Sick Of Hearing Those Noisy Neighbours?

Are you getting tired of hearing your neighbours every time they play their music, every time they argue or slam their door? Maybe it's time you did something about it, call a renovation contractor they can help you fix that.

There are many ways to dampen, deaden or stop exterior noise all together and it doesn't involve turning the TV up louder so that you can't hear them.

1. Change your windows. New windows are better at dampening noise and vibrations that come from the outside. There is also the option of going to a triple pane window, triple pane windows are so efficient at stopping noise that you would have trouble hearing someone on the other side of the window even if they were yelling towards you. You would have more chance of hearing them through the wall then the window. Triple pane windows are also really good at helping heating and cooling.
2. Upgrade your insulation. Adding foam to your homes exterior walls will help dampen the noise coming from outside. You can have it sprayed in the wall caviities or you can have it installed on the exterior or interior of the outside walls as a sheet. Adding foam is also really good for helping with heating and cooling.
3. Cellular blinds and curtains. These are a fairly cheap and easy way to dampen noise that is penetrating through your windows. Good quality blinds and curtains can have a tremendous affect on the amount of sound that makes its way into the home.

Some exterior finishes on houses have the same desired effect to dampen sound. Vinyl siding is notoriously bad at stopping noise; products like brick and stone have the density to stop sound from transmitting through the walls. The only problem with them is the cost of installing the product is rather high.

For more tips to combat unwanted sound send me an email at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Village Builders Inc. 

What Is An Insulated Window?

Q:

What is an “insulated” window?

A:

Modern windows are often referred to as “insulated” because of technology that retards, blocks, or slows the transfer of air through the unit. Most people are familiar with fiberglass or other types of insulation material in a wall cavity. In a window, the “insulation” is a combination of several factors.

Most common are windows with at least two panes of glass enclosing a ‘dead’ airspace between them. The airspace may also be sealed to contain a clear, odorless gas (commonly argon), which is heavier than air and thus an even more effective insulator. Better yet, one or both inside surfaces of the glass can be permanently laminated with a clear coating that further retards thermal transfer and protects the home’s interior against solar heat gain and damaging ultraviolet rays.

Homes that are on the water or face a direction with an excessive amount of cold wind or weather routinely have windows installed with three panes of glass, this is commonly called triple pane windows. These windows are basically double a normal window and give double the protection of a normal window since they have the advantage of two spaces to "insulate" your home from the outside world.

Triple pane windows are a heavy window to install and are also more costly, you must way the pro's and con's of buying them before deciding if they are needed.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.

New Window options for custom homes in 2014

New Window options for custom homes in 2014

The changing needs in design and tastes make staying up with current trends and new technology in window manufacturing a must for custom home builders. The last half decade has seen massive changes in the options that are now available for all types of windows. This leads homeowners to be almost buried in choices when they go to choose new windows and the options that are available for them to have installed in their custom home. Since every option comes with a plus or a minus and a change in price, contractors are having to stay ahead of their clients and the ever evolving choices.

New options arise every year with windows, here is a brief list of some of the more popular options to help you understand what you have to select from;


• UV coatings. These coatings are good for houses with a lot of windows, the UV coating helps protect the furnishings and finishes in the home from the ever increasing harshness of UV light that exists today. There are some down sides to the UV coating; some manufactures install it as a last coat on the windows, which means that if you are not careful with the inside glass surface you could accidentally remove it. If you use the wrong cleaning product or scrape something off the glass with a razor blade or your finger nail it can peel off the protective film.

• Triple pane windows. Triple pain windows have been around for a while but you usually could only get them in certain brands and certain styles of windows, also the price was extreme compared to a normal double pane window. This has changed in the last couple of years, now most brands offer multiple lines and styles of windows in triple pane; also the cost of the triple pane window has come down in price making it a real option for people looking for a more energy efficient home. Triple pane windows work well to lessen the impact of large windows that are affected by high winds and cold temperatures. They also damper outside noise to almost nothing because of the thickness of the glass, basically no sounds seem to be able to resonate though and into the home.

• Coloured vinyl windows. Ever since the release of the vinyl window they have been offered in predominately one colour and that is the natural white colour that is native vinyl. That has all changed in the last decade, most window suppliers offer you a spectrum of colours for the vinyl that their windows are produced in. These vinyl windows also have the ability to be painted if you choose too at a later date for that custom look.

• Solar gain and solar limiting. The building codes in North America are changing and so are the options for your new windows. One of these changes is solar gain and solar limiting windows. What this means basically means is that one window allows more heat from the sun to penetrate into the home (solar gain) and the other blocks the heat from the sun from entering the home (solar limiting) without blocking the sunlight from coming in. The reason for this is to help balance the temperature of the home as this has always been a problem in homes; when the sun is shining on the south side of the building it raises the temperature of only the south side while leaving the north side of the home cooler.  These windows should help even this out with maximizing sunlight into the north side of the home and limiting the heat produces from the south side of the home.This allows your furnace to work more efficiently and for your home to be closer to the desired temperature in every room.

• Hybrid windows. Hybrid windows that are aluminum on the outside and vinyl on the inside are now available. This allows the homeowner to have the look and longevity of aluminum on the outside and the advantage of vinyl on the inside. Having vinyl on the inside lowers the overall cost of the window compared to an aluminum window with wood on the inside. It also lowers the cost of finishing the inside of the window as vinyl doesn’t require any staining or painting to finish.

• European style windows. These type of windows have a hinge to allow air to flow in only through the top or to open like a crank window. These type of windows aren't new to the market as this style of window has been around for decades, but it is now available in vinyl form. These style of windows allow homeowners more options for regulating the air flow into the home and a different look and feel then conventional windows.

This is just some of the newer options that you can find in windows for residential custom homes. As there are almost endless window manufactures in the North American market there are also almost endless window options and they trend in and out depending on style, design and personal taste.

Make sure that you weigh all the options for new windows against the cost benefits that are associated with them. This could dramatically change your window budget for your new custom home.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.