Permitted Window Replacement

The Permit Decides the Product

A window replacement in Riverside is permitted work. That is not a technicality we are hiding behind, it is the thing that determines what you are allowed to buy, so it belongs at the front of the conversation rather than the back.

The energy code is the reason. California Title 24 sets a ceiling on how much heat your glass may let through, and compliance is measured against the numbers printed on the NFRC label of the unit you actually installed. Buy on price alone and you can easily end up with a window that is perfectly good in Redding and non compliant here.

Reading the Sticker

Two numbers matter on that label.

• U-factor is heat conducted through the whole assembly, frame included. Lower is better. On a straight replacement in this climate zone you are generally looking for a value at or under 0.30.
• SHGC, the solar heat gain coefficient, is the fraction of the sun’s heat that gets through. Riverside summers are hot, dry and long, and the west elevation of a house takes a beating from about three in the afternoon onward. A low SHGC here does more for comfort than shaving another few hundredths off the U-factor.

A low-E coating is what moves SHGC. It is a microscopically thin metallic layer on one of the inner glass surfaces, and it is why two windows that look identical on a showroom floor can behave completely differently on a west wall in July.

Retrofit or Full Frame

This is the other decision that has to be made before anything is ordered.

Retrofit means the original frame stays in the wall and a flanged replacement unit sets into it, with an exterior trim detail covering the joint. It is faster, it does not disturb the stucco, and on Riverside tract housing with sound aluminium or vinyl frames it is usually the right answer. You lose a small amount of glass area to the doubled frame, which matters mainly in bedrooms, for reasons covered below.

Full frame means taking the old unit out down to the framing, re-flashing the opening properly, setting the new window and patching the stucco back. It costs more and it brings a second inspection stop. It is the honest answer when the sill is soft, when there is staining below the corners that says water has been getting past the old flashing for years, or when the opening size is changing.

We look at the sill from inside and the stucco from outside before we say which one you need. Anyone quoting that over the phone is guessing.

Bedrooms Get Measured First

Every sleeping room needs a window that provides a clear escape opening of a defined minimum size, measured on the actual open sash rather than the rough opening in the wall.

Because a retrofit unit sits inside the old frame, it shrinks the clear opening slightly. On a bedroom window that was already close to the minimum, and plenty of older tract windows are, that shrink is enough to take it under. The fix might be a different operating style, a casement instead of a slider for instance, or enlarging the opening, which turns it into a full frame job with a structural header to think about.

So on the first walkthrough we measure bedrooms before we measure anything else. It is the cheapest ten minutes in the whole project.

Safety Glazing

Glass in certain locations has to be tempered: near a door swing, alongside a stair or landing, and within a defined distance of a tub or shower. Tempered glass carries a small permanent etched mark called a bug, usually in a bottom corner.

The inspector will look for it. If it is not there, the unit comes out, and by then the trim is on and the paint is dry.

What Install Week Looks Like

Permit in hand first. Then delivery and a check of every unit against the order before anything is opened up, because a mis-shipped size discovered on the wall is a very bad day. Openings are done a room at a time so the house is never wide open. Trim, seal, clean, and the labels stay on the glass.

Then we book the inspection and one of our crew is there for it.

Call (951) 479-4003 with the address and rough opening count.