Mike Lehnerd bought his house near Pine Lake 3 years ago knowing his near 40-year-old Andersen windows would need replaced.
"Actually, you could feel a draft coming through some of the windows, so we were shopping trying to figure out how to replace them, what to do," Lehnerd explained.
He considered calling in a crew of guys, to install vinyl windows but instead learned about a little-advertised upgrade: to keep his Anderson windows, but trade out the bad parts.
"So this is one of the most common windows in all the Mahoning Valley, the most common construction window in the country," said Tom Paranzino of Bernard Daniels Lumber and Home Center.
Paranzino said you'll find thousands of this type of "Anderson Narrowlines" in housing developments all across the Valley. They were the cheapest windows that contractors in the 1960's and 1970's could get, that still had the Andersen name.
How do you know if your house has them?
"Look for the strings. As you can see, it's got the strings -- that's what you look for -- if you have the strings," said Paranzino.
And the strings mean you can get the upgrade kit.
You keep the Anderson Frame but get new sashes with double-e glass and tilt windows, just like Andersen's top of the line right now for about 70 percent of the cost of a new window. In this case, they cost about $250 dollars for what would've been close to $400.
But more than the cost, the ease is what sold, Mike.
"This upgrade, I don't have to tear off the trim. I don't have to tear off the trim outside. Literally, you clean-up your mess, and you're done."
And Mike, a machine shop manager, said he just had to read the directions to do the job himself.
"That's the best part, you don't need a whole crew of guys in here and plastic down, you know, this is a simple process," Mike explained.
In part two of this series, we'll show you just how simple the process really is.
