European Triple Glazed uPVC Windows

Hi, I'm Jake Bruton with Arrow Building, and today we're at our Spring Valley project. This is a house that our firm's building with Steve Basic of Steve Basic Architects out of Reading, Massachusetts. This actually happens to be my personal house and it'll be our offices as well. And we're gonna talk about these guys. We're gonna talk about the Schuko windows that we have installed here. And we're gonna talk about what UPVC means versus PVC and what makes this window and door package so special compared to a normal window and door package. And for that, we're gonna use Steve's knowledge base about the product. What's up, buddy? Thank you, sir. Always a pleasure. So Steve, this is, we just said UPVC instead of PVC. Yes. What's the difference? So the UPVC is an un-plasticized PVC. So I don't claim to be a chemical engineer, but plasticizer's bad, taking out the plasticizer's good. So these are European made windows and they're PVC over there. They take the plasticizers out to make them a healthier process in creating the PVC is what I'm told. The other beautiful thing about these windows is is that the UPVC has recycled content in it. At a minimum, these windows have 10% recycled content and it can go up from there, but at a minimum. And the other thing is, is that all the PVC that is used in these windows and doors has the ability to be recycled. Yep. So that's a good long-term end of use back into the environment. Certainly, we can. The cycle. Kind of recirculate that back into the cycle of things. Yes. So we have a couple of different things here. We have lift and slide doors and we have tilt turn windows. Let's start with these awesome 14 foot wide lift and slide doors. Yeah, so from a design perspective, one of the beauties of European windows and doors is they'll make big pieces of glass for me. And this is triple glazed, very well insulated glass to the tune of a U value of 0.134. So which roughs out to 7.5 ish on the R value scale. But as you can see, 14 foot slider, we have one door that basically occupies the design feature of bringing that backyard into the family room. And we break that down into an eight foot fixed panel and a six foot operable panel. And as Jake was explaining, because of the lift and slide hardware, we have this six foot panel that's in excess of 500 pounds that operates as good as any three foot leaf on sliders domestically made. And I would say my four year old daughter can move this door. So she comes to the job site, she operates the handle, she moves it up and down and she likes to put it up and then show that you can't push it once it's actually sitting down on its wheel. So it cams up and- Zoom in down here, because I think it's really important you can see, you know, down here, and Jake, if you can be so kind, you can see the door actually lifts up on the rollers. So as he manipulates the handle, the weight either goes on the rollers or it sets down on the sill. Now there's two things that are good about that. One, obviously, is that when you drop the door, it creates that airtight air seal. I'm using 500 pounds of weight in my favor to set that air seal against the weather stripping on the bottom. The second is, is, you know, I could take this over here and I can use it as a venter and the kids can't go in and out. So I have that little, you know, doggy door here that nobody can get in or out, but I can create some air venting there, right? And by bringing it up on the wheels allows for that, you know, single finger control manipulating the 500 pound door. And I would say from a quality standpoint, this unit shipped as three pieces. It shipped, or five pieces. It shipped as the movable frame and the glazing separate, the stationary frame and the glazing separate, and then the perimeter frame assembled. So they sent us that seven foot six by 14 pre-assembled. We got it here. We got it off the truck. We drug that frame around here. We set it in the opening and it was square. And not just that one, the windows and the other frame behind us, a 14 foot by seven foot six frame that came off the manufacturer's train, or train, car, the car, square. That doesn't happen with a PVC unit of that length. Yeah, and then the other thing, you know, if we can pay attention to here is, you know, the U value, I apologize that this isn't rotated, but they stuck it there. But, you know, we're talking 0.13 performance and we're not giving up the visual transmittance and getting that number. So the VT is basically a measure of the clarity of glass, right? It's sunglasses versus clear glass. And it's a, you know, limited kind of analogy, but it works. But, you know, if we try to get this performance domestically, this number probably drops down to 0.5 or less and takes the clarity of the window down a few notches. So, you know, commendable numbers there also for this large piece of glass. And, you know, the reality is, is you have R8, if we did a fully insulated wall there with framing and a couple of three by five windows, we're probably pretty close to the same R value of that whole wall system, so. So let's talk about the tilt turn. So just on the basic level, the window's now locked. The window opens, that would be the turn feature. And then they also have a tilt feature. So if you tip it in, you tip it this way, the window is open, it's venting, it's keeping the rain out. I've learned that during our course of construction, we've left the windows like this for more than a month and we had no water intrusion whatsoever. And then real quick, before we move on to how it's put together, let's just get the vault door back up. Exactly. When you operate these doors, you're literally opening, closing a bank vault. You can see there's multiple catches here where it's catching the door or the clasp here in multiple locations. And again, as you watch the other videos, let me remind you that the overall test on this house was like 0.5 or 0.3. And then we took it down with the use of air barrier down to 0.06. So you don't get those numbers with bad performing windows when you're given that 20, 22% of all the walls in this house are either windows and doors, right? And Jake pointed it out, when I talk to clients, I tell them, this is how a European opens their window. I know in America, people think, hey, we need to open up the window wholly, but this seven inch drop in a house that's operating under the air tightness that we have provides more than adequate ventilation, right? So we don't need to open it, we don't need to turn it. This is how Europeans clean their windows, right? They swing in, I can get that nice clean and call it a day. And then I get that seal. So the other beauty of these windows that I'll point out is that all the hinges here are three axis hinges. So the window has the ability to go left, right, in, out and up, down. And so everything is modified in this hinge that we can fine tune the sash inside the weatherstripped opening to maximize the performance of the air sealing of each window independently. From an installation standpoint, the units that actually move, they function rather than just being a picture, there are some really large screws through the frame. Those screws are full thread, so they're self-shimming. They catch both sides of the frame and the wood of the window buck and the unit can't move anywhere. They also have these straps that twisted into place for your initial installation. I was really blown away when we talked to the manufacturer and we said, okay, talk us through this install because this was our first install with this product. And I said, okay, and then it's level, plumb and square like any other window or door, right? And he said, if you put them in level or plumb, they'll be square, don't worry about it. And they were, they were locked in place. First placement on all of them, we didn't have to make any adjustments. They're so rigid. Like I said, this 14 foot door came square. Right, and I think it's important to understand, Jake had talked about the screws and the clamps. The window unit is literally hung inside the window opening. And then that gives us the ability to go around and do a perimeter air sealing and do an effective one. So it's kind of a bulletproof system. We have the ability because they're flangeless, we can put that window anywhere in the wall. So if I'm trying to look for a deep window aesthetic on the outside, then I can pull the window in. If I'm looking for that deeper window, so on the inside, I can push that window out in the wood frame. So I have some options there because there is no flange as to where I put the window. One of the other really cool things that some American manufacturers do, but the European manufacturers do, the color choices that are just available in other markets than our market. This is a foil face on the UPVC. So the UPVC, just like PVC comes white, it's UV stable. So we could just leave it white and we shouldn't get that chalking in a few years like you get out of American made PVC windows. But this gray is absolutely gorgeous. And it's one of those things where it's just not available in other markets, or it's only available in the most expensive custom windows that you can get in the United States. This is a off the shelf product that's- I mean, this is Europe's most widely sold window, right? UPVC Schuko window. And if I can get you to just zoom in here, I mean, yeah, it's UPVC, but those are furniture quality joints that are exhibited on this product, right? I mean, that's not rough cut. That's a beautiful joint for this line of windows. And these windows from a price point per performance rival a lot of domestic products. And, you know, I want to give just a really quick plug. You know, European Architectural Supply is the guys that I go to to usually get these windows. So they're basically the American broker for all the European windows that I use. And I send them my window schedule. They do their estimating. They send me a set of shop drawings. We approve it. They place the order, and 12 weeks later, a container shows up with the windows, like Jake said, true plum and square, ready for install. I think that this is a window that should be more competitive in our market. This window is less expensive than the high-end stuff that American manufacturers are putting out, even after shipping costs. So I think it's something that you should really look into for just about any build. There's no reason why not to update or upgrade the least performing part of any house, the glazing. Yeah, I mean, it's clearly the worst part of the wall. So we should try and put our best effort to upgrade that piece of the wall, certainly. Okay, Steve, thanks. Anytime, buddy. Make sure you stay tuned for more from the Spring Valley House on the Build Show Network. I'm Jake. Remember to keep us in the back of your mind when it comes to Instagram and look for more videos.