All Products Are Only As Good As The Installation They Receive

When it comes to home improvement projects for Quad City area homeowners, the most important choice you can make is also the most overlooked. Whether you go for the top-of-the-line product or seek to keep your expenses as low as possible, your product is only as good as the installation it receives.

Installation methods can make or break a project. Sloppy installation can take decades off the life expectancy of your home renovation and even cause new problems that affect previously untouched areas of your home.

Even worse, most shoddy installation practices are covered up by the installed product, so a visual inspection of the finished project won’t detect any problems. That’s why we make sure that our installation crews follow manufacturer guidelines and recommendations to the letter.

The Importance Of Manufacturer Guidelines

Nobody has a more thorough understanding of the capabilities of a product like replacement windows or home siding than the folks who design and build them. Each manufacturer puts their product through intense testing that replicates decades of normal wear and tear.

They then take the results of these multiple tests and use them to produce their installation recommendations. These recommendations often differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, so it’s important to follow the step-by-step instructions for each product.

These recommendations can even get down to the details of which type of nail to use and how many to use per section of material. This level of detail is necessary because each product has specific loads and stresses that it can or can’t handle, and the number of nails is determined based on those results.

If an installer shorts each piece of material by one or two nails, that product will fail years before it should.

There are also guidelines about supporting materials such as underlayment and trim that are essential to the product’s ability to outlast its warranty period.

Zero Shortcuts

At Mainstream Home Improvement, we never allow our installers to skip a step or stray from the recommended materials. If the recommendations say six nails per sheet, then six nails it is.

This is especially important in roofing because our replacement roofs are about more than just the shingles. Roofs are a complicated system of many parts, with each supporting the next in creating a watertight barrier on the top of your home.

Many Quad City area installers will mix manufacturers in their roofing systems to save on cost. The problem is that each manufacturer designs their roofing systems to interlock perfectly, so their version of each component is slightly different from the same component by a different company.

The result of such decisions is a Frankenstein roof cobbled together from various sources that won’t come close to the decades of life you should expect from a new roof. The same is true of any exterior product you care to name.

From replacement windows to entry doors to siding and roofing, making the right choices during installation is paramount. That’s why we will always use the materials recommended by the manufacturer down to the proper staples or nails.

Superior Results Allow Superior Warranties

Our dedication to sweating the small stuff gives our customers superior results that will far exceed the lifetime of any warranties. That’s why we feel comfortable offering Lifetime Warranties on our replacement windows and roof systems.

We know that every project we install has been put in place with an obsessive dedication to details that make up a quality installation, so guaranteeing our work is no risk at all.

When researching your next home project, ensure that the home contractor you choose has a robust warranty system. Their faith in their installers will be reflected in the warranty they offer.

If the warranty period is relatively short and the contract is filled with loopholes and depreciating coverage, you can be certain that they have little to no faith in the quality of their work.

If you have a renovation project in mind for your Quad City area home, contact us at Mainstream Home Improvement for a free estimate.