The goal for Heirloom WIndows has been to provide all the benefits found in a contemporary window while maintaining a historic appearance. One of the benefits found in most new windows is a maintenance free exterior surface. There are a number of ways to achieve maintenance free, but few that can be made to look indistinguishable from an original solid wood sash frame. The main challenges are a) making water tight joints b) recreating a glazing system that resembles the glazing putty found in traditional sash and c) ensuring the "joinery lines" are identical to traditional sash. It is because these three criteria are never met in typical clad sash that many historic entities disallow property owners to install replacement sash that are clad.
Needless to say, Heirloom Windows took all these criteria into consideration when designing the their product line. The entire exterior face of every Heirloom Magnum, Ultima or Classic window is covered with a full 1/4" of "Tricoya" material. This relatively new material has taken the architectural world by storm! Because it is absolutely maintenance free, won't rot, fade, chip or crack like other materials, architects are specifying Tricoya for all sorts of exterior trim and casing applications. The material is cut to the exact dimensions as the other wooden sash parts and then a bevel is milled into the interior perimeter. This bevel so closely resembles a glazing rebate filled with glazing putty that it's impossible to tell it's not actual glazing putty. Furthermore, after milling the Tricoya parts to match the wooden elements, the Tricoya then just naturally follows original joinery lines, again making it indistinguishable from a totally wooden sash.
The cladding is adhered to the glass with lifetime warranty sealant being applied to left. Each joint is also back-filled with lifetime warranty sealant prior to assembly (right).These two steps assure moisture is kept from the glass/Accoya/Tricoya interface thus providing lifetime service.
