Pella’s Bold Goals
We’ve been working closely with Pella windows and doors to help our clients understand best what Pella offers how it works in their home. What’s the Pella difference? This company started making roll screens in 1925 and eventually started making windows and patio doors and now they’re the second-largest window company in the United States.
They have actually won many awards for being the number one trusted brand for quality in all of America according to Consumer Reports. If you’ve read the Consumer Reports for these guys they win number one in wood windows and win number one in the fiberglass category. They’re just they’re amazing at what they do.
We’re working with them to see how can we help integrate their goal of doubling their business by 2025 into what we do to help our homeowners. You know as a homeowner that information is power and the more information you have the smarter decisions you can make.
Plenty of Product Lines
One of the great things about Pella is all of the product lines. They have vinyl windows, they have wood windows with aluminum exteriors, and they even have a fiberglass product called the Impervia series. We won’t get into the vinyl in this post but we’ll hit some high points and differences between the product lines.
The Lifestyle Series
There’s really no such thing as an entry-level product from Pella because all this stuff is above the mid-tier when it comes to quality but the closest thing to an entry-level product is called the Pella Lifestyle Series Windows. Now when you get a Lifestyle product from Pella you’re getting a couple of things; number one, you’re getting the best glass that you can buy.
Pella insists on quality so they use cardinal glass across all of their product lines, no matter what you buy you’re going to get Cardinal glass and Cardinal glass is superior to any other glass out there in the market. Ask anyone who’s in this industry, they’ll tell you Cardinal Glass is terrific.
On top of that, you’re also going to get skilled craftsmanship from their employees. I read an article recently that said that they’d won an award for being one of the best large companies in America to work for. That’s really a good thing. They also have an average of 17 years of tenure, I mean who stays at a job for 17 years on an average tenure?
Well, they have happy employees, and happy employees mean skilled employees because they stay there longer and the more skilled they are the more consistent and the better your product is going to be over time. That’s what I love about them.
The Pella Lifestyle comes in fewer colors than their top-of-the-line products do but if you’re looking for standard colors, like white, tan, or black; things like that, you’re going find that this is plenty of good options. It’s also the only Pella line that offers integrated blinds and shades which are available in six color options each.
It also has grids on the surface (or SDLs) which is what I love about the Pella products. It looks like a very true authentic real wood product like you would see from even a hundred years ago. If you have an older home that had wood windows in it has it, you can reproduce that look in a product that’s well designed for the Houston climate.
The Lifestyle is available in double-hung, awning, picture, and casement configurations. Now it’s going to have some limitations like the types of grids, and the number of colors, and the size limitations. But it’s a great product and is a good option in most of the homes that we would visit.
The Pella Architect Series
The Pella Architect Series Wood Window is the flagship of the Pella product lines, it’s the window that they’re best known for. The Architect Series is a wood window with an aluminum-clad exterior that comes in two different profiles; the traditional style which has been around for many years and the contemporary style.
Traditional Style
The Traditional look has an ogee type grid and it’s going to have a typical profile width which is a little over three inches wide and is designed to give you that look of an old-world traditional home. It’s timeless, you could install this window and it will still be in style thirty years from now. This is really where the rubber meets the road when it comes to some of these beautiful homes that you see in these traditional styles.
The exterior finish of the Architect Series is available in twenty-seven colors compared to the just thirteen on the Lifestyle Series. And it features a color-matched jamb liner so you get a consistent color throughout. Interior options include six different wood options, four paint colors, and eleven stains to choose from; or you could just select primed interiors and paint whatever color you wish. You also get nine hardware finish options to choose from.
It’s not just beautiful, the Architect Series is really designed to be very efficient when it comes to keeping the cool in and the heat out. Or the heat in and the cool out depending on what part of the country you live in. The Traditional style is available in every window configuration that Pella makes, including double-hung, single-hung, awning windows, casement windows, picture windows, and bay and bow windows.
The EnduraClad® exterior aluminum cladding is designed in a way that overlaps so that when water runs down the face of the window to help shed water down and away from the window. Pella also applies a special treatment to the wood which carries a lifetime warranty against rot called EnduraGuard®.
So with Pella Windows you’re not gonna have a rotting wood window, and that’s the concern people have when they live in a humid climate like Houston. Why would you want wood? Because of the beauty of wood; you want wood because it’s warm and it’s elegant, but not if it’s going to rot. EnduraClad® gives you the peace of mind that you need.
Contemporary Style
The first big difference you notice with the Contemporary style is how the frame itself is narrower. You’re going to get more glass out of a contemporary window than you are the traditional window. It’s the same quality glass, the same EnduraClad®, the same EnduraGuard® wood protection, and the same quality of workmanship. Everything about it is identical in that regard, but you’re going to have a little more of a narrow profile and a cleaner, simpler, look.
The Contemporary style window offers the same finish, wood, and hardware options as its Traditional cousin. The biggest difference, besides aesthetics, is the configuration options. Contemporary style windows from Pella only come in awning windows, casement windows, and fixed (or picture) windows.
We’re not going to even get into all of the countless options that are available in the Architect Series when grille patterns and materials. It’s safe to say that whatever you have in mind, they can do. Which is a good way to sum up the Architect Series; quality craftsmanship, the ability to realize your desired features and options, and one of the best warranties in the business.
The Pella Impervia Series
Pella Impervia windows are pretty unique in that there really aren’t a lot of good options for a fiberglass window out there. Pella’s proprietary pultruded fiberglass won’t melt or breakdown when exposed to temperature swings like some other materials; it’s designed to stand up to extreme heat and cold, tested from -40ºF to 180ºF.
With a factory powder-coat finish that’s available in five solid colors or four two-tone options with a colored exterior and a white interior; his long-lasting powder-coat finish meets the AAMA 624 standard which is the highest-rated fiberglass coating available. What that means for you is that this coating is not going to chalk or fade and that your window is going to stay sleek and beautiful for years to come.
