The windows in your home are much more than simply ways to see outside and add a little natural lighting to your home. We’ll talk about the full purpose of windows shortly, but it goes without saying that you want to have the best windows possible, and if you’re dealing with outdated windows, you’re actually losing quite a bit in various ways.
The solution is a simple window replacement.
This isn’t a small expense compared to many other common home repairs and upgrades, but it’s one that will save you tons of money and issues in the future.
In this window replacement guide, we’re going to go over the various reasons why getting the best windows is important, how a window replacement works, and what windows you should have installed when you commit to a full window replacement for the best results.
Let’s get started!
Why is it Important to Get the Best Windows Possible?
As we said earlier, your windows are far more than simply glass inserts to let you look outside. They provide a number of major benefits for your home, and the better your windows are, the more you’ll enjoy those benefits.
When you compare the top windows on the market to traditional windows from 50 years ago, the difference is staggering, and it can be extremely costly.
Let’s look at everything your windows actually do for you.
1: Visual Access to the Outside
First, we’ll start with the most obvious benefit. You can see outside. This has both mental and security-based benefits. Locking yourself behind four walls with no view of the outside, or a lackluster view of the outside, can be detrimental to your mental health and state of mind. You need to see sunlight, and not feeling boxed in has its own positive effects.
However, it also has a lot to do with the security of your home. Being able to clearly get a visual on people approaching your home or things happening outside is crucial to keeping your home safe.
Obviously, all windows let you look outside. So, this isn’t a major benefit. However, modern window designs allow you to see more clearly, and the experience is far more enjoyable.
2: Natural Lighting
Natural lighting is important for a few reasons. First, it obviously lets you avoid turning on all your lights. That plays into another benefit of getting modern windows over traditional ones later, but for now, we’ll keep it simple. However, it can also help you get the sunlight you need when you live a more sedentary lifestyle in the office or simply don’t get out much. It’s also imperative to help your eyes naturally create the melatonin that helps you sleep at night.
Beyond tangible health benefits, natural lighting also enhances the atmosphere in your home and gives it a warmer and more inviting vibe.
3: Insulation and Temperature Control
This is where older windows tend to struggle the most. Windows actually provide substantial insulation for your home to help with year-round temperature control. Older, cheaper windows aren’t as good as new insulation windows at offering such insulation, and as such, the benefits dwindle considerably.
When you have windows that are optimized for insulation, they will help keep the heat out and your cold air in during the summer, but they’ll help you retain your home’s heat during the winter.
This allows you to rely on your home’s HVAC system far less.
4: Save Money
When you have proper windows installed, they work to save you quite a bit of money over the course of just one year, and you’ll be able to enjoy loads of benefits of energy-efficient windows.
As we said, they provide your home with ample natural lighting. So, you can turn your lights off during the day. They also help you regulate your home’s temperature more effectively, and you don’t have to run your HVAC system nearly as much.
By lowering your usage of electronics and HVAC appliances, you cut your energy usage considerably, and you’ll notice a major difference in your monthly energy bills.
So, while modern windows tend to be a little more expensive than traditional cheap windows, they quickly pay for themselves by lowering your bills, and then they keep providing savings for years and years to come.
5: Eco-Friendly Home Improvement
This is an indirect benefit of having proper windows installed. Not only do energy-efficient windows help you reduce your energy bills also provide benefits for the environment.
Since you’re not relying on so much energy output, less has to be produced. This helps cut back on the number of emissions and waste generated by power plants and other sources of energy. When a large portion of the population makes this simple upgrade to their homes, the impact can be staggering.
Window Upgrades – More Than Just The Means To Look Outside
As you can see, your windows can potentially do much more for you and your home if you buy the right ones. If you’re in an older home, or you’ve been there for decades and never changed the windows, you’re likely missing out on many of those benefits in part or in full.
Starting the window replacement process today, and making the right decisions along the way, is a good way to correct that and start getting the most out of such a crucial part of your home.
How to Get a Window Replacement Properly
If you’re convinced to get a window replacement at this point, there’s still another problem we need to address. A lot of homeowners think getting their windows replaced is as simple as getting the money together and calling whichever phone number pops up first in a Google search.
That’s not a good way to go about it, and the process is actually a lot more hands-on.
Here are the steps you need to take to start the process properly and ensure you get the results you’re looking for.
1: Funding the Project
First and foremost, you obviously need some funds to get the project done. Window replacements aren’t cheap. So, you might have to save funds for a while. However, some services offer affordable financing options, and personal loans are potential funding options if you’re a member of a reputable bank. Take this financial aspect seriously because it can quickly get away from you if you don’t explore all your options to find one that works best for your situation.
The average full-house window replacement costs between $4500 and $10,000, depending on the size of the home and the number of windows. The average price is roughly $150 to $300 per window, depending on the service and the quality of the window.
2: Determining What You Want
Now, it’s time to determine exactly what you want. We highly recommend checking out our products. We pride ourselves in being the best on the market and providing all the benefits we talked about earlier in full, and with no exceptions. However, you do have options at your disposal, and it’s up to you to weigh the pros and cons of each option.
Do you want the very best windows possible but need financing to do it? Are you on a budget and just need new windows you can pay off immediately? What specific traits do your windows need to have? Look into all your available options and truly consider what the end result of each option will be.
3: Finding the Right Company
This is the most complex part of the initial process. There are a lot of companies out there offering window replacements, and they’re not all made equal.
Let’s go over each step you need to follow and the things you need to look for to ensure that the company you hire is going to do a great job.
A: Research the Company In-Depth
You want to perform your own due diligence on every company you can potentially hire. This goes far beyond just checking out their site and talking to them. You want to look them up on every major review forum you can to see what other customers are saying, ask friends and family who might have hired them previously, and generally get an idea of how satisfied their customers are. Even some of the most professional-looking companies have terrible reputations.
We recommend gathering a list of all the window replacement services that serve your area. Go through them one-by-one, and see what their customers think. If they have horrible reviews, remove them from the list. You should end up with a relatively short list from there.
B: What Does Each Company Offer?
Once you’ve weeded out the ones with poor reputations, it’s time to find out which ones offer what you’re looking for. A company can have an outstanding reputation, but if they don’t offer the exact windows you need to get the results you want, then you shouldn’t hire them.
You can usually get this information on their company site, but if you’re having trouble, don’t be afraid to skip to an initial call at this stage. You don’t need to commit, but you do need them to explain what they can do for you.
Any company that doesn’t offer what you want should be removed from the list. At this point, you should only have a couple of options to choose from.
C: Contact for a Quote and Initial Project Discussion
At this point, you’re still not committing to a service. However, you need to contact the remaining services you have listed and discuss your project with them. Usually, they’ll want to send someone out to look at the home before they make a quote. So, make sure you have time set aside in your schedule or that you can be flexible with the service’s needs before you commit to this step.
Whether they do it over the phone or send a team member out, you’ll need to discuss your project, the windows you want, how many windows you have, and your budget options. The representative can help you figure out what’s best for your budget or if they’re able to work with you, and they can give you a price quote or alternative options.
D: Commit and Schedule
At this point, you have all the information you need to make an informed decision and choose a service to commit to. Sit down, look at all the companies still on your list, and choose one. Once you’ve made your decision, it’s as easy as calling them back and agreeing to schedule a date for service.
The Window Installation Process
The window installation process is fairly straightforward, and you don’t have to worry about too much. Let the professionals handle the work.
However, you should know how the process works, and you should know what’s expected of you.
Now, let’s take a look at the part of our window replacement guide that talks about the process itself and what you should be ready for.
Team Arrival
When you committed to the project, you likely scheduled a date for the project to take place. On that day and time, you need to be prepared for the team’s arrival. We’ll talk more about that later.
A professional service will arrive on time and immediately get to work if you fulfill all your obligations.
Initial Setup
Before the team can get to work, they have to get set up. Most of this will be done before they ever arrive. They’ll have their tools ready, consumable items prepped to be laid out, and of course, the windows will be in the truck.
Getting everything unloaded and ready to go should only take about 15 minutes.
Window Removal
Some teams remove all the windows to get that step out of the way before installing new ones, but it’s more likely that you’ll see the team remove and replace each window one by one.
This process takes about 30 minutes per window. They’ll start by carefully removing the window, hauling it back to their removal truck, and then bringing in the new window for installation.
You have windows all over your home, and the installation process can’t be done solely from the home’s exterior. So, you should expect the team to require access to practically the entirety of your home. Luckily, they shouldn’t be moving in and out of each room much. If they’re following a pattern, they should be able to make a few trips in and out of each room.
Window Installation
Once a window is removed, the team can proceed with the window installation process, obviously. This doesn’t take too long, but it does take up the bulk of the per-window time.
Again, they’ll need access to practically the entirety of your home to do the job properly, but they won’t be in and out of each room for any extended length of time.
Cleaning
The window replacement process isn’t exactly clean. Chips of wood, old paint, and dust will pile up around the work area. Professional teams minimize this with floor covers and other implements, but there will still be a fairly intensive cleanup phase that can take up to half an hour to an hour to complete. They’ll need to remove all their tools, clean up floor coverings and other consumable materials, get all the windows loaded into their removal equipment, and potentially clean up dust and other debris that worked itself around the work area.
After this process, the job is complete.
Post-Project Tasks
Once the project is cleaned up, you might have some post-project tasks to handle. If the payment still isn’t handled and you haven’t financed, now is the time to do that or find out how you’ll be billed. If you financed the project, you simply have to pay your monthly payments until you’ve paid it off.
Some services will reach out for a follow-up call to thank you for your business and recommend a review, but that’s not always standard practice.
Your Obligations Throughout the Process
While the team will obviously be picking up all the heavy lifting and doing the vast majority of the project, the homeowner is still responsible for a few minor details.
In this section, we’ll go over what all those are so you know what to expect if you want the project to go smoothly.
1: Be Home
First, while not required by most services, you should be home during the process. This will allow you to provide access where needed, guide the team around difficult spots, observe the process, and generally handle the other obligations on this list.
If you can’t be home, pay close attention to your other obligations, and then get those squared away before the team arrives.
It’s a lot easier if you’re home, though.
2: Pets
Pets are great, and our team appreciates them, but you never know how the pet will react to all the noise and strange people walking around, whether or not the pet will get in the way and cause a dangerous accident for itself, your property, or our workers, and you don’t know if a team member has an allergy.
It’s best to keep pets separated from whatever area the team is working in at any given time.
Typically, putting them in the backyard until the team gets to that area is enough, but expect to move the pet to another area once or twice to provide proper access for team members.
3: Identify Caution Areas
Maybe you have special plants under your windowsill that you really don’t want anyone to touch, or you have something delicate that can’t be removed from the work area. Point those items out to workers, and if you can, provide a safer way for the workers to handle their job without potentially damaging such things. If you can move delicate items out of the way, do that before the team arrives to avoid this problem altogether, and understand that while the team is naturally cautious and respectful of a customer’s property, they are carrying heavy windows and tools, and a plant might get stepped on.
4: Stow Away Private Items and Concerns
If you’re dealing with a reputable team like ours, you don’t need to worry about theft or being judged for your personal belongings. Those inappropriate behaviors that our company doesn’t tolerate. Some services might not be as diligent against such behavior, though.
Beyond giving yourself peace of mind, stowing away your private items just keeps things professional. Having your delicates out can be embarrassing, you might worry about highly valuable items, and similar situations that just don’t make for a comfortable work environment for you or us.
5: Provide a Clean and Safe Environment
It goes without saying that heavy items will be moved throughout your home and around its exterior. It’s your obligation to make sure the project area is clean, free of debris, and safe for the team to perform their duties. If there is an excess of clutter making it impossible to reach an area safely, or if you have dangerous items blocking work areas, there isn’t much a team can do.
6: Provide Access as Needed
As we said, team members will be moving throughout your home. Obviously, if you have doors locked, they can’t access the areas they need to. It’s up to you to ensure they can get through your home unobstructed to do the job properly.
Workers will need to enter bedrooms, bathrooms, and other rooms, but they maintain the utmost professional standards, and they won’t be in there for long.
7: Get Involved and Remain Professional
Finally, this is up to you, but you’re more than welcome to watch the process and keep an eye on what’s going on. There’s a lot you can learn about multiple aspects of your home by becoming involved in the process. Don’t worry – you won’t be asked to do any work. Simply discussing things with the team, being ready to open doors as needed, and guiding them through your home is a major help.
However, throughout that activity, remember that the team is human, too. Creating a positive and cheerful environment not only makes it more enjoyable for everyone but also helps the project get done a lot more efficiently.
Get the Best Window Replacement with JKR Windows
We hope you found our ultimate window replacement guide helpful in guiding you through the window replacement and installation process.
In case you’re on the market for a window replacement, and you don’t know who to call, contact JKR Windows or give us a quick call.
We have the top windows available, impeccable service, and a reputation for providing only the best experience for our customers.