Tint By Masters Gulf Coast Can Keep Your Home Safe & Sun-Free!

In the early hours of Friday morning, Feb. 23, someone in a hazmat suit tried vigorously to break through the glass at the New Tampa Mosque on Morris Bridge Rd. to get inside and set the place on fire.

The arsonist was foiled. The window wouldn’t break.

When Ryan King heard the news that the windows could not be breached, he was thrilled.

“Those were our windows,’’ he says. “They said it was shatter-proof glass on the news (on TV), but it wasn’t. It was our window film.”

King, who owns Tint by Masters Gulf Coast, has been servicing windows for 16 years, including hundreds of homes in New Tampa.

Not everyone requires the kind of security the mosque did, but that is just one application of the window film that Tint by Masters Gulf Coast provides.

More popular uses in residential areas, especially in bigger homes with big windows, are for decoration, heat control, UV protection and privacy. King also does decorative work, like specific designs or frosted glass for residential and commercial buildings.

King has been at his current location in the Nancy Plaza on Westshore Blvd. in South Tampa for six years, and before that he had locations in St. Petersburg and Orlando.

He says he was finishing his degree in 3D Animation from Seminole State College in Orlando when he started in the business, because it allowed him the flexibility he needed to fit in his coursework.

After doing a few internships, King says he decided to go into window film full-time, starting his company in 2002.

“It was good to me,’’ King says, “and I was good at it.”

As anyone who has tried to apply their own window film can attest, being good at it is no easy task and requires surgeon-like precision. Getting a film on your cell phone without any bubbles or lines can be tough enough, but large windows on the front or back of a home can be painstaking.

King, who carries a $2-million insurance policy on jobs, said that if the window tinting is properly installed, you won’t even know it’s there.

Cooling Off

Car owners have been tinting their automobile’s windows for decades, both for the privacy and to protect the interior of their vehicles from the sun’s harsh rays.

Homeowners are following suit, for most of the same reasons.

With temperatures rising, and along with it the costs of keeping your home at a comfortable temperature, it is becoming imperative, especially in homes facing the sun, to invest in some form of sun protection.

While curtains, drapes and blinds are the most popular choices, King says window film is actually a better option.

“We can stop as much as 75 percent of the heat coming into somebody’s house,’’ says King, one of 50 or so authorized 3M Window Film dealers in the state. “We can stop 99.9 percent of the UV (ultra violet) rays coming through (the windows) as well.”

Many people buy their homes because of the view large the windows afford them. King says the proper window film allows them to take advantage of big windows by not having to cover them up.

Melissa Fernandez Bunch lives in a 112-year-old home in South Tampa. With single-pane glass windows with no window coverings at all, “we were having trouble keeping the house cool.”

Her air conditioning repairman suggested window film, and to make his point, he used a device that took the temperature of the wall in their back room that faced the sun. It was 15 degrees warmer than the other walls in the room.

“He suggested solar film,’’  Bunch says. “Honestly, we were not sure it would make a huge difference, but we were willing to give it a shot. And it made  tremendous difference. There is definitely a noticeable temperature change, for sure.”

King says there are numerous options for your window film, and it can be as dark as you want it, or as light, with the same reflective properties. Many window films can keep the sun out or reduce its glare without distorting your view of things on the other side of the window.

“Ours is 100-percent unnoticeable from the exterior,” Bunch says. “And they did such a good job applying it you can’t even see at the edge where it stops.”

Bunch wanted to keep her view through her windows open and clear, though others use curtains — namely the so-called “blackout” curtains in severe cases — which can do a good job of keeping the light out of a room.

The heat, however, is another issue.

“You take in the same amount of heat behind a blackout curtain,’’ King says. “You get the same heat load behind the curtain, it’s still piling in, still seeping out the tops and the sides and bottom. It’s just not hitting you all at once.”

King says the cost savings on one’s electric bill can be significant. He says some customers have been 5-7 degrees cooler after window film, and that typical payback on what you spent to have any window film products installed is 3-5 years. During the colder months, the window film also can help keep the heat in.

Depending on the size and number of windows you need protected, coverage can cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

A more comfortable temperature is just one reason people decide to use window films. Another is preventing sun damage, to your floors and furniture, and to yourself.

“I just did a house last week where the person who moved had two huge oriental rugs, and when they moved out and the next guy moved in, you could see big huge rectangles where the rugs were,’’ King said. “They didn’t face south, west or east, it was just north and it was just the sun bouncing off the water (and causing the fading on the floors). If you’re going to put in $10,000 worth of wood floors, you want to keep that floor from fading.”

Most people don’t even realize these effects are even happening, King says. Same goes for the sun hitting the back of your neck when sitting on the couch. In fact, it’s those people who King says become his customers.

“With the sun hitting you it’s like being at the beach,’’ King says. “You put sunscreen on when you’re sitting outside at the beach, but just because you’re cool (inside) doesn’t mean its not happening.”

Safety is another benefit of window film, although much of that business is commercial. King has done some community clubhouses in New Tampa with the same protective window film he installed at the New Tampa Mosque in December.

When the friend he worked on the mosque project with texted him that morning, King got a rare glimpse into the success of the film.

“It’s rare that it’s tested in that situation,’’ King says. “I’ve seen it work before, but you have to wonder how crazy somebody is to sit there and beat on it for hours on end. A typical criminal is going to be, ‘It didn’t break, it didn’t fall out, I’m moving on.”

King has a done a number of big and small jobs, including some he can’t even talk about.

He has done a number of downtown buildings, repaired and tinted windows in the traffic controller tower at Tampa International Airport, and recently completed a project putting in “one-way” mirror film at a rehabilitation resort.

Tint by Masters Gulf Coast (3648 S. Westshore Blvd.) serves customers across Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties and is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5p.m. For more info, call (813) 571-5750 or see the ad on page 34.