Window Replacement in Tigard, OR
Fogged Glass Replacement. Hardware & Lock Repair. Draft Fixes. Caulking & Seal Repair. Free Estimates. Licensed OR #241979..
Close the windows and listen. If what you hear is OR 217, 99W, or I-5, the window you replace them with has a second specification on it that the energy label does not carry. When ODOT studied noise along 217 for the auxiliary lane project, its consultants modeled sound at points along the corridor and counted those above the state's abatement criterion for a residence: 65 decibels averaged over the loudest hour. Existing traffic put 61 of those points over the line; without the project, 85 would be over it in the design year, and with it the study counts 82 as impacted. The residents and owners in each benefited stretch then voted on a wall, and four walls, planned at 10 to 23 feet tall, are going up at SW 95th, St. James, Carriage House, and SW Hall, each on the Tigard side of the highway.
The number the label does not carry
A window's U-factor measures heat loss. Its sound performance is a separate test with a separate result: STC, the sound transmission class, weighted toward speech, and OITC, the outdoor-indoor transmission class, written for exactly the noise a house near 217 lives with, traffic, which is heavy in the low frequencies that pass through glass more easily than a voice does. Two windows with the same U-factor can differ widely in OITC. A homeowner behind one of the new walls who buys on the energy label alone finds that out the first night.
What raises the sound rating is mass, separation, and a tight seal. Glass of two different thicknesses in one unit blocks more than two matching panes, because each thickness has a different resonance and neither passes what the other does. A laminated pane, two sheets bonded with an interlayer, damps vibration and is usually the largest single step available in a standard replacement window. A wider space between the panes helps. And the operating style matters as much as the glass: a casement or awning window closes against a compression seal on all four sides, while a sliding sash rides in a track a seal can only brush, so a slider of the same glass lets more through.
What does not raise it is easy to mistake for what does. A low-E coating is a heat measure. Argon between the panes is a heat measure. Triple glazing with three equal panes gains little over two unequal ones.
The estimate on a corridor house
On a Tigard estimate near the corridor, VResh Construction lists the OITC rating of each proposed unit, or the STC where a manufacturer publishes only that, beside its U-factor, so the homeowner is choosing on both numbers. VResh recommends the mixed-thickness or laminated package on the wall facing the road and the standard package on the walls that do not face the road, because the rating is chosen per window and the road-facing wall is where the noise arrives loudest. A house on the slope above one of the new walls gets less from the wall than a house at grade behind it, and the recommendation on those lots leans further toward the laminated package.
A window is the thinnest part of the wall it sits in, so it is where the improvement is largest. A window rated well above the wall around it stops being the weak point, and something else becomes it, a hollow entry door or a bathroom vent, and VResh will say at the estimate where that next point is before recommending a rating the rest of the wall cannot use. A sound-rated window installed with a gap around the frame is a quiet window in a noisy hole, so the air seal the main window replacement page describes gets the same attention as the glass.
Serving Portland Metro Area
VResh Construction provides window replacement, siding installation, roofing, dry rot repair and full exterior renovation services throughout the Portland metro area and Southwest Washington.
Portland Metro — Oregon
Southwest Washington
Extended Service Areas
(503) 272-6436 — Call or Text, Available 24/7
We answer calls and texts at any hour. For storm damage, active leaks, or structural emergencies, calling directly is the fastest path to a response.
Window questions from Tigard, OR
Client's Talk
We have a wealth of experience working as main building contractors on all kinds of projects, big and small, from home maintenance and improvements to extensions, refurbishments and new builds.
The test is yours
Close the windows, and if the road is what you hear, ask for the second number. A Tigard estimate from VResh lists the sound rating next to the U-factor for every opening and identifies the glass on the wall facing the road. Call or text (503) 272-6436.