September 7, 2025 • 29 mins
Today it's all about windows and doors...we welcome Chris Perez of American Vision Windows to talk about how to improve the window and door situation in your home, a critical component of your home and the value of making sure both are as energy efficient as possible.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I Am Dean Sharp, the House Whisper, Custom home Builder,
custom home Designer, and every week your guide to better
understanding that place where you live. Welcome to the program.
Glad to have you here on this late It is
Labor Day weekend, right. I got this wrong yesterday. I
said Memorial Day and then I had to get corrected Tony.
(00:28):
It's Labor Day weekend, right, Okay, yes, it is all right.
I just want to make sure I get it right.
There's two of those. I just remember there are two
of these, one at the beginning and one at the end,
and I always flip them around. So all right, it's
Labor Day weekend. It's a little warm here in southern California,
but it's sunny and it's beautiful as always, and I
hope the weather is treating you right wherever you are
(00:50):
listening to today on the show, we've been looking forward
to this for a while. It's been a while since
we've done a window and door show, and specifically doors,
meaning exterior doors. So we're talking about what's called the
fenestration on the outside of your house and you're like, whoa,
what was that? It's it's just the word. It's the
it's the official industry term. We don't even talk about
(01:12):
it in the industry very much. So just there you go.
It's just windows and doors, but fenestration it's a it's
a word that comes from Latin finestra, which means window.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
So you know, there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Uh, we're talking windows and doors and uh, unlike previous
window and door shows. I have a very special guest
in studio that I'm very excited about sitting across the
table from me this morning, Chris Perez, the president himself
of American Vision. Windows in studio. Guest Chris, good morning
and welcome home.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
He's so much having us.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Oh we got to turn on. Okay, your mic is on.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Now, it is on. Yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
I'm I'm excited to be here today and see where
we can come acros and I'm just gonna try to
give as much information as I.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
G Oh, yeah you will, you will a wealth of information.
So that's what's happening today. Also, of course, we're going
to be taking your calls about mid show, and I
don't want to deny you the opportunity to jump into
the queue.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
The number to reach me.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh and by the way, as always, when it comes
to your calls, you get to set the agenda. I'm
talking windows and doors today with Chris Perez from American
Vision Windows. You can call me about whatever. So it's
a great data call with a window and door question.
But whatever's going on with your home, whatever's got you
scratching your head about your home design, construction, DIY inside, outside, hardescape, landscape,
(02:37):
all the scapes. I got you covered. We'll put our
heads together, you and me, we will get it figured out.
The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask
Dean A three three the numeral two. Ask Dean A
three three two Ask Dean. Now right as I get
to that point in the show, this one I normally
(02:58):
tell you. Also, sitting across the table from me is
my better half, my design partner, the co owner, co
founder of House Whisper, my best buddy in all the world.
Tina is not here. She's got some other stuff that's
rolling this morning, but she gives you all of her
best and we will talk to Tina very very soon. Okay,
(03:20):
Chris tell me about your history at American Vision Windows.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Well, my history at American Vision Windows.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
I've been there just a little over twenty one years,
and I started out in a sales role, doing a
part time kind of seals gig, having fun. I started
moving into management. I started taking on a couple of divisions.
We started started years ago, and then eventually became the
vice president and then became the president and sort of
(03:48):
help help whole company move in the right direction. We
are actually a ESOP, a employee and company, so all
of the employees actually own a piece of the company
now Phon owners. Bill and Kathleen basically sold it to
us a few years back, and now the whole, the whole,
entire everybody that there's Scott skin in the game.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Which is huge, But it makes a huge difference when
it comes to I mean, it doesn't make a huge
different for American Vision as far as its customer service,
because your customer service is legendary, right and you guys
service all of California from San Diego all the way
up to up to San Jose.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Is that the northernmost We can go further, but yeah,
that's pretty much pretty much it.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
We've gone to NAPA and other places.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
But how did everybody feel when you guys all get
to vote and own a piece of the company.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
You know, it's interesting because when you have ownership in
the company, it has changed things over the last several
years because we've done it.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
We've been working on it for about seven years.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
But I'll tell you when you and it's gonna sound silly,
but when you see someone pick up a piece of
garbage that they might have walked by because it wasn't
their job, and now they pick it up, it's because
they feel like it's part.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Of their company.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
This is I'm gonna you know, someone dropped in paper
twel here, I'm going to go pick it up, you know,
just just it's just changed the mentality of the employees
for the better as a matter of fact. And then
that's nice thing about me and the people I work with.
We're able to every year go and give a certificate
of how much value they have in the company and
what the worth is to the retirement account that they've
never put a dollar into. So when they go and
(05:21):
they go, oh my gosh, there's sixty thousand. I never
even touched it. You know, it's like sort of fun.
It's fun to do that every year.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah it is, Yeah it is, and I'm sure your
customers benefit from it as well in a big way.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I would say that, Yes, I think that we're talking
about customer service. I think that we do an exceptional
job of customer service. We try to get back to
people as fast as possible. Things do go wrong in
the construction industry, no matter what everybody wants to say,
there's not guys out there.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
They're not going to scratch your house. It's not true.
Things do go wrong.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
And but what we'll tell you this is, out out
of the five six hundred homes we do a month,
it's very minimal. And that customer service team on every
single office is incredible. They'll get back to you right away.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, that's what you guys have built your reputation on.
Is just that bad idea, you know, Bill and Kathleen
way back in the day, right, just the idea of
having that bad contractor experience that bad experience with having
their windows and doors changed out, and which everybody listening knows.
I mean, it's probably without question the number one concern
(06:20):
of anybody who listens to this show is like dal
Ardean I love the great ideas, and I love that
you've expanded my awareness of what can happen with my
house and how can we change it? But man, who
do I find to actually get this done? Because the
horror stories that you hear and I got to tell you,
I mean, there are plenty of really, really great contractors
(06:41):
in southern California. But you could blindfold a person and
have them throw a rock and they're going to hit
a bad contractor because there's a lot of those two,
I mean a lot, and they have paved the way
for all kinds of mistrust and worry and anxiety. And
that's just something we've never had to worry with you guys,
because you're just you're just so intense in the customer
(07:04):
service side of things. Not perfection, nobody, by the way,
I don't think anybody who regularly listens to this show
expects perfection, certainly not out of me from as a host.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
But excellence. That's what we strive for.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And I tell my design clients the very same thing
I said, This is not gonna be perfect, but excellent.
Excellent we can do. Excellent is about doing as close
to perfect as you can get. And when you fall
short making it right and doing it in the right way.
So all right, so how about this, when we come
back from the break, why don't we dive in and
start piecing apart this whole process of buying windows, and
(07:42):
let's talk to people about what they need to know
the components that go involve both design wise, structurally, architecturally,
the whole gambit and it should be good.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Thanks for being here, Chris Problem, Thank you. All right,
more great stuff on the way. You're listening to Home
with deansh the house Whisper.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Thanks for joining us on the program today. I hope
you're having a great Labor Day weekend so far. I
appreciate you spending your Sunday morning with us talking about
this all important thing to all of us, your home.
And today we are doing it by way of having
a discussion about doors and windows, which I try and
(08:28):
do at least once a year, sit down and have
a serious conversation with you about doors and windows because
they are a critical component of all architecture, of home life,
of the way your home functions, and today as I
said before the break, we have a very special in
studio guest, Chris Perez, President of American Vision Windows. Chris,
(08:50):
welcome back to the show.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
All right, Bud, I just want to dive in and
start talking about window shopping, literally shop by which I
mean shopping for windows and the big decisions that people
have to face along the way, and if we could
just kind of take them. I don't know in no
particular order, but maybe there's a there's a there's an
order of priority here. But let's start with talking about
(09:15):
the difference between new construction windows and retrofit windows. Not
a lot of people really think about that. A new
construction window has a fin on it has a flashing
fin on it because it's designed to be set against
a stud wall while while there's nothing else on that wall.
After the framing is done, the window gets set and
(09:38):
then it gets flashing on top of that and all
of vapor barrier that goes onto the wall before stucco
or siding or anything like that. There. I mean, that's
the window that gets built when the house is originally built.
It's a new construction window, right now you can still
have a new construction window. If you want a new window,
it can be a new construction window. But in order
(10:02):
to get the old one out and put the new
one in, we've got to pull back. We've got to
pull back the siding or the plantons that are around
the siding, or we got to break stucco and get
to that fin because there's no just sliding it in
and out. And that's the thing, and a lot of
people choose Okay, I'm thinking it through, all right, I
think that's what I want. But there is an answer
(10:23):
to that without destroying what's already on the outside of
the house, and that would be a retrofit window. Most
of them out here in southern California, correct me if
I'm wrong. I mean, they're almost all what we call
flush fin windows, all right. Flush fiend means that it's
got its own little kind of casing surround on the
(10:43):
built of the outside, and a retrofit window we take
out everything about the window that you've got except the
frame that's embedded into the wall, embedded into the flashing,
embedded into the building paper. So we maintain all that
aesthetic and the water proofness of all of that, and
(11:04):
the new window slides inside the frame. So the upside
is very quick, very easy transition, relatively speaking, no damage
to the outside of the house or the look of
the house. The downside is that window has to by
necessity be a little smaller than the other window because
it's got to fit inside the old frame. So what
(11:25):
are the plus and minuses? And when it comes to
retrofit windows, what do you guys find people choosing most.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
So everything you just said is absolutely accurate. It's kind
of described it better you. In our situation, we probably
have about eighty percent of our customers go retrofit. We
have about twenty percent or maybe a little bit more
than that, twenty twenty five percent given month go construction.
And a lot of times they'll do construction because let's
(11:52):
say they have a window and they want to turn
it into a batiodor well, I can't retrofit that. There's
no retrofitting that, so I have to basically to your point,
cut back on, cut back on the stucco or the siding,
the planton's or do something to get that against the
stud so that can reflash and make that thing waterproof.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
And so we do a lot of that. And one
of the things about American Vision I think is cool is.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
That a lot of our competitors and friends in the industry,
they don't do that stuff and they just want to
go in and retrofit a window and get out of there.
So we do a little everything we do, you know,
twenty foot doors, thirty foot doors. We do stuff all
over the place, and and the retrofit idea of the
business is mostly what we do.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
And that's because the majority.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Of people do not want to disturb the stucco or
mess up the looku or their house, and they want
the same thing and they're willing to sacrifice half an
inch here there of a window space in order to
do something that's less it's actually more, you know, it's
less expensive as well to have us just go in
and retrofit a window versus to go in and break
your stuckup and start from scratching restuck or replant on
or reside whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, now it can change the look on the outside
a little bit, definitely from some home your.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Point of flash fin that we're most of the it's
about one in seven eighth that goes over their existing product.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Whatever it's stuck over whatever it is.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
And that's one of those things that people sometimes have
a hard time because.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
What's bigger than it was before.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, so you get a little bit of a frame
effect around the window.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
I think it looked great, but you know, it depends
on if you're used to having just a little in
the windows designer Chris, Okay, we'll tell you whether it
looks great or no.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Most of the time it's fine. Most of the time
it goes without saying. But there are times when it's like,
do we want to go this way? Maybe we should
go But the point is we have both options, and
now everybody knows. All right, when we come back, let's
get into the glass itself in the unit.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Sounds good.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Here to transform your ordinary house into an extraordinary home?
Can that be done? I mean really? I mean really?
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Really? Can it really can? If we know what we're doing,
if we're taking the right steps, if we're leading with
design along the way, Yeah, absolutely, we can transform an
ordinary house into an extraordinary home. Do it every day
in our business do it every week here with you
right on this very program. And today we're doing it
(14:11):
by way of informing you and educating you about doors
and windows. And to do that, I have my special
very in studio guest with me, special very very special
in studio guests. Chris Perez from American Vision Windows is
sitting across the table from me. We're talking doors and windows.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Chris.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Let's see where were we at here? Okay, So we
talked about the difference between new construction retrofit windows. About
eighty percent of people tend to go with the retrofits.
Why not because it's less work on the rest of
the house, it gets done quicker. Sometimes there's a good
justification for doing it, like you said, sometimes turning a
window into a slider, right, you can't do retrofit with that, right,
(14:52):
You got to go new. And there are other reasons
to do it too, Like if you're doing a major
rebuild and we're moving door and window locations around and
we're breaking out stucco insiding anyway, why not go with
the new construction.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Well, that's what you just said too, is when they're
going to redo with their stucco. If you're going to
do the windows. Might as well do it then, because
you're going to read someone's going to come into your
stucco over anyway.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
So yeah, it's not gonna.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Be patchwork exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
And by the way, a little note on stucco for
those of you who are thinking, now, I think I'd
like to go new construction. Do I really have to
redo all the stucco? No, you don't. Stucco is a
three layer process. Okay, The scratch coat that goes on,
You've never seen that before unless you've actually stood and
looked at a house while it was being built. The
brown coat, which isn't brown anymore. Sorry, but that's what
(15:39):
we still call it, but it used to be. That
is the majority of the stucco. That's the thickness that's
on your wall by the time the brown coat has done.
A lot of people think the stucco on the house
is done, but it's not. The part that you see
is literally the texture, whether it's smooth, whether it's sanded,
whether it's Santa Barbara, whatever, the part that you see
is the last eighth of an inch of stucco. So
(16:01):
here's the key. Let's say you were thinking, hey, I
think I really want to maximize the size of each
of these new windows. So what if I go new construction,
we break out stucco from around the window. Well, only
the part filling in around the window has to be
you know, the whole manty there, as far as the
thickness of the stucco.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
But here's the key. Don't leave it there. Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
After that patching is done and the window is patched in,
all you have to do is have your stucco people
do a new finish coat across the entire wall. All right,
So from corner of the wall to the next corner, inside, corner, outside, corner,
whatever that is, do a new finish coat across all
of the old finish and the window patches. And guess what,
(16:45):
no one will ever see the patch. Okay, And that's
the key. I don't want to come over to your
house and look at your window and say, I see
you got a new window, and they're like, how do
you know that I can see the patch? Okay, that's
the rule on the show here the right, No one
ever knows you did it. It just looks like it
was there from the beginning, all right, So no stucco
(17:06):
patches visible. But you don't have to redo all the
stucco on the house to get that done. That's all
I'm saying. Okay, let's talk about glass, Chris, Yes, I
hit my microphone here. A modern window is built around
what we call the IGU okay, which stands for insulated
glass unit. And that is because modern windows are minimum
(17:30):
dual glaze, the vast majority of them dual glaze windows.
So two panes of glass right with a I want
to say air space in between. It's not air that's
in there, but a space in between the two, okay.
The insulated glass unit is sealed up at the factory, okay,
because it has to be done in an absolute zero humidity,
(17:51):
zero dust, zero moisture space. And those units, whether that's
the entire window itself or whether they're individual old glass
units on a true divided light window, those units, like
if something goes wrong with those which they do, they
get broken, you know, baseball goes through something, if something
gets cracked, or more likely these days, you hear that
(18:14):
somebody is like, you know what, Every morning, I get
up now and the corner of the glass on my
window it's all foggy and misty inside, like a terrarium
in there, and that means that the ig the seal
has failed, right, and now it's allowed moisture to get inside.
So the big question that we get all the time
is can those be repaired in the field? And is
(18:34):
that the right word to use. I'm just tea in
the submari so okay an igu, which is exactly that.
It's a stilled unit that's done at a glass factory.
It's going to be ordered to size of your window.
It's going to be put in your window at the
manufacturer side.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
If it does break, or there is a fog in
the between the glass, or they have a still failure,
then we're going to come and replace the whole igu.
We're not going to repair it. You can't. You can't
repair it in the field. You can't open up one
piece of glass. People ask all the time, can I
take the front piece of glass that's broken from the
base from the golf ball and then put a new
piece on and save money.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
No, We're going to replace the whole unit.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
And to your point, it's like there's you know, there's
chambers that the argone gas is put in between the things.
We can talk about that later. But there's different things
that this window has to be done. You can't just
open it up and replace it on the spots.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Right, So bare minimum, you can't do it because there's
a moisture in the air, correct. I mean, even on
the driest of days, there's still moisture in the air.
And what we're going to do is we're going to
trap that moisture in there. You may not see it
on the warm day that we repair the window, but
you'll see it the next time the temperature drops, right,
you'll see all that moisture condensate. So no, it can't
be done.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
So well, anytime anytime there is a you know, I
tell people all the time, anytime you see moisture between
the glass that stays there more than a few hours,
then it's probably a failure.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, absolutely a failed window.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So so the answer to the question is no, that
glass can't be repaired but on site. But the window
can be restored on site. It's just that that unit
has to be re place and you don't have to
buy a new window. You don't have to tear the
window out and take it to the factory. It's just
(20:05):
that a new IGU has to be manufactured to fit
and then it can be retrofit on site.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
That's correct.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
There's there is Back in the day when you used
to have like you said, uh, you know, true divided
light things like that, sometimes they would you know, they
would actually make the frame on that glass. So basically
you would have to replace the whole sash if you want,
if you wanted to get a new piece of glass. Nowadays,
every window, all modern windows, have something called a glazing
bead which holds the glass in place. So if something
(20:32):
does happen, we can pull off the glazing bead, rip
the glass out, and put a new piece of glass.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
In opinion, Okay, don't say the word rip because that
that implies mess. Okay, no ripping then, okay, but no,
but you can pull that out. And so the point
is that, yeah, of course they can be fixed, you know,
on site.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Okay, but but we're not. We're we're just not patching
up that unit that it's dead and that's dead gone,
throwing in the garbage.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
What's inside these things? So there's there's multiple things. Most
common right now is our and it's been used for years.
It's just a denser moleculed and oxygen.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
It prevents.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
One of the things about sorry, one of the things
about the glass units is they in order to meet
Title twenty four compliant codes, they had to start putting
our gun into the windows years ago, earned the glass
years ago, so that we can get the U factor lower.
Because there's these different things called sold hicane, cofficients and
you factors that are required by the state, every state
to have a certain guideline, and they get more complicated
(21:29):
and more complicicated as time goes on.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Hourly, they get more complicated hourly, Chris, all right, so
I'm being flagged here. We got to go to bread,
but I want to continue this conversation. So basically, what
we're saying is that our gun gas does a better
job of insulating the window than just air correct on
the inside. And there are a couple other gases that
sometimes get PEPs on crypton in case you need to
keep Superman out of your house. And no, there's another
(21:52):
reason for that too. All right, we'll talk about this
on the other side of the break your Home with
Dean Sharp the House Whispered.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Here to remind you when it comes to transforming your home,
design matters most.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Oh, yes it does.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Design is eighty percent of the game. You get the
design right and then pick the right materials afterwards, and
you are on your way to a huge success. If
you're only concentrating on materials and workmanship and you've got
a unthought through or poor design, you know what you
end up in the end.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
You end up with.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
A very very expensive, well built, badly designed home and
that comes to nothing. It counts for absolutely zero things
except how hard it's going to be to tear all
that stuff out because it was put in so well
to begin with. So that's why we're here. Design matters
most you hear me say it every week. Plus then
(22:54):
the right materials, the right workmanship, and we're tackling that
problem today with my very special in studio guest, Chris Perez,
president of American Vision Windows, because we're talking doors and
windows today. Chris, thanks for being on the show with
me today, Bud, no problem, really enjoying. Okay, So where
are we at in our list our conversation here? We
(23:15):
were talking about the IGU, the insulated glass unit, which
is essentially the heart of all windows, right, And I'm
not going to wax too poetic or historic about windows today,
although I could and I really want to. But you know,
you guys know that there's two people living inside of me.
There's a builder and a designer, and sometimes they have
(23:36):
to take turns and reach a dayton as to who
gets to talk to you and spend more time in
front of the microphone. So today it's kind of fifty
to fifty. But I'm not going to let the designer
go too far into the history of windows. But I
will tell you about this though divided windows right, divided
light windows, what a lot of people call French windows
(23:57):
right where you have all the wood in between and
making all the cross grid pattern that is not a
necessity in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Today.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
This is entirely a design decision today, but it wasn't
always entirely a design decision. And that's why these things
have such a huge historic route in the history of architecture,
because come the late Middle Ages and into the beginning
of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, what we had was
(24:29):
some very wealthy people, and it's usually wealthy people who
start this thing. So you got to give them credit
for that, at least some very wealthy people who were
wanting bigger and bigger windows, more and more glass on
the outside of the house. Which is great, Okay, I
want the same thing for you. But at the time,
how big of a pane of glass could you get
and have it still be optically, you know, a quality
(24:53):
glass to look through. Well, that has to do with
how glass was made, and I won't bore you with
that either, but I will tell you this because it's
kind of when glass for windows was first being created,
glass was being blown like you know glass blowers, and
it was being spun.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
So imagine this.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Imagine a guy set up in a special glass studio
and they had these They had this rig this way,
a long rod. They would put a glob of glass
on the end of the rod and then they would
start to spin it and they would spin it out
into a disc. And when I mean a disc, I
mean like a disc ten feet sometimes in diameter, a
(25:32):
ten foot disc of glass. Okay, now we're done, and
you can imagine the thin glass is on the outside
edge of that disk, the clearest glass is on the
outside edge of that disc. And then from that disc
are cut pieces of glass.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
To go into windows.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
All right, So the idea of a you know, six
foot by six foot all glass window back in the day,
that's an impossibility, okay. So what we had was on general,
you know, so maybe maybe twelve by sixteen if you
were wealthy enough, you could get twelve by sixteen inch
pieces of clear rectangular glass. And then if you wanted
(26:10):
more glass in a window, what you had to do
was piece it together with wood, dividing up the lights,
so you would just put more and more squares of these.
And that's where what a lot of people call the
French window came into play, because it was a huge
thing in France architecturally at the beginning of the Renaissance
and the end of the Enlightenment. Nowadays, we don't do
windows that way. Nowadays windows window glass actually is it's
(26:36):
even more fascinating. Glass is poured out in its molten
form on top of molten tin, okay, so that it's huge,
large sheets, perfectly level, perfectly smooth on both sides. And
now we can make windows any dang size you want
them to be, Okay. So there's a little bit of
a tasty history of glass work. Oh and by the way,
(26:58):
one other thing, if you couldn't afford glass back in
the day, real optically high quality glass, you could buy
for cheap what we call the bullseye. The bullseye was
the part of the glass disc that was connected to
the rod, and it's what you know today. If you've
(27:18):
ever seen what's called a coke bottle window, right, or
a bottle glass window, it's just these little tiny rounds
and it let's light through that. You can't really see
through them, but let's light through.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Nowadays that's a designer window that you actually have to
spend more money for than ever. But back in the day,
those were just the leftovers, and so you could buy
if you really wanted glass in your hovel, you could
buy a window made out of the bullseyes of the
glass discs and as a result, get light into your house.
They're not easy to see through, but you would get
(27:51):
light into your house.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Okay, I think I've probably taken up the majority of
the segment, Chris, just talking about glass there. But the
thing that we need to talk about next is we
already talked about argne gas very quickly. There are a
couple other gases xenon and krypton. Xenon is super rare, like, well,
we're not even gonna mention it. Krypton, I said, if
(28:13):
you want to keep Superman out of your house. But
krypton glass, especially here on the West Coast, not a
common thing at all. Krypton is a better insulating gas
than ar gone technically, but it's way more expensive and
it's as a result, it only gets used in like
triple glazed windows when there's less room inside that channel
(28:36):
to get the same amount of insulation. Isn't that pretty
much the case?
Speaker 4 (28:39):
That's correct.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
The air gap is smaller on triple pane, and they
can fill that up with krypton more efficiently than they
could if it was a big giant, you know, half
inch gap.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
But the most important thing to realize is that it's
not air inside there. It's a specialized gas to keep
your window at its maximum possible insulating value. There's also
something else on the glas that's uh that we call lowe,
a Lowe mineral coding. We'll talk about that when we
return to this conversation. But next right after the break,
(29:09):
guess what we're mid show. It's time to go to
the phones. Here's the number to reach me. Eight three
to three two ask Dean A three three the numeral
to ask Dean.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
You are home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
This has been home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and
every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I Am Dean Sharp, the House Whisper, Custom home Builder,
custom home Designer, and every week your guide to better
understanding that place where you live. Welcome to the program.
Glad to have you here on this late It is
Labor Day weekend, right. I got this wrong yesterday. I
said Memorial Day and then I had to get corrected Tony.
(00:28):
It's Labor Day weekend, right, Okay, yes, it is all right.
I just want to make sure I get it right.
There's two of those. I just remember there are two
of these, one at the beginning and one at the end,
and I always flip them around. So all right, it's
Labor Day weekend. It's a little warm here in southern California,
but it's sunny and it's beautiful as always, and I
hope the weather is treating you right wherever you are
(00:50):
listening to today on the show, we've been looking forward
to this for a while. It's been a while since
we've done a window and door show, and specifically doors,
meaning exterior doors. So we're talking about what's called the
fenestration on the outside of your house and you're like, whoa,
what was that? It's it's just the word. It's the
it's the official industry term. We don't even talk about
(01:12):
it in the industry very much. So just there you go.
It's just windows and doors, but fenestration it's a it's
a word that comes from Latin finestra, which means window.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
So you know, there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Uh, we're talking windows and doors and uh, unlike previous
window and door shows. I have a very special guest
in studio that I'm very excited about sitting across the
table from me this morning, Chris Perez, the president himself
of American Vision. Windows in studio. Guest Chris, good morning
and welcome home.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
He's so much having us.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Oh we got to turn on. Okay, your mic is on.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Now, it is on. Yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
I'm I'm excited to be here today and see where
we can come acros and I'm just gonna try to
give as much information as I.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
G Oh, yeah you will, you will a wealth of information.
So that's what's happening today. Also, of course, we're going
to be taking your calls about mid show, and I
don't want to deny you the opportunity to jump into
the queue.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
The number to reach me.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh and by the way, as always, when it comes
to your calls, you get to set the agenda. I'm
talking windows and doors today with Chris Perez from American
Vision Windows. You can call me about whatever. So it's
a great data call with a window and door question.
But whatever's going on with your home, whatever's got you
scratching your head about your home design, construction, DIY inside, outside, hardescape, landscape,
(02:37):
all the scapes. I got you covered. We'll put our
heads together, you and me, we will get it figured out.
The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask
Dean A three three the numeral two. Ask Dean A
three three two Ask Dean. Now right as I get
to that point in the show, this one I normally
(02:58):
tell you. Also, sitting across the table from me is
my better half, my design partner, the co owner, co
founder of House Whisper, my best buddy in all the world.
Tina is not here. She's got some other stuff that's
rolling this morning, but she gives you all of her
best and we will talk to Tina very very soon. Okay,
(03:20):
Chris tell me about your history at American Vision Windows.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Well, my history at American Vision Windows.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
I've been there just a little over twenty one years,
and I started out in a sales role, doing a
part time kind of seals gig, having fun. I started
moving into management. I started taking on a couple of divisions.
We started started years ago, and then eventually became the
vice president and then became the president and sort of
(03:48):
help help whole company move in the right direction. We
are actually a ESOP, a employee and company, so all
of the employees actually own a piece of the company
now Phon owners. Bill and Kathleen basically sold it to
us a few years back, and now the whole, the whole,
entire everybody that there's Scott skin in the game.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Which is huge, But it makes a huge difference when
it comes to I mean, it doesn't make a huge
different for American Vision as far as its customer service,
because your customer service is legendary, right and you guys
service all of California from San Diego all the way
up to up to San Jose.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Is that the northernmost We can go further, but yeah,
that's pretty much pretty much it.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
We've gone to NAPA and other places.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
But how did everybody feel when you guys all get
to vote and own a piece of the company.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
You know, it's interesting because when you have ownership in
the company, it has changed things over the last several
years because we've done it.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
We've been working on it for about seven years.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
But I'll tell you when you and it's gonna sound silly,
but when you see someone pick up a piece of
garbage that they might have walked by because it wasn't
their job, and now they pick it up, it's because
they feel like it's part.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
Of their company.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
This is I'm gonna you know, someone dropped in paper
twel here, I'm going to go pick it up, you know,
just just it's just changed the mentality of the employees
for the better as a matter of fact. And then
that's nice thing about me and the people I work with.
We're able to every year go and give a certificate
of how much value they have in the company and
what the worth is to the retirement account that they've
never put a dollar into. So when they go and
(05:21):
they go, oh my gosh, there's sixty thousand. I never
even touched it. You know, it's like sort of fun.
It's fun to do that every year.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah it is, Yeah it is, and I'm sure your
customers benefit from it as well in a big way.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
I would say that, Yes, I think that we're talking
about customer service. I think that we do an exceptional
job of customer service. We try to get back to
people as fast as possible. Things do go wrong in
the construction industry, no matter what everybody wants to say,
there's not guys out there.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
They're not going to scratch your house. It's not true.
Things do go wrong.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
And but what we'll tell you this is, out out
of the five six hundred homes we do a month,
it's very minimal. And that customer service team on every
single office is incredible. They'll get back to you right away.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, that's what you guys have built your reputation on.
Is just that bad idea, you know, Bill and Kathleen
way back in the day, right, just the idea of
having that bad contractor experience that bad experience with having
their windows and doors changed out, and which everybody listening knows.
I mean, it's probably without question the number one concern
(06:20):
of anybody who listens to this show is like dal
Ardean I love the great ideas, and I love that
you've expanded my awareness of what can happen with my
house and how can we change it? But man, who
do I find to actually get this done? Because the
horror stories that you hear and I got to tell you,
I mean, there are plenty of really, really great contractors
(06:41):
in southern California. But you could blindfold a person and
have them throw a rock and they're going to hit
a bad contractor because there's a lot of those two,
I mean a lot, and they have paved the way
for all kinds of mistrust and worry and anxiety. And
that's just something we've never had to worry with you guys,
because you're just you're just so intense in the customer
(07:04):
service side of things. Not perfection, nobody, by the way,
I don't think anybody who regularly listens to this show
expects perfection, certainly not out of me from as a host.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
But excellence. That's what we strive for.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And I tell my design clients the very same thing
I said, This is not gonna be perfect, but excellent.
Excellent we can do. Excellent is about doing as close
to perfect as you can get. And when you fall
short making it right and doing it in the right way.
So all right, so how about this, when we come
back from the break, why don't we dive in and
start piecing apart this whole process of buying windows, and
(07:42):
let's talk to people about what they need to know
the components that go involve both design wise, structurally, architecturally,
the whole gambit and it should be good.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Sounds good.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Thanks for being here, Chris Problem, Thank you. All right,
more great stuff on the way. You're listening to Home
with deansh the house Whisper.
Speaker 6 (08:02):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Thanks for joining us on the program today. I hope
you're having a great Labor Day weekend so far. I
appreciate you spending your Sunday morning with us talking about
this all important thing to all of us, your home.
And today we are doing it by way of having
a discussion about doors and windows, which I try and
(08:28):
do at least once a year, sit down and have
a serious conversation with you about doors and windows because
they are a critical component of all architecture, of home life,
of the way your home functions, and today as I
said before the break, we have a very special in
studio guest, Chris Perez, President of American Vision Windows. Chris,
(08:50):
welcome back to the show.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
All right, Bud, I just want to dive in and
start talking about window shopping, literally shop by which I
mean shopping for windows and the big decisions that people
have to face along the way, and if we could
just kind of take them. I don't know in no
particular order, but maybe there's a there's a there's an
order of priority here. But let's start with talking about
(09:15):
the difference between new construction windows and retrofit windows. Not
a lot of people really think about that. A new
construction window has a fin on it has a flashing
fin on it because it's designed to be set against
a stud wall while while there's nothing else on that wall.
After the framing is done, the window gets set and
(09:38):
then it gets flashing on top of that and all
of vapor barrier that goes onto the wall before stucco
or siding or anything like that. There. I mean, that's
the window that gets built when the house is originally built.
It's a new construction window, right now you can still
have a new construction window. If you want a new window,
it can be a new construction window. But in order
(10:02):
to get the old one out and put the new
one in, we've got to pull back. We've got to
pull back the siding or the plantons that are around
the siding, or we got to break stucco and get
to that fin because there's no just sliding it in
and out. And that's the thing, and a lot of
people choose Okay, I'm thinking it through, all right, I
think that's what I want. But there is an answer
(10:23):
to that without destroying what's already on the outside of
the house, and that would be a retrofit window. Most
of them out here in southern California, correct me if
I'm wrong. I mean, they're almost all what we call
flush fin windows, all right. Flush fiend means that it's
got its own little kind of casing surround on the
(10:43):
built of the outside, and a retrofit window we take
out everything about the window that you've got except the
frame that's embedded into the wall, embedded into the flashing,
embedded into the building paper. So we maintain all that
aesthetic and the water proofness of all of that, and
(11:04):
the new window slides inside the frame. So the upside
is very quick, very easy transition, relatively speaking, no damage
to the outside of the house or the look of
the house. The downside is that window has to by
necessity be a little smaller than the other window because
it's got to fit inside the old frame. So what
(11:25):
are the plus and minuses? And when it comes to
retrofit windows, what do you guys find people choosing most.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
So everything you just said is absolutely accurate. It's kind
of described it better you. In our situation, we probably
have about eighty percent of our customers go retrofit. We
have about twenty percent or maybe a little bit more
than that, twenty twenty five percent given month go construction.
And a lot of times they'll do construction because let's
(11:52):
say they have a window and they want to turn
it into a batiodor well, I can't retrofit that. There's
no retrofitting that, so I have to basically to your point,
cut back on, cut back on the stucco or the siding,
the planton's or do something to get that against the
stud so that can reflash and make that thing waterproof.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
And so we do a lot of that. And one
of the things about American Vision I think is cool is.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
That a lot of our competitors and friends in the industry,
they don't do that stuff and they just want to
go in and retrofit a window and get out of there.
So we do a little everything we do, you know,
twenty foot doors, thirty foot doors. We do stuff all
over the place, and and the retrofit idea of the
business is mostly what we do.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
And that's because the majority.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Of people do not want to disturb the stucco or
mess up the looku or their house, and they want
the same thing and they're willing to sacrifice half an
inch here there of a window space in order to
do something that's less it's actually more, you know, it's
less expensive as well to have us just go in
and retrofit a window versus to go in and break
your stuckup and start from scratching restuck or replant on
or reside whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, now it can change the look on the outside
a little bit, definitely from some home your.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Point of flash fin that we're most of the it's
about one in seven eighth that goes over their existing product.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Whatever it's stuck over whatever it is.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
And that's one of those things that people sometimes have
a hard time because.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
What's bigger than it was before.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, so you get a little bit of a frame
effect around the window.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
I think it looked great, but you know, it depends
on if you're used to having just a little in
the windows designer Chris, Okay, we'll tell you whether it
looks great or no.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Most of the time it's fine. Most of the time
it goes without saying. But there are times when it's like,
do we want to go this way? Maybe we should
go But the point is we have both options, and
now everybody knows. All right, when we come back, let's
get into the glass itself in the unit.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Sounds good.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Your Home with Dean Sharp the house whisper.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Here to transform your ordinary house into an extraordinary home?
Can that be done? I mean really? I mean really?
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Really? Can it really can? If we know what we're doing,
if we're taking the right steps, if we're leading with
design along the way, Yeah, absolutely, we can transform an
ordinary house into an extraordinary home. Do it every day
in our business do it every week here with you
right on this very program. And today we're doing it
(14:11):
by way of informing you and educating you about doors
and windows. And to do that, I have my special
very in studio guest with me, special very very special
in studio guests. Chris Perez from American Vision Windows is
sitting across the table from me. We're talking doors and windows.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Chris.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Let's see where were we at here? Okay, So we
talked about the difference between new construction retrofit windows. About
eighty percent of people tend to go with the retrofits.
Why not because it's less work on the rest of
the house, it gets done quicker. Sometimes there's a good
justification for doing it, like you said, sometimes turning a
window into a slider, right, you can't do retrofit with that, right,
(14:52):
You got to go new. And there are other reasons
to do it too, Like if you're doing a major
rebuild and we're moving door and window locations around and
we're breaking out stucco insiding anyway, why not go with
the new construction.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Well, that's what you just said too, is when they're
going to redo with their stucco. If you're going to
do the windows. Might as well do it then, because
you're going to read someone's going to come into your
stucco over anyway.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
So yeah, it's not gonna.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Be patchwork exactly.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
And by the way, a little note on stucco for
those of you who are thinking, now, I think I'd
like to go new construction. Do I really have to
redo all the stucco? No, you don't. Stucco is a
three layer process. Okay, The scratch coat that goes on,
You've never seen that before unless you've actually stood and
looked at a house while it was being built. The
brown coat, which isn't brown anymore. Sorry, but that's what
(15:39):
we still call it, but it used to be. That
is the majority of the stucco. That's the thickness that's
on your wall by the time the brown coat has done.
A lot of people think the stucco on the house
is done, but it's not. The part that you see
is literally the texture, whether it's smooth, whether it's sanded,
whether it's Santa Barbara, whatever, the part that you see
is the last eighth of an inch of stucco. So
(16:01):
here's the key. Let's say you were thinking, hey, I
think I really want to maximize the size of each
of these new windows. So what if I go new construction,
we break out stucco from around the window. Well, only
the part filling in around the window has to be
you know, the whole manty there, as far as the
thickness of the stucco.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
But here's the key. Don't leave it there. Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
After that patching is done and the window is patched in,
all you have to do is have your stucco people
do a new finish coat across the entire wall. All right,
So from corner of the wall to the next corner, inside, corner, outside, corner,
whatever that is, do a new finish coat across all
of the old finish and the window patches. And guess what,
(16:45):
no one will ever see the patch. Okay, And that's
the key. I don't want to come over to your
house and look at your window and say, I see
you got a new window, and they're like, how do
you know that I can see the patch? Okay, that's
the rule on the show here the right, No one
ever knows you did it. It just looks like it
was there from the beginning, all right, So no stucco
(17:06):
patches visible. But you don't have to redo all the
stucco on the house to get that done. That's all
I'm saying. Okay, let's talk about glass, Chris, Yes, I
hit my microphone here. A modern window is built around
what we call the IGU okay, which stands for insulated
glass unit. And that is because modern windows are minimum
(17:30):
dual glaze, the vast majority of them dual glaze windows.
So two panes of glass right with a I want
to say air space in between. It's not air that's
in there, but a space in between the two, okay.
The insulated glass unit is sealed up at the factory, okay,
because it has to be done in an absolute zero humidity,
(17:51):
zero dust, zero moisture space. And those units, whether that's
the entire window itself or whether they're individual old glass
units on a true divided light window, those units, like
if something goes wrong with those which they do, they
get broken, you know, baseball goes through something, if something
gets cracked, or more likely these days, you hear that
(18:14):
somebody is like, you know what, Every morning, I get
up now and the corner of the glass on my
window it's all foggy and misty inside, like a terrarium
in there, and that means that the ig the seal
has failed, right, and now it's allowed moisture to get inside.
So the big question that we get all the time
is can those be repaired in the field? And is
(18:34):
that the right word to use. I'm just tea in
the submari so okay an igu, which is exactly that.
It's a stilled unit that's done at a glass factory.
It's going to be ordered to size of your window.
It's going to be put in your window at the
manufacturer side.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
If it does break, or there is a fog in
the between the glass, or they have a still failure,
then we're going to come and replace the whole igu.
We're not going to repair it. You can't. You can't
repair it in the field. You can't open up one
piece of glass. People ask all the time, can I
take the front piece of glass that's broken from the
base from the golf ball and then put a new
piece on and save money.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
No, We're going to replace the whole unit.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
And to your point, it's like there's you know, there's
chambers that the argone gas is put in between the things.
We can talk about that later. But there's different things
that this window has to be done. You can't just
open it up and replace it on the spots.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Right, So bare minimum, you can't do it because there's
a moisture in the air, correct. I mean, even on
the driest of days, there's still moisture in the air.
And what we're going to do is we're going to
trap that moisture in there. You may not see it
on the warm day that we repair the window, but
you'll see it the next time the temperature drops, right,
you'll see all that moisture condensate. So no, it can't
be done.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
So well, anytime anytime there is a you know, I
tell people all the time, anytime you see moisture between
the glass that stays there more than a few hours,
then it's probably a failure.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, absolutely a failed window.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So so the answer to the question is no, that
glass can't be repaired but on site. But the window
can be restored on site. It's just that that unit
has to be re place and you don't have to
buy a new window. You don't have to tear the
window out and take it to the factory. It's just
(20:05):
that a new IGU has to be manufactured to fit
and then it can be retrofit on site.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
That's correct.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
There's there is Back in the day when you used
to have like you said, uh, you know, true divided
light things like that, sometimes they would you know, they
would actually make the frame on that glass. So basically
you would have to replace the whole sash if you want,
if you wanted to get a new piece of glass. Nowadays,
every window, all modern windows, have something called a glazing
bead which holds the glass in place. So if something
(20:32):
does happen, we can pull off the glazing bead, rip
the glass out, and put a new piece of glass.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
In opinion, Okay, don't say the word rip because that
that implies mess. Okay, no ripping then, okay, but no,
but you can pull that out. And so the point
is that, yeah, of course they can be fixed, you know,
on site.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Okay, but but we're not. We're we're just not patching
up that unit that it's dead and that's dead gone,
throwing in the garbage.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
What's inside these things? So there's there's multiple things. Most
common right now is our and it's been used for years.
It's just a denser moleculed and oxygen.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
It prevents.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
One of the things about sorry, one of the things
about the glass units is they in order to meet
Title twenty four compliant codes, they had to start putting
our gun into the windows years ago, earned the glass
years ago, so that we can get the U factor lower.
Because there's these different things called sold hicane, cofficients and
you factors that are required by the state, every state
to have a certain guideline, and they get more complicated
(21:29):
and more complicicated as time goes on.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Hourly, they get more complicated hourly, Chris, all right, so
I'm being flagged here. We got to go to bread,
but I want to continue this conversation. So basically, what
we're saying is that our gun gas does a better
job of insulating the window than just air correct on
the inside. And there are a couple other gases that
sometimes get PEPs on crypton in case you need to
keep Superman out of your house. And no, there's another
(21:52):
reason for that too. All right, we'll talk about this
on the other side of the break your Home with
Dean Sharp the House Whispered.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Here to remind you when it comes to transforming your home,
design matters most.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Oh, yes it does.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Design is eighty percent of the game. You get the
design right and then pick the right materials afterwards, and
you are on your way to a huge success. If
you're only concentrating on materials and workmanship and you've got
a unthought through or poor design, you know what you
end up in the end.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
You end up with.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
A very very expensive, well built, badly designed home and
that comes to nothing. It counts for absolutely zero things
except how hard it's going to be to tear all
that stuff out because it was put in so well
to begin with. So that's why we're here. Design matters
most you hear me say it every week. Plus then
(22:54):
the right materials, the right workmanship, and we're tackling that
problem today with my very special in studio guest, Chris Perez,
president of American Vision Windows, because we're talking doors and
windows today. Chris, thanks for being on the show with
me today, Bud, no problem, really enjoying. Okay, So where
are we at in our list our conversation here? We
(23:15):
were talking about the IGU, the insulated glass unit, which
is essentially the heart of all windows, right, And I'm
not going to wax too poetic or historic about windows today,
although I could and I really want to. But you know,
you guys know that there's two people living inside of me.
There's a builder and a designer, and sometimes they have
(23:36):
to take turns and reach a dayton as to who
gets to talk to you and spend more time in
front of the microphone. So today it's kind of fifty
to fifty. But I'm not going to let the designer
go too far into the history of windows. But I
will tell you about this though divided windows right, divided
light windows, what a lot of people call French windows
(23:57):
right where you have all the wood in between and
making all the cross grid pattern that is not a
necessity in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Today.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
This is entirely a design decision today, but it wasn't
always entirely a design decision. And that's why these things
have such a huge historic route in the history of architecture,
because come the late Middle Ages and into the beginning
of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, what we had was
(24:29):
some very wealthy people, and it's usually wealthy people who
start this thing. So you got to give them credit
for that, at least some very wealthy people who were
wanting bigger and bigger windows, more and more glass on
the outside of the house. Which is great, Okay, I
want the same thing for you. But at the time,
how big of a pane of glass could you get
and have it still be optically, you know, a quality
(24:53):
glass to look through. Well, that has to do with
how glass was made, and I won't bore you with
that either, but I will tell you this because it's
kind of when glass for windows was first being created,
glass was being blown like you know glass blowers, and
it was being spun.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
So imagine this.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Imagine a guy set up in a special glass studio
and they had these They had this rig this way,
a long rod. They would put a glob of glass
on the end of the rod and then they would
start to spin it and they would spin it out
into a disc. And when I mean a disc, I
mean like a disc ten feet sometimes in diameter, a
(25:32):
ten foot disc of glass. Okay, now we're done, and
you can imagine the thin glass is on the outside
edge of that disk, the clearest glass is on the
outside edge of that disc. And then from that disc
are cut pieces of glass.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
To go into windows.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
All right, So the idea of a you know, six
foot by six foot all glass window back in the day,
that's an impossibility, okay. So what we had was on general,
you know, so maybe maybe twelve by sixteen if you
were wealthy enough, you could get twelve by sixteen inch
pieces of clear rectangular glass. And then if you wanted
(26:10):
more glass in a window, what you had to do
was piece it together with wood, dividing up the lights,
so you would just put more and more squares of these.
And that's where what a lot of people call the
French window came into play, because it was a huge
thing in France architecturally at the beginning of the Renaissance
and the end of the Enlightenment. Nowadays, we don't do
windows that way. Nowadays windows window glass actually is it's
(26:36):
even more fascinating. Glass is poured out in its molten
form on top of molten tin, okay, so that it's huge,
large sheets, perfectly level, perfectly smooth on both sides. And
now we can make windows any dang size you want
them to be, Okay. So there's a little bit of
a tasty history of glass work. Oh and by the way,
(26:58):
one other thing, if you couldn't afford glass back in
the day, real optically high quality glass, you could buy
for cheap what we call the bullseye. The bullseye was
the part of the glass disc that was connected to
the rod, and it's what you know today. If you've
(27:18):
ever seen what's called a coke bottle window, right, or
a bottle glass window, it's just these little tiny rounds
and it let's light through that. You can't really see
through them, but let's light through.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Right.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Nowadays that's a designer window that you actually have to
spend more money for than ever. But back in the day,
those were just the leftovers, and so you could buy
if you really wanted glass in your hovel, you could
buy a window made out of the bullseyes of the
glass discs and as a result, get light into your house.
They're not easy to see through, but you would get
(27:51):
light into your house.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Okay, I think I've probably taken up the majority of
the segment, Chris, just talking about glass there. But the
thing that we need to talk about next is we
already talked about argne gas very quickly. There are a
couple other gases xenon and krypton. Xenon is super rare, like, well,
we're not even gonna mention it. Krypton, I said, if
(28:13):
you want to keep Superman out of your house. But
krypton glass, especially here on the West Coast, not a
common thing at all. Krypton is a better insulating gas
than ar gone technically, but it's way more expensive and
it's as a result, it only gets used in like
triple glazed windows when there's less room inside that channel
(28:36):
to get the same amount of insulation. Isn't that pretty
much the case?
Speaker 4 (28:39):
That's correct.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
The air gap is smaller on triple pane, and they
can fill that up with krypton more efficiently than they
could if it was a big giant, you know, half
inch gap.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
But the most important thing to realize is that it's
not air inside there. It's a specialized gas to keep
your window at its maximum possible insulating value. There's also
something else on the glas that's uh that we call lowe,
a Lowe mineral coding. We'll talk about that when we
return to this conversation. But next right after the break,
(29:09):
guess what we're mid show. It's time to go to
the phones. Here's the number to reach me. Eight three
to three two ask Dean A three three the numeral
to ask Dean.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
You are home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
This has been home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and
every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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