Every month, people across Florida search up things like “Impact window installation near me” or “Where can I get impact windows” when their old windows break or become excessively drafty.
Installing impact windows is a great way to improve your home’s value, reduce your homeowner’s insurance costs, enhance energy efficiency, and protect your home from the worst effects of Florida’s harshest storms.
But the thing is that you only get all of these benefits when you get the right impact window installation from companies in your area. If the window is substandard, then it won’t be as protective as a better-quality one. If the installation isn’t handled the right way, then even the best windows will utterly fail to insulate and protect your home.
What to Look For When Searching Impact Window Installation Near Me
If you’re looking for “impact window installation near me” online, odds are good that you’ll see a lot of sponsored results from businesses that have large advertising budgets to make up for their general lack of quality.
But, are those businesses really the best option for your impact window installation?
Here’s the thing: Just because a company is big and has a huge budget to spend on advertising doesn’t mean that they’re the best option for installing your impact windows.
Lots of big players in the space try to get by on sheer volume of business without really paying attention to the quality of the work they do. There are even some national brands that don’t do window installation themselves—they sell the windows and outsource the actual installation work to a third party subcontractor who isn’t part of their business.
How can you sort the high-quality impact window installation companies operating in Florida from the low-quality ones that will leave you with serious buyer’s remorse after the installation is finished? Here are a few things to keep an eye out for:
Are They a Local Business or a National Brand?
There’s a clear difference between getting service from a locally-owned and operated business and a big-name company with thousands of offices across the country. One company is focused on building a great reputation and the other is just selling a product at scale to make money.
It’s kind of like the difference between eating at a local family-owned restaurant and a national fast food chain place. They’re both selling food, but which is better in your own experience? The mom-and-pop eatery who makes food with heart and soul or the soulless corporate chain that relies on brand recognition and having locations on every other street corner to make sales?
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of burger chains have really gone down in quality, with burger patties so thin they bring to mind the single-ply toilet paper they have in the guest bathrooms.
Do you really want to have windows that are the equivalent of getting bad-quality overpriced fast food?
When you’re spending large sums of money on an alteration to your home like impact windows, you don’t want to get stuck with substandard windows that have substandard installation just because the company you ordered from doesn’t care about quality.
Do They Have a Good Track Record Over Multiple Years?
How long has the company been in business for? A year, two years, twenty years? The longer a company has been in business, the more likely it is that it will be a trustworthy and reliable business. But length of service alone isn’t the be-all indicator of reliability.
In addition to checking how long a company’s been in business, you should also check their review history through sites like Google, Yelp!, Angie’s List, Facebook, etc.
The rate of positive reviews that a business gets is a much better indicator of how good their services are than any amount of commercials, billboards, or online ads. After all, anyone can say that they’re a best-in-class window installation company, but few can boast about having over 200 5-star reviews across the different review sites over a period stretching back several years.
A business that has both a long history and a solid track record of earning positive reviews is one that’s more likely to provide you with reliable, high-quality service than one that was founded last week and doesn’t have any reviews.
Their Selection of Brands
Does the impact window installation company near you have a selection of different brands and styles for you to choose from to best fit your home, or does it only carry a single line of windows from a single manufacturer?
Some companies have extremely restrictive options because they’re just franchisees of larger national brands, limited to a single line of window products with almost no freedom or flexibility to get you anything else.
This is not ideal since that removes their ability to provide you with the best windows and doors for your needs. Also, it gives them very little negotiating power with the manufacturer, so they can’t argue for better deals on your windows, meaning you pay more for windows that might not even be the best fit for your needs.
So, when looking for ‘impact window installation near me,” you should definitely check to see how many lines and brands of windows the installer offers. If they’re stuck with just one product line from one brand… you don’t want to get stuck with that installer!
How Strong Their Warranty Is
Even the best window installation company might encounter a problem with their windows once in a while. Maybe an installer accidentally drops a tool or makes a slight mistake on , or there’s an issue at the manufacturing plant that doesn’t get caught until the window’s already up in your home.
The question is this: What happens when there’s a problem with your window installation?
That’s where the window installer’s warranty comes into play. You should always check the company’s warranty policy to see how long it lasts and what it covers.
A company that’s confident in the quality of their windows and the installation work they do will tend to have a stronger warranty. This is because they know that they’ll rarely have to go back out to fix any issues since they do high-quality work in the first place.
On the other hand, a company with a weaker, shorter-term warranty that has a million and one exceptions might not be the best choice. This is especially true if their warranty doesn’t cover the cost of parts or labor (in which case, is it even really a warranty?). If the company messes up the installation, the last thing they should do is bill you to fix a problem they caused!
Be sure to look for window installation companies near your home that have strong warranties that last 25+ years and don’t make you pay out-of-pocket to correct installation mistakes and poor-quality materials in your windows.
Why Choose Karoly Windows for Impact Window Installation in Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco County?
Karoly Windows began in 2001 with Karoly Szekeres, the company’s founder. He started as a subcontractor for other businesses in the area, where he constantly ran into the same problem over and over: The companies he was working with wanted to do window installation work as cheap and fast as possible, but he wanted to do right by the homeowners he was servicing.
So, he got out of the subcontracting game and started his own business: Karoly Windows. His mission was to do things “The Karoly Way.” He would partner with the best window manufacturers in Florida, use 100% in-house labor for every installation project, and strive to ensure that every customer got the best windows and doors for their needs with the best installation quality.
A quarter of a century later, and the business Karoly started still stands as a testament that doing things the right way, without cutting corners or leaving customers in the lurch, is the best way to build a positive reputation and maintain strong relationships with the communities you serve.
We’ve earned hundreds of 5-star reviews over the years, installed over 120,000 windows since 2001, and have partnerships with two of the best window manufacturers in Florida so we can source the best custom impact windows for every job.
If you’re looking for top-quality impact window installation near you in Hillsborough, Pinellas, or Pasco County, reach out to Karoly Windows and request a quote for window installation! We’ll send an expert out to your home to go over your window needs with you, assess the conditions at your home, then provide you the most accurate and reliable quote for service possible!
