[MassHistPres] Fibrex windows in local historic districts

[james hadley]

I have repeatedly contacted the Old King's Highway Historic District Commission in our town (Orleans) to try and make them stop approving these kinds of windows. The District has been degraded by their intrusion into the historic building fabric. There are first class shops doing window restoration in various corners of the Commonwealth, as well as small fabricators of minimal profile storm windows that are barely visible. Work for these craftspeople keeps money within the nearby community instead of sending it to Minnesota to the Andersen factory.
Another important fact within this discussion is that Andersen has begun phasing out local suppliers of their windows in order to maximize their profits. So, for example, only an Ansersen-approved franchisee can now purchase and install their replacement windows, and this is accomplished by the installer via purchase direct from Andersen. 
These business practices are known as "extractive" in that they take local money and send it off to the corporate HQ. Why do this when with a few clicks one can find a first class person to rebuild your historic windows here in Massachusetts?

To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
From: blever3043 at aol.com
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:27:54 -0400
Subject: [MassHistPres] Fibrex windows in local historic districts

Andersen has a wood / polymer composite simulated (full) divided light replacement window with a spacer bar called Fibrex.  This is an insert window, but the specs call for the frame to occupy a portion of the weight pockets so the glazing size stays fairly close to the original window.  I'm conducting an informal poll to see how many district commissions have approved this window in place of original wood windows.  In this case the original 1928 wood windows have been repaired once, are not signficantly deteriorated and could be repaired again and/or have new storms added.  Responses are appreciated. 



Thanks,



Brian Lever






 






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