PROJECT POST
September 14, 2026
Pawn1st, the pawn shop at 203 N Litchfield Road in Goodyear, came to us through our website with a glare problem, and it was not a subtle one. The glass is large, it faces north, and the light coming through it was tremendous. The request that came with it was just as specific as the complaint: cut the glare, and do it with zero reflection.
The answer was a Limo 5% film across the glass, specified for this building and this exposure in particular.
Glare is a separate problem from heat, and it gets treated as if it were the same thing far too often. Heat you feel. Glare you fight. It washes out screens, bleaches merchandise displays, forces people to angle away from the window, and makes a bright room genuinely hard to work in.
North-facing glass is an interesting case. It never takes direct sun the way an east or west wall does, so it rarely gets flagged as a heat problem. What it does deliver is steady, bright, diffuse daylight across the entire working day. There is no morning peak and no afternoon relief. The glare is simply there, all day, every day, and on a large north elevation there is a lot of glass delivering it.
The West Valley gets an enormous amount of daylight. Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Avondale, Buckeye and the surrounding communities sit under open sky with very little in the way of tall buildings or mature tree canopy to break it up. A large glass elevation in that environment is collecting light from horizon to horizon.
On a retail floor like a pawn shop, where most of the merchandise sits under glass, that shows up in the details that cost you: display cases you cannot see into cleanly, customers squinting, jewelry and electronics that do not present the way they should, and staff working with their backs turned to the window. It is the same set of issues we go through in our article on storefront and office window film in Arizona. Glare is a comfort problem and a presentation problem at the same time.
The obvious tool for a severe glare problem is a reflective film. It works, and it works well. It also puts a mirrored surface on your storefront, and this customer had ruled that out from the start. Zero reflection was a requirement, not a preference. If a mirrored look is what you are after, that is a different product and we cover it on our mirror window tint page.
So Tom specified Limo 5% instead. A 5% film is about as dark as window film gets, and it deals with glare on sheer light reduction rather than by bouncing light back off the glass. No mirror, no reflection, just far less light coming through.
The important part of that recommendation is the qualifier attached to it. Limo 5% was the right call here because the glass faces north. On any other exposure on this building, Tom would not have recommended it. That is an exposure-specific decision, not a default, and it is the kind of call that separates a film that performs from a film that causes problems later. If you want the reasoning behind it, ask for Tom when you call. It is a short conversation and a useful one.
Pawn1st went with the recommendation.
Damon and Tom handled this one together, and the glass is the reason it took two installers. These are very large panes. Film on a pane that size has to be handled as a single piece, kept clean and square while it is moved into position, and set without creasing or trapping anything underneath. Two sets of hands is not a luxury on glass at this scale, it is the only way to get a clean result.
The glare is handled. The glass reads dark and even rather than mirrored, which is what Pawn1st asked for, and the sales floor is usable through the whole of the working day instead of only part of it.
If you have a commercial space anywhere in the West Valley or the wider Phoenix metro where glare is the actual complaint, it is worth having the exposure looked at before anyone quotes you a film. Our full range of window film options covers glare, heat, UV and privacy, and our commercial window tinting page runs through what that looks like for a business.
If heat, glare, UV exposure, privacy or excessive sunlight is making your Phoenix-area home or commercial property less comfortable, AZ Max Tint can help you find the right window film for your space.
Call AZ Max Tint: (480) 913-5889
Contact AZ Max Tint: https://azmaxtint.com/contact
For directions to AZ Max Tint, just click here.
Driving directions from Litchfield Road in Goodyear to AZ Max Tint at 3734 E Kristal Way, Phoenix, AZ 85050.
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