages, we’re talking 50,000 plus units produced over a 25 year period.
I think we know what we’re doing. I think we’ve got it figured out.
So don’t worry. There’s so much education there, so much material there. Please spend time on that website. Follow us on socials. We’re putting so much content out there on how to measure, how to identify, how to decipher these different terms.
But at the end of the day, Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner, please don’t overthink this. Let the Fenster guys, let the Sash Guy, we have that figured out. Don’t overthink it. Let us do what we do.
And the entire experience of working with Fenster Components, I promise, is going to be pleasant. Jason’s going to roll up and he’s going to be Mr. Jovial. Got your windows here. It’s new window day.
I want to close on this. We have this figured out. Let us do what we do. Let us do our due diligence to make sure you’re getting the right thing. We know how to do that.
Jason: Touch on the experience side of it from your perspective.
Ryan: I made a delivery on the way to Florida last week, and that customer was like, your license plate says the Sash Guy. And I said, because I’m the Sash Guy.
He said, when Ellie said you were going to deliver it yourself… And I said, Michael, that’s how we do things here.
Jason: The CEO is rolling up in the driveway with your stuff.
Ryan: Yeah. Don’t mind the beach chairs and the golf clubs. Your windows are in the back of my truck. Because I was on the way. We didn’t have a truck coming anytime soon, and that’s how we do things.
He was all about it. I’m sure you get those experiences too.
Jason: Oh, absolutely. They’re gobsmacked that I have a Fenster shirt on and a Fenster hat, and that I’m not a third party carrier. They’re amazed I’ve driven all the way from Indiana. How long did that take? They’re just amazed.
And I’m there to answer questions, thank them for their business, and make sure they’re happy. And to tell them, you know what, we’re human. If we’ve made a mistake somewhere along the line, we’re going to own it.
Ryan: Absolutely.
Jason: And that feels good. A handshake and a we hope to see you again. And if you need anything, let us know.
It’s bottles of water. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Can I bring you in and give you lunch?
Ryan: People make you lunch all the time.
Jason: Oh, yeah. Invited me in. Warren invited me in this past week. He was trying to get me to come in for a cup of coffee, and I said, no, Warren, don’t.
Ryan: People say, we’ve got a guest house if you want to stay.
Jason: Yes. People have been so kind and so nice. And I don’t think it’s because of me. I think they’re nice people. They’re smart people. They’ve been pleased with the experience, and they’ve probably been honked off about bad experiences in the past. When they get a good one, they know how to reinforce it and lay praise on a good experience. Because it’s not as common these days to get it.
Ryan: And it’s twofold. It makes us want to keep offering that level of service when we get feedback like that.
Jason: It’s a tough world. It’s a different world. And you don’t always get folks that give you the feedback you work so hard for. So when you do get it, you’re like, man, it feels good to have worked as hard as we did.
Ryan: Yeah, it really does. And that’s what makes us want to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s a little dopamine hit you get from an attaboy.
Jason: We all like those.
Ryan: Everybody likes those.
Well, great conversation.
If this episode helped you take some of the confusion out of your window issues, and maybe you’ve already made the decision that window repair might be the right choice for you, stay tuned for our next episode, where we’re going to show you how Fenster products solve these window issues and how we can take the fear out of ordering.
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