A window that is off by a quarter of an inch does not tell you on install day.

It tells you three winters later when water is leaking in.

In this episode of Behind The Build, I'm in Monroe, Georgia with Tucker Door & Trim, a two-step distributor that manufactures windows and doors inside a 290,000 square foot facility. 

Chris Kotlowski walks us through the entire process of how windows are made at Tucker, from cutting the glass to staging for delivery. Chris shows us the differences in manufacturing processes between their vinyl, PVC, and wood windows. You’ll also see the Billco, GED, and Greller machines that automate tedious tasks and speed up window production.

We start by following one custom trapezoid window from the Tucker facility to Reeves Building Supply in Clayton, and on to a job site in Cleveland, Georgia, where Wilkinson Construction Management installs it. 

What's inside:

✅ Why there is no standard size to pull off a shelf, and why every Tucker window is built custom per order

✅ Inside the green room: glass washed through three tanks, dried with an air knife, and sealed with Duraseal 

✅ How the Billco Glass Cutter yields the most pieces out of a single sheet of glass

✅ Why curved radius glass will not always be run through the machine and still gets cut freehand by a person

✅ Argon versus air between two panes, and what a heavier gas actually buys the homeowner

✅ Wood sash assembly by hand: the rubber boot seal, pre-drilling, tilt pins, and weather stripping

✅ PVC parts getting milled on the shapers and getting assembled into a sash before the glass ever drops in

✅ The automatic glazer that meters silicone so there is no squeeze out

✅ Vinyl sash welding and the corner cleaner that takes the slag off the weld with GED and Greller machines

✅ LeeAnn Gilbert on running the Tucker 3300 line and seeing a product go start to finish

✅ Barry Williams on designing every window Tucker builds: "it's kinda like my kids out there"

✅ Why a mistake on a one-of-a-kind order is a remake, not a swap out, and remakes take weeks

Featuring:
Chris Kotlowski, Window Production Manager, Tucker Door & Trim
Barry Williams, Window Division Manager, Tucker Door & Trim
LeeAnn Gilbert, Team Lead, 3300 Line, Tucker Door & Trim
Reeves Building Supply, Clayton, Georgia
Wilkinson Construction Management, Cleveland, Georgia

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