Welcome, Mitch and Jason Kersch, father and son owners of a 104-year-old home improvement family business. Gentlemen,why do homeowners find replacing windows in their homes overwhelming, confusing, and stressful?
Q: Mitch, you’ve been doing this (as a 3rd generation owner) for fifty-five years. Why are homeowners stressed when it comes to replacement windows?
Mitch Kersch: It starts in February and continues well into the Spring: Your mailbox, inbox, and television screens are flooded with window replacement ads, especially by national brands using their multimillion-dollar budgets. Homeowners have many choices regarding replacement windows, but national brands win regarding frequency and exposure – you can’t escape their ads. So what happens in the mind of the average homeowner who is, as you said, overwhelmed? They do what all of us tend to do when we’re stressed; they just want to “get it over with,” so they pick a recognized brand, thinking it’s the best option.
Jason Kersch: And I’d like to add that there are many other window manufacturers that homeowners have never heard of because they can’t compete with the volume of advertisements by more well-known names with larger budgets. So, we often see homeowners feel compelled to choose anything other than a known brand because they are afraid that if they don’t, they will be making a mistake.
Mitch Kersch: For a homeowner who has not taken the time to explore other options and blindly chooses what they think is a ‘safe option’; installing replacement windows by a major brand, it turns out to be a costly mistake. A replacement window by one big name averages $1,500-$2,000 per window. Even after their aggressive discount, their windows are more than double of an equivalent high-end window by other manufacturers.
Q: For many years, vinyl windows have been the preferred replacement window materials. Some national brands now advertise their composite windows, a hybrid of materials, as the newest and better option. Speaking of being overwhelmed and confused, how do you feel about this?
Jason Kersch: Even though I am a co-owner with my father, I still spend most of my time in sales, meeting and presenting options to homeowners, and because of their multimillion advertising budget, it comes up often. National brands are noticing that educated homeowners are increasingly considering competitive options. To protect their turf, national brands must invent a way to differentiate their windows. The composite materials they brag about are nothing more than recycling waste that is leftover during the manufacturing process of vinyl windows, a combination of wood and vinyl. This recycled waste is not presented as modern technology. It isn’t, and it certainly doesn’t justify paying double or more than existing high-quality windows. Well, recycling leftover materials is a good idea. But there’s nothing sophisticated or high-tech about the composite materials they market.
Q: You chose to align yourself with only one window manufacturer instead of selling/installing any window brand a homeowner might want. Why would you stake your company’s future on one company instead of selling any window?
Jason Kersch: There is a wealth of (mis)information on the internet, which often leads homeowners to feel they have found the best product for their home. Unfortunately, many of these decisions are price-based. At Major Homes, our only goal is to do it correctly the first time, and by default, this eliminates many products on the market because we know they will ultimately fail to perform as expected. If a homeowner has a specific product in mind and feels comfortable with it, we have no problem installing it as long as we know the company and feel confident their product will not fail or require repeated visits. We can say with confidence that with 104 years in this business “we’ve seen it all.”
Our guidelines is simple: the materials that we recommend must meet several criteria in no particular order):
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Made of heavy gauge materials and with little service needed
- When service is needed, the manufacturer is ready and willing to stand by their product
- Highly energy efficient, meeting/exceeding all state and local requirements in order to allow homeowners to get tax rebates/credits
Q: After 104 years in the home improvement business, if you had to give a homeowner one piece of advice when it comes to replacing windows, what would it be?
Jason Kersch: You have to answer a few critical questions you need to ask yourself:
- Why am I changing the windows?
- Do I want to improve/increase energy efficiency?
- Do I want my house to have a makeover with modern-looking windows?
- Are my windows old and pose a safety hazard? (the locking or sliding mechanism can cause injury when you open or close the window).
Once you can answer and select a vendor, make sure you ask detailed questions of anyone you let into your home. Consider only companies that take the time to bring actual and fully functioning samples. I know this may sound challenging but remove price from the equation when you make a final decision; a replacement window with a very low price can’t offer long term quality and durability. Similarly, a replacement window that costs $1,500-$2000 doesn’t have features that more middle-of-the-range windows offer. You’re most likely subsiding a very expensive marketing campaign.
This is a tried and true quote that works in every area of your home and life:
The Bitterness of Poor Quality Remains Long After the Sweetness of Low Price is Forgotten
Our message to homeowners has been the same throughout the four generations of our family business: Let us educate and guide you, just call with any questions and you’ll be amazed that we actually answer the phone and we always call you back.
