REMEMBER WHEN YOU THINK GREEN... YOU SAVE GREEN

By placing an emphasis on recycling and $aving you money, Beacon Windows specializes in helping people salvage rather than replace their sliding glass doors.  Below are some tips you can use to help maintain your doors.  

 “Pregnant Door Syndrome”- Common in door panels enduring a lot of sand, salt, wind, dirt, pet hair and water and particularly prevalent in the NON-operating door panel(s), where the wind drives the salt and other debris into the door, settling around the wheel systems. As this corrosive salt encrusted material hardens and builds up, pressure exerts both inside and outside along the bottom rail. This VERY UNHEALTHY scenario for the door system eventually not only pushes apart the bottom rail, but the corrosion can actually eat away at the aluminum causing it to burst forth like a bad case of door acne. 

For a video showing this in action see: http://youtu.be/M1z3sJOvVzI

Is it fixable? Yes, sometimes.  However repairs must be made in a relatively short period of time to keep the corrosion from continuing to eat away at the aluminum. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” definitely applies here.

TIP: Regularly clean out your door tracks to avoid the corrosion build up. Use a wire brush and give the tracks a good scrubbing, vacuuming out any debris. Follow up with a degreaser, cleaning and thoroughly drying the tracks.  Using the wire brush remove the doors and scrub underneath in the wheel areas. Not sure how to do this or should your issues be more advanced, feel free to call connect with Beacon Windows @ 727-641-8106 or visit www.SliderRepair.com

BEACON WINDOWS is the Window & Door Dealers Alliance's (WDDA) SpotLight Member of the Month for March 2012

What an honor to be chosen as the 3^rd  WDDA Member of the Year!  Relatively new to the industry, Beacon Windows started in the midst of one of the most challenging economies many of us have experienced in our lifetime.  As a new business I was thrilled to find out about the WDDA.

To me, the WDDA represented solidarity of purpose, a voice in a crowd that could speak for us as dealers. 

Thank you WDDA for being there for all of us and I look forward to growing with your membership!

Owner Lizette LaForge

Beacon Windows History: My history in the window industry began 8 years ago as a sales rep for others.  5 years ago I became sales rep/project manager for another company and singlehandedly completed over 1.5 million in sales/project management within an 18 month period of time. Armed with that experience, I took my own license and in 2009 Beacon Windows was born!

Things were a little challenging at first, but throughout the learning curve of putting together a business from scratch came some amazing life lessons.  Here’s one idea I’d like to share with other window and door dealers. Consider doing some repair work alongside your installation work.  We live in a beach community area with a LOT of high rise condos and hotels. Because of this, we have a lot of older sliding glass doors that have aggressive corrosion issues.  Due to the economy, most people are not seriously considering replacing with high impact sliders.

One day one of my commercial door buddies suggested to me that we consider repairing sliding glass doors.  I thought he was crazy until he told me how much he made in a morning all by himself.  So, with a little effort we learned the repair business.  We launched this division just over a year ago.  You could say “Business is on a ROLL!”  No matter what troubles our clients might have, we get them “back on track” and we certainly can “get a handle on it!”

The funny thing was that using the same diligence and excellence in our slider repair business that we require in the window and door installation side has had an unexpected blessing.  We have been covered up with calls for window installation.  We aren’t even advertising for this, but the word of mouth has been tremendous.  They meet us for the slider repair, learn about our window side, and the calls just come in.  Because we have established ourselves with excellence on the initial call, we have a very high probability of being the ONLY one they ask for a quote.

Another great way to establish a strong connection with the clients is to become a center of influence for them.  Personally, I LOVE connecting people to their dream referrals.  Active in several networking groups locally, I make it a point to mention this to each and every client we have.  We help them find solutions to other things they need and we do this selflessly.  This creates a sense of loyalty with our clients and many of them become friends that we keep in touch with for years.  In addition, if they have a business, I try to connect them to ways that will make them money.  One of my favorite games to play is to see if I can “make” them more money through connections I assist them with than it cost for our services.

As you can see, connecting is in my blood.  With that have come some absolutely amazing stories from clients I have met.  One just recently involved a slider repair client that has a fantastic building system.  You may be familiar with SIPs systems, but this particular company makes one that is not only highly insulated, light weight, easy to install, fire and mildew resistant, but also HURRICANE and Earthquake resistant. This was pretty awesome news for a Florida gal who needs an impact product to sell.  This one has Miami/Dade certification. What a find! All because of a little fishing on the initial call to see what connections he needed.  I have already connected him to some great developers and builders and look forward to connecting him to many others.  Keep in mind that many of these connections become additional sources of income for our company.

So let me ask YOU… what is your dream referral and how can I help YOU find it?  Let me know what you need and you never know… I might just bring it on.  I am connected to many businesses throughout the US and also have one tremendous connection that does international sourcing.  Close your eyes, turn around 3 times and point, and I can get that item made for you in volume.  If you can get me a sample, I can get you a quote.

To me, the WDDA represents a group with a common interest that seeks to help one another.  It’s up to us to pool our resources to the greater good of our industry. If there is ever anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to call me directly at 727-641-8106, visit us online at www.SliderRepair.com or www.Beacon-Windows.com, as it would be my pleasure to assist you!

A Preview of Next Month’s Article in Paradise News: Business is on a ROLL!

When we last caught up with Lizette LaForge and her crew from Beacon Windows, they were just finishing up on repairing 112 sliding glass doors at the Alden Beach Resort. We felt that their dedication to helping people salvage their sliders in this economy was uncommon. We thought we would check back with Lizette and some of her clients over the past year and see just how successful their repair work has been.

Alden Maintenance Manager Olaf Coletti continues to have great success with his door repairs. He stated, “Our doors have given us ZERO complaints in the past year versus 400+ the year before. This has been a huge savings for us in terms of manpower hours. Lizette and her crew did exceptional work and she regularly checks in on me to see if all is well as well as brings me names of other quality referral partners we might use in the future. We are thrilled to have her as one of our valued vendor partners in keeping our resort in tip-top shape.”

The Dolphin Beach Resort owner Mr. Nizar Lakhani heard about the success at the Alden and called Beacon Windows for some of his more problematic doors. He noted, “We were impressed with the depth of effort Beacon Windows went through to salvage some of our doors. Due to high winds, excessive salt and sand, we had several doors that were experiencing tremendous corrosion issues. Lizette’s crews came in and just cleaned up everything, replaced components in the door systems with stainless and left our place spotless. Timely, professional and courteous, we found them to be a joy to work with. Overall, due to their ability to fix these difficult and challenging doors, we were able to save $32,000 over the cost of replacement. I can’t recommend them enough. If you have doors that are experiencing trouble… give Beacon Windows a call.”

In addition to exceptional repair work, Beacon Windows also specializes in quality window and door installations. Most recently, they just completed work at the Twins Apartments on Treasure Island. Owner Sylvia Stratos saw our article last year and called them when she was ready for replacement of some of her windows. She observed, “Beacon Windows thoroughly exceeded my expectations. They went beyond the line of duty, arriving on time, communicating well with all of my tenants, and providing an excellent window installation. Not only did they clean the windows, but also they re-installed and thoroughly cleaned the blinds and vacuumed the floor and baseboards! I have never seen one of my vendors work that hard before in all my years of owning Twins Apartments. They were truly a pleasure to work with!”

As a service dedicated to excellence ourselves, we were thrilled to be able to highlight to our Paradise NEWS readers a quality, local, family owned business they could depend upon to solve some of the beaches most common problems… doors facing sand, salt, and corrosion. We have had Beacon Windows work on our doors at our home and we were similarly “WOWed” by their expertise and hard work in getting it just perfect. So if you have a stubborn sliding glass door, need to look at replacing any windows and doors or are in need of storm protection for your home or your condominium complex, do yourself a favor and give Lizette LaForge a call directly at 727-641-8106 or email her at Lizette@Beacon-Windows.com.

Thanks for stopping by and reading a preview of next month’s article that will be published in Paradise News. In the meantime, we will look forward to having you back here at http://sliderrepair.blogspot.com in the days, weeks, and months ahead, as we continue to provide honest advice and opinions on some of the things that are not easily understood when it comes to sliding glass door repair and service.

THINK GREEN- THINK CLEAN for your sliding glass doors that is!

 

Ever find yourself struggling like the lady in the picture? Think green by seeing if you can salvage your doors, and save yourself a lot of green in the process! Here are a couple of tips you can use to help yourself get a handle on the problem. First you need to determine if you actually have a problem. Here’s a simple test you can perform yourself to see if your door is in need of assistance.

Problem # 1 “Crack Attack”. Open your door just a little bit, so you can see a crack to the outside. Now look very carefully at this crack. Is it even from top to bottom? The one pictured in the example has a larger crack at the top than the bottom. This indicates that either the wheels are broken, or possibly if new, are out of alignment. Different wheels align using various methods, but it is important that they do line up. This is in part because the operating door forms a seal against the non-operating or additional operating panel(s). A door out of alignment will leak in a lot more hot air during the summer, or cold air in the winter.

If the reason it is out of alignment is a broken wheel, then it would be prudent to replace those wheels as soon as possible. Broken wheels can wreak havoc with not only the operation of the door, but also can gouge up and destroy the track that the wheels roll on. Although there are a few solutions available to assist with damaged tracks, it’s always better to fix the problem before it gets to that advanced state. We recommend using higher quality stainless steel rollers which have sealed bearings.

This will add years of life to your door and will NOT need to be greased or lubricated. Stay away from the oil based lubricants like WD-40, which are fine for a lot of things but should never be used on your door. If you must lubricate, use a dry lube like a Teflon spray.
 
Problem # 2 “Pregnant Door Syndrome”. This problem typically occurs along the shoreline where the door gets a lot of sand, salt, water and wind. Over years, and especially in the NON-operating door portions (Surprise! Non-operating or seldom used doors usually have wheels in them too even though you aren’t typically opening them). The wind drives in the salt and other debris into the door, settling in the wheel systems. As this builds up, the salt and debris begin to press along the bottom rail, both inside and outside (as pictured in our example). This is a VERY UNHEALTHY scenario for the door system as eventually this corrosion will not only push apart the bottom rail, but it can actually eat away at the aluminum causing it to burst forth like a bad case of door acne. Once this happens, the door’s life is dramatically impacted. Repairs must be made in a relatively short period of time to keep the corrosion from continuing to eat away at the aluminum. Is it fixable… yes, sometimes. But it’s always better to avoid the problem with proper maintenance before the corrosion sets in.

TIP: Regularly clean out your door tracks to avoid the corrosion building up in the first place. Use a wire brush and give the tracks a good scrubbing, vacuuming out any debris. You might want to use a de-greaser after that and really get those tracks clean and dry. If you are lubricating them, use a dry lube along the tracks and run the wheels over it a few times after you have completed the process. Do this quarterly throughout the year and you should have many years of trouble-free service from your sliding glass doors. Should your issues be more advanced or you prefer not to fix it yourself, feel free to call at 727-641-8106 or visit Lizette  online for a consultation on the problem.