Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubicon
We're thinking of replacing the windows in our house (Calgary). Got three quotes - Lux, Centra, and Green Fox. Original windows in the house are Supreme (ie Centra) and no issues with them other than they are old. Anyone have any experiences with any of these three? Prices are remarkably close between the three, within about 15%.
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I got my windows done by Lux and overall, I'd say I was 99.9% satisfied. The only thing I thought was strange was that there was a little gap in the weather stripping for the front door where the deadbolt is. If you shine a light at night, you can see light get around the corner and as a result there's the slightest bit of wind can seep through when it's cold. The green energy audit guy said it wasn't out of the ordinary and Lux was going to send someone out to check and address it if it was, but it was easy enough to address myself with a tiny bit of weather stripping, so I didn't bother having Lux send someone out to check it out. I'm sure they would have addressed it to my satisfaction anyways, so I don't think I should hold it against them. Everything else though was excellent and met or exceed expectations. I haven't had an issue with my windows.
Also, from what I gathered, Lux like all the others, contracts out a lot of the work. It was claimed by the contractors though, that Lux had a very specific vetting process and that there were only a select group of contractors Lux contract out to to maintain quality. I don't know how true that is, but the contractors I got were excellent compared to other contractors I've had working around my house before. When I got my roof and gutters done, the foreman randomly asked me who did the cladding for the windows. As someone who focuses on exterior work on houses he said he always appreciated seeing quality work, especially for metal work like gutters and cladding, so that was good to know. But with so many different teams, there's bound to be differences between one team and the next.
Painting indoor trim wasn't part of the services Lux was providing, but because they were an assortment of contracts, some of the guys on that team would consider do it as a side gig if I needed. I only had my main floor and upper floors done. Lux didn't try and upsell me on basement windows, especially if they would have egress requirements upon replacement.
A part that perhaps wasn't too clear was that replaced trim around the windows inside the house, would need painting. That's not part of the services they were offering at the time. You may need to arrange for someone else to do the painting of the trim yourself. The trim outside had color options and didn't need painting.
Other things to note: If replacing doors, buy new door hardware to coincide with the door installation.
If you have plants/bushes near or around windows, I had discussions with the contractor about the possibility of trimming them to below the window line to give better access/avoid having someone accidentally damage/kill the plant if scaffolding or window or something else accidentally crushes it. He said it could be done without, but needed to warn me about that risk and that it might take a little longer to do. He and some of the other installers were very appreciative that I agreed to trimming it lower so they could just set up and install without having to carefully work around it. This wasn't something I had discussed with Lux before, at least not really in detail, so it's worth keeping in the back of your mind to make a fast decision when chatting with the installers.
Another issue we ran into was that there was a section that had rotted due to the water getting through the seal due to how old the original windows were. This wasn't part of the services/quote with Lux and wasn't really noticeable via the original inspection and quote. The contractor showed me the rot and said they could cover it with plastic and I could either call Lux to hash it out with them which might take a little time to agree and sort out approvals, or I could hand him and his team $150 ish as a side gig, to buy some lumber and materials to fix it and keep the project going. He said the labour would be covered as part of the window project anyways. I agreed to pay him for the materials for the side project and the guys went out and were back with lumber and other materials within the hour. He wouldn't take the payment for that side gig until the whole project was done, so I honestly think he was honest about that. I don't think anyone would try to pull something like that for $150. $1500 would make more sense as a dishonest scam, especially for a project that was tens of thousands of dollars.
I didn't chat with Centra, but I did with Green Fox. Maybe it was just the one guy I was chatting with, but Green Fox felt a little bit too eager at in stating their offering was as good or better to other companies offerings and what some of the "other companies" did poorly, instead of focusing solely on what they were offering and what they were good at. My wife rolled her eyes and walked away from the booth then asked me later why he was talking more about other companies than the one he was representing.