Ordering Crazy Efficiency (and Affordable) Windows from Europe!

on the build show today i got a really fun episode for you see the shipping container back here that shipping container is full of european made triple glazed windows that are going in this house right here this is the house we framed with t-studs now this house kind of uses normal components except for this truck and this truck has some shoe code triple glaze ultra performance windows and doors and believe it or not this truck full of windows that got shipped all the way overseas and then delivered to the port of houston and then trucked to my job site costs less than standard double glazed windows that might have come from a domestic manufacturer today's video is sponsored by european architectural supply let's get going [Music] all right the crew has made some great progress so what are we talking about today these windows are from shuco that's a german window manufacturer and shuco has kind of an interesting deal in that all across europe there are different manufacturers of windows that are shuco dealers they've got shuco equipment shuco extrudings all that stuff but in europe the way they do it is kind of every town every country has their own window manufacturer that delivers to that local area and shuco is this large conglomerate that makes equipment and extruding and they're kind of quote unquote licensed to make their product so i bought these through european architectural supply they're out of boston these are made overseas in europe and then shipped on that container that you saw earlier to me on my job site now this is a different sort of animal than what we're used to seeing in america number one really really high performance specs these triple glazed windows are somewhere between though there's a bunch of different window stickers out here somewhere between like .11 to .13 somewhere in that neighborhood so we're talking about windows that have a u factor of like r seven point something that's really high compared to most american windows that are just double glazed that are somewhere around .30 these are at least twice as insulative as a lot of those windows that you're used to seeing and like i said price wise very very competitive now this is a upvc product which means the frame on this instead of being pvc or vinyl like a lot of inexpensive windows in america the u stands for unplasticized pvc it they don't put softeners in the kind of process to make the the upbc so they're they're a little harder they're a little stiffer they're able to take the heat better they're also recyclable which is kind of cool there's a host of other benefits to using upvc and that's real standard in europe a little out of the ordinary to see those in america what i like about these windows from shuco is that i can also specify a foil facing maybe a little hard to see on the light here but this this facing you're seeing here it looks like an all aluminum window but in fact that's a foil that's been applied to the inside and the outside and i can specify that in all types of varieties you see this a lot in places where they've put a wood foil on there and from a foot away you have no idea it's not really a wood window like when we went to the dealership with my buddy steve basic who introduced me to these guys i saw some incredible what i thought were wood windows but no they were upvc with a foil for this house though we opted to go with this kind of charcoal color i think this is a real popular color i like it a lot it was about a 15 bump in cost something like that now i've got a couple different styles of windows in this house these two right here are fixed windows and you're going to see that the fixed windows are installed with a clip system this is a metal clip that gets popped into a bracket on the side of the frame that actually is a structural connection and then screwed into the structure of the house we're going to do those on somewhere between a one foot and an 18 inch on center so these can really take some serious high winds but the other way to do it or the other way to install it is like this window now this window i don't have the handle on right here but this is a a tilt turn window which means when i turn the handle down the window is going to open up when i turn it up the handle the window is going to vent and it's actually going to tilt on the bottom and vent into the house now this window is pre-drilled through the jamb and we're using these long screws that are referred to as turbo screws you can see they're threaded the entire way so technically we don't have to shim those when we screw them and those pre-drilled areas were screwing all the way into the jamb through there now we need to do some air sealing and some waterproofing on the outside you'll notice that i pre-applied for my waterproofing the huber's zip system stretch tape i did that on the sills and the guys did that on the jambs and all the way up into the head section we did that all the way back into the framing and then we did that on the outside so now my entire opening is totally waterproof it's going to be a little hard to see with this light here but the guys also have sloped the sills on these windows see if i can get my little flashlight out here there's about a 5 degree bevel or so on these cripples underneath and so i've got a pre-sloped sill i don't need to use a cedar pan or some other way to get sloping on there these are pre-sloped so that now when i put my waterproofing on if there were to be some incentive moisture in there it's sloped to the outside now this part's going to blow your mind a little bit if you're an american builder i'm used to seeing flanged windows where i have a nailing flange on the outside obviously we've got no narrating flange here and i'm also used to having a weep spot and not putting any tape on the bottom of the windows but we're actually not doing that here these windows are made to a much higher standard and are very very bulletproof so the manufacturer recommends and the way they do this all over europe when i travel through there is they actually tape it complete on all four sides now when i'm installing the sill on this tape i've actually left two strips of backer on there when i put the back on so that i'm waterproof from a bulk water perspective but if any incidental moisture were to get in there it would weep out that's just kind of my my american version but then on the outside or i should say on the inside of the window i'm going to finish off this install to be an airtight install one of two ways either we could use some sega tape on the inside for air sealing and i saw that all over europe another method i really like though is using prosico's air dam we're going to use some low expansion foam around the window to add some extra insulation we're going to put a backer rod in there and then after the backer rod goes in we're going to put a nice fat bead of prosco air dam all the way on all four sides of this window and now we're going to be totally air sealed now that we talked about the windows let's take a break for a minute let me show you this awesome door going in all right guys install time we've actually installed quite a few windows but this big boy this is the first time i've installed a shuco lift and slide of this size too that's a two panel glass right there it's six foot wide and about eight foot tall this is a big boy but let's talk about the opening that we prepped over here first what's going on here is this will come onto a patio or a deck space so we're up off the ground and the guys did a great job of prepping the opening with huber stretch tape so the stretch tape is in here and you can see we've made a pan for this to sit in and this is three quarter uh advantech decking and we've cut that to allow this to be a pan for us so basically we're three quarter down here from the subfloor and then i'll have a three-quarter hardwood on top of that that's also reducing the height of the sill but that big door that you see there that's the fixed panel which is in place now and the operable lift and slide is out for the install now this is going to be a clip system install meaning just like the windows we're going to install a clip into the track and actually screw that clip in and uh let me show you one prep thing we did on the inside too here before we uh before we move that door we prepped this with some 5 8 shims this is a 5 inch thick huber zip system sheathing which is going to be the same thickness as my drywall so now we're going to bring that door in and make sure it's flush with this 5 8 here and we're going to come out a little bit from the jamb we frame this uh with t-studs which are basically a five and a half inch thick stud and then we've got one inch uh zip r three on the outside of this house but let's uh let's watch this big boy get muscled into place [Music] all right guys you can see we're using these woods power grip suction cups man those make a really big difference moving a heavy door i don't know what the weight on this single operable panel is but it's up there it's got to be uh three or four hundred pounds somewhere in that in that range but with four cups and four guys we're able to move that around now when we set the door before we set it we totally waterproofed the opening again with that stretch tape you'll also notice there's a back dam on the back of that we've got a three-quarter back dam that we set up against our advantek subfloor so that any water that got down into that sill would hit a back dam and everything's fully waterproof and then before we set the door we put a couple beads of prosico's fast flash prostico makes these fluid applied products from their our guard family fast flash is a great one to use because it's going to act as a waterproofing and air sealing and actually it has some adhesive properties as well so by putting that underneath the sill there we're gluing that seal into place we're also keeping water and air and bugs out of that space and then we're going to lift this last panel on this is the operable panel that's moving what you didn't see is prior to the guys doing all this they put a laser on that sill and we shot that laser on the sill so that sill the sub sill was totally dead flat that means that when we install this door we've got a nice flat door we don't want any ghosting on that door moving or rocking so having a dead flat sill makes a really big difference and then we've only installed a couple of the straps but see those metal straps that you've got there on the head there's three of them right now that's our security that's what's holding the door actually in place of those straps and again when we're all done we're going to have those on somewhere between a 12 inch or an 18 inch on center with those straps all right last thing on these windows let's open this one up i want to show you one of the reasons that these windows are so good is not just the glass yes this is triple glaze with a high r value but check out all the ways that this window is pushing or locking into the frame when i move that handle every one of these moves on the outside of the house or on the outside of the window frame i should say and let's count how many points of contact we have we've got one two three four five six seven eight nine ten points of contact so when i close this window in fact i've got an air compressor going outside it's going to be really really sealed very airtight it's going to make a much quieter window so part of our efficiency is yes from that triple glazed glass the other part of our efficiency is that really really tight air seal and we're going to tune this glass a little bit depending on what part of the country you're in so in texas i want yes a low u-factor that's the that's the resistance of heat flow the r value right but i also want a low solar heat gain coefficient and when i ordered these i was able to order these with a really low sh gc that means that when the sun hits the glass like it is now and is kind of splaying into the house 80 percent of that sun's energy is blocked only 20 percent is making it through if i was in a northern climate where it's really cold outside i actually might want some of the sun's heat to help heat up my house a little bit but the beauty of these is i can order them and again even though they're made overseas and ordered from boston i can tune this exactly to what i want for my climate and the last thing i'll mention here is my walls super efficient house i've got t-studs i've got zip r by the time i'm done filling the insulation in this cavity i'm going to be close to r30 in this cavity why would i mess with a standard double glaze window that's around r3 or let's say our 3.3 when i can get basically double the performance double the insulation value in a product like this which is basically cost competitive with an american-made wood window guys i really like these i highly recommend you check them out let's raise our standards for american buildings if you're interested i'll put a link in the description for these guys so you can talk to them about your house and if depending on where you are watching this in the world you probably are familiar with the chico brand massive brand worldwide but really almost unheard of here in the united states if you're not currently a subscriber guys hit that subscribe button below we've got new content every tuesday and every friday follow me on twitter instagram otherwise we'll see you next time on the build show hey guys couple quick afterthoughts after we finish the video i was thinking you know i i didn't tell quite the whole story from the job site so i did want to mention you i visited their showroom eas that has european architectural supply they're based out of boston and my buddy steve basic introduced me to them and one really cool thing about visiting their showroom that i didn't really tell in the video here was that they carry several like six different brands of windows and doors besides jashuko they've got upvc aluminum windows wood windows and wood aluminum clad they make windows for high-end luxury houses as well as high-rise affordable housing type units now i got the shuco for my project but they even carry a more affordable brand of salamander upvc windows that compete with some of the mass market windows here in the u.s the salamander windows are interesting as they got some laboratory testing recently which fits the commercial aw 100 psf rating which according to eas means they're the top-rated upvc window in the u.s market very high performance at a really good price now when buying your windows from another continent it's important to consider a few factors you want to have a project of a certain size so the cost savings are going to cover some or all the shipping costs you also want to work with an importer that won't just sell you the windows but will help you install them potentially and service them down the line and european architectural supply has been around for 18 years so this is one of the most reputable best companies for these types of windows and of course they sponsored today's video but i've gotten to know patrick the owner of the company they really have some great people there they made the process really easy and i gotta say at the end of the day very impressive package on this shuco but like i mentioned they've got a bunch of different options so if you're thinking about this for your house give these guys a call consider them as you're thinking about windows and and thanks for joining me for today's video [Music] you

Channel: Matt Risinger

Views: 162,823

Keywords: Matt Risinger, Build Show Network, The Build Show, Build, european architectural supply, schueco windows, best windows for house, best cheapest windows, best performing windows, beefy windows, windows passive house, windows building science

Id: C2bJ1IWewDc

Length: 16min 43sec (1003 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 16 2021