Tag: Joe Erb

Color Considerations for Commercial Window Fabricators

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If you’re in the fenestration industry, and you stay up to date on home décor and design trends, you’re likely aware that colored vinyl windows have made an impact on homes everywhere. Homeowners are looking for darker hues that match modern living spaces — and window frames can make a statement.

But this is a commercial blog. Why are we talking about residential vinyl? There are a few reasons that I’ve been thinking about recently.

The first is because apartment or condominium dwellers have desires too, and builders have taken notice. My colleagues and I have been hearing increasing chatter in recent months about the demand for new color options in multifamily housing and high-rise applications. The second is because commercial-grade vinyl is an ideal choice for applications like the ones I just described for several reasons (as regular readers of this blog know), and it’s an ideal material to pair with an increasingly wide range of available color options.

For commercial window manufacturers, there are a few things to think through as you’re thinking of developing new color options or expanding your current portfolio. Let’s take a look:

Color Quality
Branching into new colors involves evaluating the different technology options that are available to commercial fabricators. Generally, paint and laminate options are the ones most frequently considered when it comes to offering colored windows. However, both methods have their drawbacks. Each needs additional labor on the plant floor (i.e., applying the paint or laminate), and at a time when fabricators are struggling with manpower, such steps can be limiting. Meanwhile, paint and laminate quality is of utmost importance. Lesser materials may be susceptible to longevity issues over time, especially in commercial applications and in most extreme climates.

But advanced color technology available today can solve each of these challenges. Co-extruded color technology, for example, sees that color becomes an integral part of the vinyl profile itself. Such technology delivers significantly enhanced scratch resistance, high durability and the ability to withstand harsh weather conditions seen by commercial windows. It’s an option worth exploring for each of these benefits.

Thermal Efficiency

I’ve written extensively about the performance benefits of select commercial vinyl window systems. In a regulatory environment that’s increasingly concerned with sustainability and stringent demands for commercial buildings, high-performing vinyl window systems can deliver outstanding energy benefits in applications where metallic systems have traditionally held the majority of the market share. The energy benefits can be striking, and these systems have increasingly proved their ability to deliver long-term performance.

Your ability to pair a high-performance commercial window system with high-quality color technology as described earlier can be a powerful differentiator in these types of markets. Think dense metropolitan areas especially, where aesthetic design considerations collide with stringent building code requirements.

Ordering and Availability

One challenge for manufacturers offering multiple color options is the added SKUs doing so involves. For example: Let’s say you offer one commercial profile in four standard color options, but several new project opportunities are requesting additional color options and some dual color configurations. If your supplier can offer these options, it could open new business opportunities, but also lead to added inventory challenges.

From an inventory perspective, things can quickly become complicated. You don’t want to have countless varieties of colored units sitting around in your warehouse, either. And your vinyl supplier won’t be hanging on to all that inventory themselves. A good one, however, can help deliver on your needs in step with your demand with a reasonable lead time. Open these kinds of conversations with your vinyl supplier to ensure you can both stay nimble.

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As the commercial construction industry continues to demand more from its fenestration systems, I think that increasingly broad color options represent one way we can continue to innovate. Pairing those options with high levels of performance and efficiency is even better.

Getting in Front of Energy Penalties

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Can you put a specific price on a building’s energy emissions? In New York City, starting in 2024, you can: $268.

That’s the penalty building owners will be charged for every metric ton of CO2 generated above an established limit beginning in two short years. Local Law 97, passed in 2019, will apply these limits for buildings in excess of 25,000 square feet from 2024–2029 before they become even more stringent (and with harsher penalties) from 2030–2034. While there are some additional complexities to the law—limits vary depending upon the type of building and its current emissions—the message is clear. Inefficiency now comes with a cost, and it can add up quickly.

New York City isn’t the only major city deploying these measures to reduce carbon emissions and promote greater sustainability. Washington, D.C., recently proposed a similar law that would take effect in 2025. Surely other cities aren’t far behind.

These measures are part of a more widespread push toward sustainability, but they strike me as a fairly distinct shift from how the industry has traditionally thought about a building’s efficiency. Energy efficiency is typically framed around the benefits—lower energy bills, occupancy comfort and, yes, reduced emissions. And it’s true that reaping these benefits requires an investment that some building and property owners may have previously not deemed necessarily worthwhile. But major municipalities instituting financial penalties for poorly performing buildings is a new kind of motivator for building owners and managers.

The commercial glass and glazing industry has some opportunity here, because high-performance window and glass systems are a great way to improve a building’s energy efficiency without sacrificing too much of the window-to-wall ratio. And I think this kind of financial imperative to improve energy efficiency in all buildings—new and old—will continue to drive greater acceptance of progressive window technologies.

One example is high-performing vinyl window systems, which can deliver outstanding energy benefits in a variety of applications where metallic systems have traditionally held the majority of market share. Not only are the energy benefits striking (especially when combined with warm-edge spacer systems), but there is also more evidence of their ability to deliver long-term performance. Last month I wrote about project-specific mock-up testing and why it’s becoming increasingly important to help validate the expected energy and structural performance of new, efficient building technologies. Vinyl systems, when installed with the right technique and care, absolutely have the potential to meet and exceed expectations.

For commercial glass professionals, we can advocate for technologies like these for our customers. For building owners in New York City and potentially other major municipalities, it’s decision time—invest in bolstering the efficiency of your properties today, or pay the price tomorrow.

 

The Increasing Importance of Mock-up Testing

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Not long ago I wrote about the importance of long-term performance once commercial glass products have been installed in a new building. Major investments are being made in new technologies, and in order for those products to meet their potential (and to protect our industry’s reputation), validating performance and sound installation practices are increasingly important.

I found this to be true during some of my recent travels over the past few weeks. In March, I and one of my technical services colleagues spent time at a test lab for project-specific mock-up performance testing on a commercial vinyl window system that is to be installed in a large mid-rise development project. The testing was necessitated by the project architect—some of the largest multi-lite openings needed to hit a certain criteria to keep the project moving. Windows were installed in a full-size representation of the proposed exterior wall system. Structural integrity, air tightness and water performance were all validated through the process, helping to grant confidence that the systems will deliver long-term performance.

While this is not standard procedure for every project, I think we’ll begin seeing an increase in required mock-up testing in large new commercial jobs. More evidence: The Building Envelope Contractors Conference (BEC) returned to Nashville for the first time in two years in March. There was plenty of chatter about how the industry has navigated the past few years, but a particular panel discussion on field and laboratory performance mock-ups caught my attention, correlating with my experience a week or so earlier. Presented by Jose Colon, regional sales director, Intertek; Szymon Zienkiewicz, president, Larsen Zienkiewicz; and Vic McConnell, Smith Cashion & Orr, PLC, the panel served to highlight the importance of performing physical mock-up testing to validate that the system as designed will be fit for use following sound installation.

Why an increasing emphasis on mock-up testing? I think there are a few drivers here:

Risk mitigation. First and foremost, testing helps validate performance—and that’s important for building owners in today’s environment. For many, making the investment in mock-up testing is a worthwhile venture to be more certain of long-term performance. System failures following completion of construction can be major liabilities. Especially as the construction space continues to face labor and skills challenges, a robust testing protocol can help reveal any weaknesses before the job is fully complete, allowing rework if necessary.

Quality assurance for new technologies. Building owners are further looking to new building and fenestration technologies for higher energy performance (more on that in a second). And as these new technologies are deployed, owners want assurance their selection can provide those benefits without sacrificing any of the reliability of legacy technologies. That testing I mentioned earlier was for Quanex’s commercial-grade vinyl window system, and structural performance was a critical part of the evaluation. I’ve noted before how commercial vinyl technologies can offer a wide range of benefits in punched opening and multi lite applications, and I believe that successful testing to commercial performance criteria like this will help broaden the acceptance of these types of options and further validate their place in the commercial market.

Efficiency and sustainability. Building codes and other measures will continue to drive the need for more thermally efficient glass and window systems, a trend that I don’t think we’ll see go in reverse any time soon. For example, last month I wrote about the burgeoning growth of passive house-certified buildings, which seek to drive energy consumption to the lowest possible point. Mock-up testing can help validate that the chosen window systems will provide the kind of air tightness required by passive house standards, for instance. As emphasis increases on making buildings more sustainable, I think it’s reasonable to expect testing will help contribute to those goals.

All in all, I think this kind of mock-up testing is a good thing for our industry. It’s an effective way that we can help grow trust and acceptance of new and emerging commercial glass and glazing technologies that can help make better buildings.