CGI Construction in Felton, CA

CGI Construction in Felton, CA | San Bruno Construction

We’re an independent CGI window and door service provider working across Felton, and the short answer is this: we diagnose, repair, and replace CGI aluminum-clad wood and vinyl units, we use OEM parts when they match the unit, and we always work with Felton’s WUI and hillside drainage realities in mind. Call (866) 472-1908 for a free estimate.

We’re not authorized or affiliated with CGI, and we’ll never claim otherwise. What we are is a full-scope general contractor that has pulled apart enough CGI units on mountain parcels to know which failures are worth fixing and which mean a full replacement is the smarter spend. Felton’s mix of redwood-era cabins, 1970s ranch homes, and newer hillside builds means we see the same CGI product lines installed into wildly different structures, and the local conditions here are harder on a window or door than almost anywhere else in the Bay Area.

Why Felton Residents Choose Us for CGI Service

Most window contractors in the Santa Cruz Mountains work on whatever brand shows up. We work on CGI units constantly because they’re common on the hillside and forested lots that define Felton, and because their aluminum-clad wood design creates a specific set of failure patterns that flatland installers never see.

Noel Carvalho, our owner, grew up off El Camino Real in San Bruno and trained in construction technology at Skyline College, where he learned to read plans and think through load paths before a tool comes out of the truck. That matters when you’re resetting a rough opening on a 1960s Felton cabin that was framed by an owner-builder with a Skilsaw and a level that had seen better days. We coordinate every trade under one contract, so you’re not chasing a window guy, a stucco guy, and a roofer across three weeks of phone tag.

Good construction doesn’t announce itself. It just works, year after year. That’s the standard we bring to every CGI repair and replacement in Felton.

Common CGI Construction Problems We Solve in Felton

Here’s what actually goes wrong with CGI windows and doors on Felton properties, and why the local terrain and weather make each failure worse than it would be in, say, Scotts Valley or San Bruno.

• Clad-to-wood seal failure on south and west elevations. Felton gets real sun exposure on those elevations, and the thermal cycle cooks the seal between the aluminum cladding and the wood frame. When that seal breaks down, wind-driven winter rain wicks behind the cladding, the sash swells, and the operator jams. This is the most common CGI problem we see on Felton homes with direct afternoon sun exposure.
• Out-of-square rough openings in older cabins. The 1940s and 1950s redwood-era cabins around Felton were often framed by their first owners, not a crew that cared about tolerances. When a CGI slider goes into an opening that’s a half-inch out of square, the panel drops, the rollers wear flat, and the sill leaks during the atmospheric-river storms we get every winter. We reset the opening before installing a new unit, otherwise you’re just repeating the same failure.
• Fogged dual-pane glass on 1990s and 2000s CGI windows. Seal failure shows up as haze between panes, and it almost always appears first on the weather side of the house, which in Felton means the side that catches the winter storm track off the Pacific. The insulating value is gone, and the only real fix is replacing the glass or the sash.
• Screen and roller fatigue on patio doors with heavy deck traffic. Hillside homes in Felton live on their decks. The CGI slider between the house and the deck gets opened and closed dozens of times a day during the dry season, and the rollers, screens, and hardware wear accordingly. It’s not a manufacturing defect. It’s just accumulated use on a door that was never designed for that much cycling.
• Stile rot at low-drainage thresholds. When a CGI patio door sits in a threshold that doesn’t drain properly, water pools against the wood stile and the rot starts from the bottom up. We see this on Felton parcels where the deck was built flush with the door opening and the original installer skipped the pan flashing. The fix requires pulling the door, repairing the rough opening, and reinstalling with proper drainage.

CGI Service in Felton: What Local Conditions Mean for Your Equipment

Felton sits in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and after the CZU Lightning Complex fire, rebuilding here runs through Cal Fire WUI plan reviews. That’s the one fact that changes everything about CGI work in this town. Window and door assemblies get scrutinized during plan review in a way they never would on a flatlands remodel. The reviewer wants to see multi-pane tempered glazing, ember-resistant venting, and rated assemblies that line up on paper before the permit moves, and if your window schedule doesn’t match the WUI requirements, the project stalls. We’ve matched replacement glazing to county-approved WUI assemblies on more Felton projects than we can count, because that’s what gets the inspection cleared on the first walk. A contractor who doesn’t know the fire-safe detailing will cost you weeks of delay and a second plan review. On a redwood-shaded parcel off Felton Empire Road, our crew pulled a pair of fogged CGI wood-clad sliders that had been leaking at the sill for years, reset the rough openings that had been framed slightly out of square, and installed new clad units with proper flashing and pan drainage. The new glazing matched the WUI assembly the county reviewer wanted, so the inspection passed without a punch list.

CGI Models & Products We Service in Felton

We service the full CGI lineup most common on Felton homes: aluminum-clad wood sliding patio doors, SentinEl vinyl double-hung and casement windows, wood-clad picture and awning windows, and sliding glass door units with integral screens. For parts, we use CGI OEM glass, sash, roller, and weatherstrip components when they’re available and match the unit, and we turn to quality aftermarket hardware for older or discontinued CGI lines. If the frame and cladding are still sound, we replace glass and hardware. If the cladding seal or the framing itself is failing, we’ll tell you plainly that a full replacement is the better spend. We don’t upsell replacement when repair will hold, and we don’t patch something that’s already gone.

CGI Service Pricing in Felton

FAQs – CGI Construction in Felton

Can you replace fogged glass in my CGI windows without replacing the whole unit?

Yes, if the frame and cladding are still structurally sound, we can replace just the insulating glass unit or the entire sash, and we use CGI OEM glass when it matches the unit. If the cladding seal has already failed, replacing the glass alone won’t fix the root cause. Call (866) 472-1908 and we’ll tell you which one applies to your windows.

Will new windows help my Felton project pass the Cal Fire WUI review?

They can, if the glazing and assemblies are matched to what the county reviewer wants to see. Multi-pane tempered glazing and ember-resistant detailing have to line up on the window schedule before the permit moves, and we handle that documentation for you. Call (866) 472-1908 to confirm your project’s WUI requirements.

My CGI sliding patio door drags and the screen keeps jumping the track. Repair or replace?

If the rough opening is square and the frame isn’t compromised, we can replace the rollers, realign the panel, and fix the screen track for a fraction of replacement cost. If the opening was framed out of square, as often happens in older Felton cabins, resetting it is the prerequisite for any lasting fix. We’ll assess it honestly.

Do CGI vinyl windows hold up on a Felton hillside with heavy winter rain?

CGI vinyl units handle rain well when they’re installed with proper flashing and pan drainage. Most failures we see are installation-driven, not product-driven, which is why we reset the rough opening and detail the flashing rather than just swapping the window into the same leaky hole.

How long does a CGI window replacement take on a typical Felton cabin?

For a straight replacement where the rough opening is sound, we’re typically done in one to two days including interior trim. If we’re reframing an out-of-square opening or addressing rot around the rough framing, add a few days. After we’ve seen the openings, we’ll give you a realistic schedule. Call (866) 472-1908 for a free estimate.

Service Areas Near Felton

We serve Felton and the surrounding mountain and valley communities, including Mount Hermon, Scotts Valley, Ben Lomond, and Boulder Creek. If you’re outside Felton proper, our Felton service area page covers the ZIP codes and neighborhoods we work in. For neighbors just up the road, see our CGI service in Mount Hermon page, and for the valley side, our CGI service in Scotts Valley page. And if you want to understand the full scope of our CGI work, start with CGI sales & service.

Book Your CGI Service in Felton Today

If your CGI windows are fogged, your patio door drags, or you’re planning a rebuild that needs to pass the Cal Fire review, call us at (866) 472-1908. Estimates are free, and we’ll give you a straight answer about what needs fixing and what’s better off replaced.

Written by Noel Carvalho, Owner at San Bruno Construction, serving Felton and the Santa Cruz Mountains since 2006.