Sierra Window Tinting Blog

Head to the back of Somersett and you’ll find yourself in beautiful Sierra Canyon by Dell Webb. With predominantly southwest exposures that face the magnificent Sierra Nevada Mountains, Sierra Canyon homeowners have some of the best views in Reno. But man they pay for it in heat and glare problems! During the fall the sun travels lower on the horizon making these southern exposures extremely uncomfortable. We rarely hear from Dell Webb home owners in the summer when the sun tracks over the tops of homes but come late September and the phone rings off the hook! Why have we been recommended by homeowner after homeowner in Sierra Canyon? In order to reduce the unwanted heat and glare and remain in compliance with the CC&R’s that restrict reflective coatings on windows, you need to use a very special window film with low reflectivity and high heat rejection. Sierra Window Tinting is the exclusive supplier of patented Hüper Optik Nano-Ceramic Window Films. These NFRC Certified films have been installed on over 30 homes in Dell Webb reducing up to 70% of the unwanted heat gain and over 99% of the harmful UV rays without changing the architectural appearance of the community, and most importantly, without ruining the pristine views of the mountains.

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Oh come on! We did the job before they opened for business. Another Summit Sierra icon store uses Sierra Window Tinting to install our hyper clear storefront window films that reject up too 99.9% of the sun’s damaging UV rays. Brands like Victoria Secret® have stringent requirements for maximum visibility so in order to protect the merchandise, it takes a very special film that can reject large amounts of heat as well as UV radiation. Sun damage results from heat, visible light, and UV radiation. Of course, one does not want to overly reduce the visible light transmittance on a storefront window because it would make it hard to see the merchandising behind the glass. So the trick to reducing sun damage is to use spectrally select window films that allow high visibility but at the same time reject over 50% of the heat and 99.9% of the UV rays. Our decades of experience with window films in high altitudes has taught us that you need a very specific visible light transmittance of 60% and below, too light and you risk continued damage. Call us and see for yourself, we can install a sample of window film on your storefront. Sierra Window Tinting carries the finest spectrally select films by Hüper Optik and Vista back by the best warranties in the business.

Poor quality window films can turn purple ruining the look of your home and lowering the property values in your neighborhood.

Oh man, this one just breaks our hearts. We have tinted a lot of homes up in Belserra but every once in a while we’ll lose a bid to our competition. Try as we may to educate consumers about “good window tint deals” sometimes consumers are lured by a seemingly low price from the local hack competing company. And here is the result… a million dollar home + bargain window tint= a sad result for the consumer and a black eye for the window film industry. Let’s break down what happened here and hopefully we can provide some useful information about window film that will help to prevent prevent this type of situation from marring our local neighborhoods.

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I never really gave it much though until one summer when we were getting an extra ordinary amount of calls from retail stores like this one. Yankee Candle is located in the Summit Sierra Mall (Sierra Window Tinting has tinted just about everything [except the Apple Store >:-( ] in Summit Sierra) and they sell, hey wadda ya know, they sell candles!

The problem they were having was their inventory (that would be candles) were melting on the shelves! You’d think the simple solution to this would be to “crank up” the A/C and cool the ambient temperature down but things are a little more complex than that.

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Have we been by to give you a bid and you just can’t decide whether or not window film would worth the investment? Or maybe you had one of our local competitors come out and their price was lower but you’d rather have us do the work at their price?

Window film is an excellent investment. For one thing, it is cost far less to upgrade the performance of your windows with window film than it would to replace your windows with high performance glass. Most films will bring your poor performing glass up to par with a high performance window. A clear single pane window only rejects 15% of the sun’s heat and we can apply a film that will increase that performance to 70%. That is over a 300% increase in heat rejection! You will not only reduce the cooling load but also the amount of money that is spent on cooling. In addition to these benefits are the protective aspects of window film. Most of our films reject 99.9% of the damaging UV rays that are a major contributor to fading and sun damage. A faded piece of furniture like a couch for instance, can cost more than your entire window film job. So which would you rather spend your money on? The UV rejecting capability of window film will also protect your skin from dangerous overexposure to “ultra violet A” radiation which has been found to cause more damage than UVB because it can penetrate deeper into your skin causing DNA damage that can result in skin cancer.

So maybe you are convinced that window film is a good investment and you would like to move forward and get the job done buuuuuut… you had another company come out and er, um well… they offered to apply film to your windows for a lower price. As much as you really like us and want to hire us for your project, the lower price is tempting you to go the other company. Hey, we completely understand how you feel. As consumers ourselves, we want a good deal when we are making a purchasing decision as well. Although we would like to be the absolute lowest price every time, we just can’t go down that road of selling poorly constructed low-priced films. Most good deals in window film come down to two things, a low priced poorly constructed film, and or rushed installation that oftentimes is sub standard.

We refuse to cut corners on installation just to save a buck.

You could be buying the greatest film in the world but if it is installed poorly, then you have what we affectionately refer too as “a hack job.” Due to the prevalence of sub standard work started a “hack alert” section to our blog to keep you up too date on local jobs gone bad. When companies sell films at incredibly low margins, they usually have to push their installers to do more work in a day to stay in business. This is when corners get cut, things that shouldn’t be rushed are and then quality is sacrificed. A good friend of ours always says that “the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.“We think that there is a lot of truth to this statement.

At Sierra Window Tinting our commitment is to quality first even if we have to charge more at times and lose a job here and there. We’ve chosen our path based on over two decades of working with just about every brand window film on the market. Our products are all high quality, we do not sell cheap poorly constructed films like some of our lower priced competitors. We do not feel comfortable selling you something that we know will ultimately give you problems down the road. Our films are tested for durability, they are certified by the NFRC (a nationally recognized 3rd party ratings agency for windows) for performance validity, our warranties will match your existing window warranty and replacement coverage is up too $2,000.00 per pane of glass. You will not find these added benefits with the seemingly “good deal” film companies. Add to this our installation guarantee and last but not least… compare the look of our films side by side on the glass next to our competitors products and you will see the superior optics, dye-free (no red, blue, or purple hues), non-reflective look of our films.

We call what we bring to the table… a good value. Its what we feel most people are looking for  in the long run. Give it some thought, and if you have any questions by all means give us a call. No pressure, no hassle, just facts so that you can make a good buying decision. Sierra Window Tinting is your window film resource.

One of the larger buildings in downtown Reno is the large black Wells Fargo Building (Formerly FIB) next to the Cal Neva. It has a massive South exposure and the original glass only rejected 15% of the sun’s solar energy. That translated to massive cooling demands placed on the building’s mechanical equipment and ultimately, high energy bills. Sierra Window Tinting was called in over 12 years ago to do an energy audit an come up with a “return on investment” (ROI) for the building management group that was operating this property at the time.

We always aim on the conservative side and in this case “conservatively” it was a two year ROI that we calculated. The client hired us and we go to work right away. The project went fairly slow due to scheduling and access issues with the building tenants. Sierra Window Tinting has developed a system of scheduling that allows most tenants to go about their day to day operations without interruption. Well, to our surprise the building owners were actually saving enough money in electrical costs each month to pay for and entire floor’s worth of window tinting. If memory serves me correctly, that building is 17 stories tall, so instead of a 24 month ROI, they actually realized a 17 month ROI!

A odd thing happened on the very last day that we were finishing this project. We actually installed this building from the top floor down and we were working on the last office in the mezzanine level when the bank in the lower lobby was held up. The bank robber placed a bag on the teller’s counter and said there was a bomb inside and demanded money. He subsequently left with an undisclosed amount of cash but he didn’t take his bomb with him. So the entire building had to be evacuated which was quite an event. Of course we had to leave all of our equipment and could not get back into the building until a day later. No one was hurt, no explosions, and I think they eventually caught the robber… it’s just one of many of the odd experiences we have had in over two decades of tinting everything from bank buildings to cruise ships. All in a day’s work!

Sierra Window Tinting has installed window film on most of downtown Reno’s high rise buildings. We are the largest window tinting company in Northern Nevada and we specialize in building information modeling so that you can determine your savings before any window film is ever installed on your building. We strongly feel that accurate and relevant data up front allows you to make the best purchasing decisions possible. Call us to learn how we can assist in providing a US Department of Energy recognized building model for your property.

Yes, you guessed it! Sierra Window tinting was chosen to tint windows over at the Reno Aces baseball stadium. We used one of our Hüper Optik Smart Films to reduce heat and glare. Stadium management saw the value that we bring to the table with our professionalism, timely service, and the best 15 year commercial warranty in Northern Nevada. As local Aces fans we enjoy the ballpark tremendously and are very pleased that we could use our talents to make the Aces Ballpark a more comfortable place.

If you would like to see what Sierra Window Tinting can do for your home or business, give a call for a free consultation. No pressure, no hassle, just a great company offering great products and services.

Beautiful Sparks Marina with its panoramic Sierra views has homes that take advantage of the location by incorporating plenty of windows into their architecture. Lots of windows and almost no trees translates to heat gain and sun damage problems. This homeowner knew the sun’s potential and took immediate action to protect their interior floors by having Sierra Window Tinting install Llumar window film that blocks 99.9% of the damaging UV rays. Sun damage is something that we cannot ignore up here at 4,500 feet above sea level. At this altitude the atmosphere is much thinner and the ultra violet radiation from our sun is much more intense than it is at sea level.

But rejecting 99.9% of the UV rays alone is not enough. Heat and visible light are also responsible for sun damage so you need to filter out as much of these components as possible. The problem is that we do not want to filter out too much of the visible light with a dark film because that would take away from the natural lighting benefits that windows provide. So it is key to use films that reject high amounts of heat while at the same time allowing high amounts of visible light to transmit into the home.

This calls for a very special type of window film called “spectrally select” window film. These films have high “light to solar heat gain ratios” (LSG) which basically means that they are able to filter large amounts of solar energy while at the same time allowing plenty of light to transmit. This is the key to reducing sun damage at high altitude without making your home’s interior dark.

Spectrally Select films reject high amounts of heat and damaging UV rays while letting in plenty of sunlight so your rooms stay naturally illuminated. The advanced smart-coatings in our films are non-reflective preserving your views and the architectural design of your home.

Another benefit of high LSG films is that they incorporate advanced component stacking of metals and ceramics that yields a non-reflective film. Many homeowner’s associations and planned communities have CC&R’s that restrict the use of “reflective coatings” on your windows. In addition to this, reflective films take away from the architectural value of residential properties and can ruin your views. Our competition likes to sell old technology reflective films because they are usually cheaper to buy. Don’t let a low price fool you though, check the “visible light reflectance” (VLR) of the film that you are considering, it should be 15% or lower on both the interior and exterior sides of the film if you want a non-reflective look. If the VLR is higher than 15%, you will end up with some pretty reflective looking glass. If you are having some concerns, then it is time to call us and we’ll be happy to show you our select of high LSG spectrally select smart window films. All of these films come with a residential lifetime warranty that matches your existing window warranty with glass coverage up too $2,000.00 per pane replacement coverage standard at no additional cost to you.

The economic downturn over the past 2 years or so has really taken its toll on our local economy. Our hearts go out to those that have had their livelihoods turned upside down. On a bright note we have seen some positive changes and hope to see continued improvement from here on out. To that end, Sierra Window Tinting is working to keep money here in Reno and Sparks. Our Western Regional Hüper Optik window film supplier is located right here in the Truckee Meadows and on top of the product quality and excellent customer service that we receive from them, we also see the value of supporting them as a local business because it keeps people employed locally and in turn the money they make usually will circulate back through local business here in Reno and Sparks.

We hope that you will consider our local economy when it comes to deciding which window film company you will be doing business with. Sierra Window Tinting is the largest window film company in Northern Nevada. Between us and our parent company, we employ about 20 people that all live here locally with their families. We are grateful to all who have chosen to do business with us. There are many compelling reasons that we can point too that set us apart as the best choice for your window film needs. However, in light of the economic downturn here in Reno and Sparks, we feel that supporting our locally owned businesses is probably the single most important reason to do business with us.

In behalf of all of our employees and their families we would like to thank you for supporting our local economy!

Fig: 1.1 Not all window films are created equal. Many films contain unstable dyes that will fade to purple as seen here.

Buyer beware a good deal or a flashy warranty does not guarantee that you are getting what you think you are getting. We align ourselves with the highest quality products that we can get our hands on, and trust us, with over 20 years in this business we have had the opportunity to test just about every window film out there.

What we have found are window films that have very attractive pricing or even well-known brand names, that in time, degrade with exposure to the sun. One example happen years ago on Sixth Street in what used to be the Holiday Inn. A bid request was issued to do the entire building and as expected, companies came from all over to try and get the job including us. Well, we lost the bid to a 3M dealer who went awfully low on his bid to get the job. It turned out that his price was so low that he actually had to walk off the job before it was even half finished! We received a call from the building engineer asking if we could come finish the job but the problem was they wanted to pay us the same price that this company was charging. “If those guys couldn’t afford to do it at that price, how could we?” I said. So we lost the job… again.

Here’s what it turned out to look like several years later (See Fig:1.1). Obviously, the film looked much different when it was installed. You aren’t the only one that was surprised, the building management was so surprised and upset that they fired the building engineer in charge of hiring the contractor. We tried to warn them clear back during the bidding that a cheaper price does not guarantee a quality product but sadly no one would listen. The building has since been re-tinted but it is a fitting reminder that consumers need to research thoroughly and not make their purchasing decisions solely on price.

Sierra Window Tinting goes to great lengths to make sure that what we sell is the best quality. One of the things that we do is make sure that our suppliers do accelerate testing of their products. Our Hüper Optik distributor just published an article on how their window films are tested in environmental chambers designed to simulate decades of exposure. It might be a little technical but to summarize, the article shows how poorly constructed window films actually lose their ability to perform over time. It is not too different from what is happening in the illustration in Fig:1.1 Basically, cheap films will lose their ability to filter out UV, visible light, and infrared radiation. All of these three things contribute to heat gain. So if a film begins to get lighter or allow more light to transmit through your window, then you are going to get an increase in heat coming through your window. The same holds true with the infrared (IR), if the material that filters infrared energy starts to fail, you will see an increase in heat.

None of this is good news and you certainly wouldn’t want to find this out after you have purchased a film that you thought was good deal or a film that had a recognizable name brand. This is why we go to such great lengths to make sure we are carrying the best performing films money can buy. They may in some cases be more expensive, but in the long run it is well worth it. So before you purchase window film, ask questions, you can even use our handy chart with tips on how to buy window film.

If you ever have a question about window film and how one film compare to another, contact us and we’ll be happy to act as a resource in this regard so that you can make an educated buying decision.