Bloggit's Journal - On Window and Door Salesmen

In short, low on tech and high on drugs.

Much of this we or previous owners retrofitted. About half the house has been refloored (finding, in one case, three previous floors still in-tact underneath.) Several doors replaced, insulation added, new countertops installed, refacing, lots of new lighting and sockets, and RG6/CAT5 pulled through-out.

As we reach the tail of the process, replacing the front door hit the radar. It's leaky, old, not particularly good looking and doesn't really match the house. But having done several doors ourselves, we decided to have the front door "done" for us. Since we found a great looking high-quality door at Home Depot, we asked their installation service to come out.

This was interesting. In the Puget Sound area, there is a largely-reviled firm who I won't name but whose name rhymes with "You Get Pound Synergy Services", with a reputation for overstating benefits, overcharging, under-delivering and spotty quality. Some people have had good luck with them, but among my acquaintances it seems to run 85% against. And they aren't alone. Go to any fair and you will see window companies claiming you can save huge amounts even by replacing double-pane windows with new double-pane windows.

This is beyond slimey. We, being of scientific background, tracked our energy expenses for several years. We know exactly how much more we spend in the winter than in the summer. (Since we are in the NorthWest, summer doesn't include air conditioning... or even light bulbs really. And winter does require artificial lighting, even at 9am and 3pm, around Christmas.) Our total incremental energy cost for the entire winter would pay for roughly one replacement window. But that increment is due not just to heat loss from the window... there's heat loss from:

• Opening entry doors - to come and go, and to let the puppy go out, which happens pretty frequently.
• Heat loss through the walls and ceiling
• Lights. Remember, not so many on in the summer.
• TV, stereo, computers. We're outside a lot more in the summer, being entertained by mowing the lawn or barbecuing.

So our goal was to avoid that kind of hard sell. Our theory was, Home Depot would have an installer service, not a sales service. But none-the-less, the yahoo at some point decided to try to prove we were losing heat through the windows, by stating...

I have a heat lamp in the truck. I guarantee if you're on the other side of the glass, you'll still feel it.

The fool agreed, but promptly interrupted my attempt to go get them. In short, he was a liar and he knew he'd been called out.

The moral? Before you contract for any door or window replacement, consider everything the salesman says to be false. Do the math yourself. Most power companies will happily send you the last year's bills, some will do two years, at no charge, and most also have on the bills your power usage compared to the previous same-time period and the average temperatures. Use these. If you have single-pane windows, you can probably pay off replacement, but otherwise... not so much.

One last gripe. In looking at entry doors, we want fibreglass or steel for the low-maintenance and long-life. But most of these have ugly screw covers around the window bezels (on the inside side of the door), which are completely lacking on wood doors. Why won't they spend an extra $15 in fine detail work on a $600 door? Sloppy.