New & Improved
Last fall, after years of consideration, Ken Hoehn decided to replace the windows of his three-bedroom home.
His Butler Township residence still had the original Anderson windows from the mid 1970s. They worked well in their prime, but they needed to be replaced.
“They were all fogged up and faded, and the gears in the cranks were stripped,” Hoehn said.
Sitting on his back porch on a sunny September afternoon, he leaves his new screen door open. His wife, Cathy, is working in the kitchen.
They had windows redone in almost every room, from a bay window in the living room, a glass screen door at the entrance, a window above the sink in the kitchen and new windows in all three bedrooms. The windows are from the Home Improvement Center in Butler.
“They just operate better, and they're insulated better,” he said. “And they're going to pay for themselves, as time goes on, with the heating bills.”
It's not only a quality of life improvement now, but he's hoping that it's an investment later, too.
There has been a dip in his energy bill costs, and he hopes his home will sell for more whenever it's time to put it on the market.
“When you buy windows from us, our goal is they're not going to be changed again,” said Dave Wood, who co-owns the Home Improvement Center with his brother, Kirby.
“We want a one and done kind of thing,” he said.
Wood said window technology has developed in more recent years.
Many windows not only come with double or triple panes, but they're also argon-filled, so that the insulating properties are even better.“They keep getting better and better at it every year,” he said.Windows can vary widely in price, depending on size, installation requirements, efficiency and aesthetics.“It's just like buying a car. You can get the same car with the excellent gas mileage, but if you start adding the CD player, the moonroof and all that, that same car could be $20,000 more,” said Nicole Stevenson, Wood's niece, who works as a project manager at the store. “Basically, the sky's the limit with us.”With older windows, winterizing them is sometimes necessary, lining them with plastic or using other materials to keep the cold out. But with new, high-quality windows, it isn't needed.Hoehn's wife, Cathy, said their dog used to lie in the sunlight that shined through the window. Not anymore. The light doesn't leave a warm spot on the carpet like it used to with the older windows.“Our heating bills have always been great,” she said. “But it's so much more energy efficient now.”
