My Schuco Install by A&J Reliable, NY

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ShucoFan
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:31 pm

My Schuco Install by A&J Reliable, NY

#1 Post by ShucoFan »

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to echo my AWESOME comments about Schuco windows. I recently went through the entire research process like you are probably going through. Trust me when I say it's not easy and that there are so many slime balls out there it's unbelievable.

First let me say I am doing this on my own....I am just a very happy customer. This job was done about 2 months ago, unfortunately I have just been so darn busy with work I haven't had time to get this posted. And yes, I know I spelled my user name wrong! Talk about butter fingers....

Fortunately for me I had one incredibly knowledgeable, respectful and excellent guy to deal with. We all know him on this board -- he goes by the name of FenEx. Let me just say that FenEx knows his stuff, and while he is employed by the company that installed my windows (A&J Reliable out of NY), he is working for them because he was able to get them to sell the best window...Schuco.

I won't go into the details of the Schuco window. You can read about them here. Just a couple of notes on my findings, now that I've had them for both winter and summer.

a) These windows are awesome for both blocking heat in the summer (put your hand up to the window and you won't feel any heat on your hand!) and insulating in the winter.

b) The Schuco Corona 4000 is by far the prettiest vinyl replacement window on the market, in my opinion.

c) The Schuco is a very very very well made product. It is solid. It uses solid materials. You can feel a sense of quality when you operate the window. Having driven german cars, you can easily tell this is a German product.

d) The installation performed was top notch and very well done. The guys came and did their thing and left my house in respectable condition.

e) The sound reduction was worth the price alone. I live on a busy road and the sound has been reduced significantly.

I purchased Schuco Corona 4000 Triple Pane, Krypton, half screens, some with grids some without....You should be willing to pay $600-$700 INSTALLED for a Schuco window. While markets are different (you might pay more, you might pay less), don't let anyone tell you that you have to pay any more than $750 for this window, installed.

Without further ado....here are some pictures!

Here the guys are getting going on the first day. Note they already have some windows out....these guys know what they are doing. There is no way I would do this on my own -- and that's coming from someone who is pretty handy around the house.

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Here is a window going in. As you can see, the windows come in one piece and are held in by 4 huge screws, one on each corner. Trust me when I say they are not going anywhere! Talk about some balance on that ladder....

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Now he is holding the window in so that the Tony, the inside guy, is securing the window to the house.

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Heres the inside view.....make sure you have all your valuable and furniture out of the way for these guys so that they can do the best job possible.

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Here is Butch taking another window out in the back. These guys chose to install and remove windows from the outside, as you can see. You can also choose to isntall from the inside and remove your trim. I think the outside method is better because you do not have to disturb any expensive and easy to damage trim on the inside of your house.

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Here you can see two windows being replaced....many more to go. Each window was measured by FenEx when he came out to do the pricing and sizing....by the way, there was absolutely no sales pressure from FenEx....the way it should be!

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Here you can see the capping machine on the bottom of the picture....capping is certainly an 'art' so to speak. Laying against the truck are some of the old windows.

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The finished product on the inside of the house! Caulking is applied to each inside edge so you have an airtight seal. You will notice these windows do not have grids (the white lines) on them -- these windows are on the back side of the house. Whether or not you like grids is entirely up to you.

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Another picture of the finished product in another room. All stickers were removed after they were done with installation.

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A close up of the caulking job between the window and the trim. Nice and clean. The house is 40 years old and needs a little TLC, but that has been taken care of since these pictures were taken.

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Another picture, this one is with grids.

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A window in the garage. As you can see I have a raised ranch and a bedroom is right above the garage...I am going to have the garage walls filled with insulation before the winter arrives. With insulated walls, Schucos, and insulated garage doors things should be fairly warm in the garage this winter.

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More old junk! The windows in this house were pretty decent back in their time....40 years ago! You can see the capping machine up against the truck.

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A nice clean removal of a garage window.

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Here is Butch removing the big picture window. What a hunk of junk that old window was!

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A nice new picture window with grids ready to go in....gotta love it! Triple pane too!

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A tough shot to see but here is Tony caulking the windows.

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Here is what a Schuco looks like installed without any capping.....

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Here are the pieces of capping. These are nailed into the wood with nails that have white heads. Caulking is then applied around the seams of the capping so that water is kept out.

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A window all complete from the outside! You can see the caulking around the edges of the capping at the bottom of the window.

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Instead of having a regular double hung window installed in my kitchen I had a casement installed. About a $100 extra, it looks really nice and was a good option to get.

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Another shot of the capping of the casement.

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Another shot of the capping......

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Here you can see the cover that covers up one of the screws. You can also see the caulking betwee the window and the trim.

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I also had the guys installed a slider in my dining room area. Before that there was just a regular door. Talk about blah! The slider was probably the best thing I have done to the house so far -- lots of light and certainly adds resale value to the house. Plus you can't beat a Schuco slider...they are by far the best slider going, in my opinion. Talk about quality! Slide that baby and you'll know you have a solid product.

This picture shows the install after I painted the trim around the slider and painted the wall. Note that these guys are carpenters...not painters. So I was left with a wall that needed to be primed and painted and some trim that needed to be painted....which is what I expected, they are not painters!

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And here is the outside work. They also capped the slider.

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And that concludes my tour of my installation job! A huge thank you to A&J of NY for the installation and for being willing to drive 2 hours to do the job. You guys were awesome and I am very grateful for all the hard work and effort the crew put into my home.

Let's just say I won't ever have to worry about windows ever again....for thise house anyways! I'll know who to call if I ever have to again :)

Cheers!

ANOTHER WINDOW GUY
Posts: 243
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: WISCONSIN

#2 Post by ANOTHER WINDOW GUY »

Windows look very nice, but I don't think much of the wrapping job. 1st why didn't they give you a brickmold bend and second the metal should hve extended behind the siding on the sides. It's a shortcut my boss wouldn't allow.

homeowner
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:52 pm

#3 Post by homeowner »

what is a "brickmold bend"?

ANOTHER WINDOW GUY
Posts: 243
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: WISCONSIN

#4 Post by ANOTHER WINDOW GUY »

If you look at the pictures of the ext wood trim(referred to as brickmold) it has a very specific shape. When we wrap windows we make a few extra bends in the metal cladding to make it look more like the original profile, rather than giving it that squared off look. It's faster of course not to do it that way but after a few homeowners complained we just made it our std application. If your getting new windows a bigger concern should be the sides, if you look closely they butted the trim against the existing siding not covering all of the exposed brickmold. That's simply taking a shortcut which I used to do also, but I was called on it and now we always use a special saw to cut along side the brickmold so that we can cover the entire area and than caulk the edge making it a complete wrap.

Scott1q1
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 7:04 pm
Location: Atlanta, Ga

#5 Post by Scott1q1 »

I think the only time thats really a big issue is when that style siding goes right up to the window, metal outs with no wood trim around them. Looks like a good job! I've never actually seen a shuco window in person, very nice.

I always enjoy Fenex's posts, he seems very knowledgable(like alot of people here!) and seems to try very hard to always make helpful, polite, and diplomatic posts(alot of us fall short in this area lol).

Its nice to see a customer show so much support and interest in their project, great post Shucofan.

Fenex-break buddy ftw :P

ANOTHER WINDOW GUY
Posts: 243
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: WISCONSIN

#6 Post by ANOTHER WINDOW GUY »

You wouldn't work for us.

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