So when it comes to a higher quality product, you’ll find a lot of the companies that offer a nice window will have very nice air and filtration ratings.
They’ll have great u-factors and the r-value as well. All those are things are important.
However there is something called a beauty queen window, which we all joke about. It’s pretty much when they do the Fenestration Rating Council or AAMA, American Architectural Manufacturers Association, they do their annual test on products.
They’ll make a window and if you do standard AAMA, they take it once a year, they measure it, make sure it hits the numbers you’re supposed to hit, and that’s it.
Now there’s, AAMA has a second level where it’s AMAA Gold, where they randomly select and test windows throughout the year, rather than once a year. So the benefit for a homeowner if they buy an AAMA Gold Label window is that that window that you have in your home could’ve technically been taken of the rack by this Fenestration Rating Council, or AMAA, and they go and check that window to make sure it’s the same standards as what you’re looking at in a brochure.
So that whole peace of mind argument is there.
A company may have the beauty queen windows that look great on paper because they tested one great product, but it doesn’t mean that every single one of their products were manufactured the exact same way. And one of the problems with our industry is the regulation really isn’t there. It’s really up to the companies that you choose to do business with to provide you with the information and evidence to show that they are holding a certain standard.
One of the ways you can hold that standard, you make sure the product is exactly what it says when you go to buy it, is having that AAMA Gold label on that window. And there’s a lot of great companies out there that have it, it’s not like you’re stuck with only one company, it’s not like we’re the only company around here that do AAMA Gold label windows. A lot of our competitors do. A lot of the nicer competitors, but a lot of our competitors do. So, you know, people that take a little bit more care in their customers are typically the ones that do so. However those windows are, no not the cheapest around, but you’re getting exactly what you paid for, which I think is more important.
