Anyone seen a defective exterior paint finish on Serious fiberglass window frames?
It took me some time to specify Serious Windows, after Serious bought Alpen (note: Alpen has recently “bought back” the fiberglass window line), but in the last few years I’ve specified them three times. The first were white, the second painted almond and this third time we went with bronze, all standard colors. The bronze windows were delivered last month with a defective paint finish on the exterior; looked like an adhesion problem with a touch-up or second coat. The company says “this has never happened before.” I’m writing to ask if anyone out there has used the “Bronze” standard color of Serious windows, fiberglass, and did you have a defective paint finish? Thanks.
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Rachel,
I am the owner of an independent company that has been supplying green building products exclusively since 2003. Before that time I was a project engineer and project manager in commercial construction for over 15 years.
In the fall of 2008, after Alpen had won a top 10 Green Building Product award from EBN, I did an extensive evaluation of the product line. This included a trip to the manufacturing facility in Colorado, a personal visit with the founder of the company and site visits to large commercial installations in the Washington, DC area.
After that evaluation, I was confident the product would meet overall quality requirements as well as be innovative in performance. My company is still a dealer today, and after supplying the windows in hundreds of projects and I have never had paint issues as you described. That includes both standard colors and custom colors. I do have occasional scratches and dents, but nothing significant regarding adhesion. I also keep in touch with customers going back several years and none have mentioned any problem with paint as you describe. It is always possible that something unique could have happened to your order as it has the potential to be exposed to several varying conditions during shipping and construction.
I hope this information has been helpful. Also, since I recently had another visit to the manufacturing facility, I am confident that they are moving towards manufacturing even higher quality windows now that they are Alpen again.
Hello Rachel
I built a house using Serious Windows that was completed in 2010. We had the same issues you describe having, namely that the paint on our brown exterior fiberglass frames was peeling/flaking off. We ultimately, just had our window subcontractor spray paint them using paint that Serious had mailed us. We used many of their windows/doors, all of them with a brown exterior, yet it only happened to a few of them. So far ( 2 years and going) the fix has worked and no new ones to repair.
Thank you to both of you for responding. I have to say I expected that my client wasn't the only one out there with this issue. The windows are functional and otherwise well-made and the homeowner is contemplating whether or not, and how, to remove flaking/unadhered paint (the second coat, put on it appears as touch up in areas), and whether or not to repaint. I will share both your testimonies with owner and builder and we will have the winter to see if anything further occurs since any repainting will have to happen in the spring. Thanks again!
Two years ago, we installed almost 4 dozen Serious windows on a project of ours. Haven't had any problems with the paint job on any of them.
My company has been a dealer for the Serious, now Alpen, fiberglass windows for the past two years.
We have facilitated dozens of orders in various colours, standard and custom.
Never have we had any problems with paint adhering to the fiberglass pultrusions.
Two months ago was the last order we received in the Dark Bronze standard colour.
So far, the paint on these two Bronze coloured window packages appears to be the same quality as our previous orders, flawless.
If anyone in the Calgary area wants to check out the Alpen (Serious) windows, look me up. I'd be happy to help out.
Rachel
I have been using and installing the Serious Window line for the past four or five years. During that time I haven't seen any peeling such as you describe. I would think your first call should be to the distributor who sold the windows to you, as it seems to me to be a warranty issue. My local distributor here in New Hampshire has been very good at helping to solve the few problems that I and my customers have experienced.
Bill Knight
Thank you to all who have responded. The builder and dealer (and I) have been in direct contact with folks at Alpen, and they have been both responsive and helpful. I posted the question here because both builder and client were asking me if I knew if this had happened elsewhere, and Serious/Alpen provided no answer about that. Looks to me like this is the exception not the rule, and I'm happy to hear that Kevin's fix seems to have worked. It is a sad problem to face on an otherwise good product, and it fortunately seems to be cosmetic only. The issue would have been less dire had it not occurred in November in northern Minnesota, but on any custom home something that holds up the project costs both time and money for all.