Replacement Windows

For our (former) house, the windows were repainted after 7 years. No reglazing was necessary. One window did stick, and the counterweight cables had been replaced in all windows at some undefined point in the past. We opened them when we needed the windows opened, they had storms put on in the fall and taken off in the spring. No sweating noticable.

Um, yes, wood windows are more work than buying vinyl windows every 5 years or so -- but by the same token, washing my clothes is more work than just buying new ones every day.

And with vinyl, you get that weird white trim, which shouts 'bland!' (How can people stand to have their interior window trim not match their interior baseboard/chair rail trim? Just too strange...)

Caledonia

Reply to
Caledonia
Loading thread data ...

I've had vinyl windows and 2 sliding doors (EPI) for 15 years, including one big 10'x5' Zero problems and no maintainence, other than cleaning. They look and work as good as the day we got them.

Reply to
ToMh

It would be interesting to know, which brands need replaced every 5 yrs or so.

As a former contractor, now retired, I put thousands of windows in, wood & vinyl. I only used two vinyl manufacturers, one I mentioned in an earlier post. The two I used, guaranteed all the vinyl sashes/frames etc for life. It wasn't empty guaranties, because customers contacted me, even after 25 years. I seen the manufacturers take care of the guaranties.

Of course not all manufacturers use virgin vinyl, or stand behind their guaranties.

To make a blanket statement about having to replace vinyl windows every 5 years or so, is simply not true.

Absolutely not true. Vinyl windows, just like any other window, can be trimmed out according to taste and budget.

Reply to
Moisés Nacio

(snip)

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you but I have learned a LOT about windows in the past couple months as I go through the process of figuring out the best way to do my window replacement.

We had a guy from Pella come out to my house and give us a quote of basically $865 per window installed for a bunch of double-hung wood replacement windows (using the existing trim) all of custom sizes. I thought that was high, asked about it here and was told it was actually pretty reasonable for a custom wood window of Pella quality. (And they are quality windows.) And that's with Pella-spec'd and supervised installation.

I'm now in the process of also pricing Andersen and some other vinyl manufacturers, along with Marvin for wood. I'm not finding a huge difference in price and I don't really want vinyl. Andersen is about $750 per hole for vinyl in the sizes I need. I'm not sure about Marvin yet but hoping I can use their tilt-pac system and maybe save at least a little cash on wood.

The size you need makes a HUGE difference. You can get standard sized replacement windows for a couple hundred bucks and install them yourself fairly easily (depending on what kind of original windows you have). But if you've got an older home with odd sized windows (as I do) that all need to be custom-made these days, then you're going to pay a big premium. This is what I've unfortunately learned. You were quoted more than $1,000 per window - that sounds pretty high, but then you do have a couple of pretty big windows and I don't know if your other six are standard or not. You might want to look around manufacturer web sites and see if anybody offers those sizes as a standard window. Also, I can't remember if you said these are full windows or replacements.

As for the vinyl vs. wood argument - in my house we have about 20

80-year-old wood counterweight windows and 2 newer vinyl windows (kitchen and bathroom). The kitchen casement Andersen window looks ok and feels like decent quality, but the Andersen double-hung in the bathroom just looks and feels like cheap plastic. Even the kitchen window is just lacking that warm "imperfectness" of natural wood, though. It's a personal preference thing. For me, I'm not so concerned with whether a window's gonna last me 25 years or a lifetime

- I'm probably going to sell my house in 7-10 years anyway. But I want something that looks good, feels nice to the touch and fits the rest of my house. That means wood for all the public areas, barring a major, major price difference between wood and vinyl. I do still plan to probably just go with cheap vinyl for the attic and basement once we get around to doing those. (I actually love our old counterweight windows, but a few of them are just completely shot to hell and there are some rooms where I've gotta match bay windows and things like that.)

Most of my neighbors have both vinyl windows and vinyl siding and they look like houses you might buy as a blue-light special at K-Mart.

Reply to
basscadet75

I have nine Marvin aluminum exterior clad wood Marvin tilt pack double hung replacement windows now, the oldest put in about ten years ago, no problems.

Banty

Reply to
Banty

My neighbor replaced her 4 Newpro windows for leaking after ~4 years. Other contractors have mentioned that those (Newpro) aren't so great.

That's true -- it's highly unlikely that all vinyl windows would need replacement within a decade. Some most likely will, some likely won't.

Wow -- I have learned something new today. I've only seen vinyl windows with white muntins, and had believed that it wasn't possible to get the black (or dark green clad) vinyl windows due to heat issues. (Most windows in my area are the divided light (12 over 12) style -- typically painted black or dark green on the house's exterior, and painted to match the room trim on the interior.) Out of curiosity, who makes vinyl windows clad in 'historic' dark colors for the exterior, with paintable interiors?

Caledonia

Reply to
Caledonia

My neighbor replaced her 4 Newpro windows for leaking after ~4 years. Other contractors have mentioned that those (Newpro) aren't so great.

That's true -- it's highly unlikely that all vinyl windows would need replacement within a decade. Some most likely will, some likely won't.

Wow -- I have learned something new today. I've only seen vinyl windows with white muntins, and had believed that it wasn't possible to get the black (or dark green clad) vinyl windows due to heat issues. (Most windows in my area are the divided light (12 over 12) style -- typically painted black or dark green on the house's exterior, and painted to match the room trim on the interior.) Out of curiosity, who makes vinyl windows clad in 'historic' dark colors for the exterior, with paintable interiors?

Caledonia

Reply to
KTECH

Not sure, but I had woodgrain interior treatment to my vinyl windows, and trimmed it with red oak, stained with... oh, some standard minwax stain color. Unless you got your eyeball right up to the window and felt it, you'd never know the interior wasn't wood.

I personally like white as a trim color on the outside to provide contrast to the house's siding or brick color and didn't investigate different outdoor finish colors, but indoor wise, the wood grains on the "oak" finished Alside vinyl windows looked very nice.

-- Todd H.

formatting link

Reply to
Todd H.

my vinyl windows are 12 or 13 years old, I have replaced 3 sealed units

2 of which take heavy abuse of 4 dogs jumping against. spent about 100 bucks on the sealed units, the manufacturer reynolds got out of window business and the local dealer wouldnt return my calls. lifetime warrantys dont necessarily last forever.

my windows havent had any troubles other than a couple minor adjkustments, they have metal interior reinforcements.

Reply to
hallerb

Never heard of them. You've pointed out the exact reason, to stick with a well known brand.

When you deal with a reputable window manufacture, you can get windows configured just about anyway you can dream up. The mutins are between the panes. You can order vinyl in shades of brown, green, white, with the interior done in different shades of laminate.

As far as a paintable vinyl, paint manufacturers such as S/W & B/M, both produce paint with properties which will adhere to just about any surface imaginable, with proper prep and primer. Which is the same way you would paint wood windows.

Out of curiosity, who makes wood windows clad in 'historic' dark colors?

You seem to be heading way off topic, towards historic restoration, of which I didn't get a hint of, until now.

Reply to
Moisés Nacio

Marvin.

formatting link
Banty

Reply to
Banty

I don't know of any wood windows that arrive pre-painted in dark colors. But hey, isn't that the hassle/benefit factor of wood windows which we were discussing?

I'm not so much into historic restoration (although I am embittered to be living in a house built within the last 50 years) -- but interested in 'fitting in' to the neighborhood look, as everything here is old or pretending to look that way. (We are, alas, in the second category...)

Caledonia

Reply to
Caledonia

"Caledonia" wrote

I was being sarcastic to your remark of "Out of curiosity, who makes vinyl windows clad in 'historic' dark colors for the exterior, with paintable interiors?"

Myself, I don't care for painted trim work, or windows. That's what makes the world go around, everyone is different, and everyone decorates their own home, to their own taste. As I said in my original reply about taste & budget.

Reply to
Moisés Nacio

Oh, geez, I wish I hadn't seen that.

Time to run the ROI calcs again...

Caledonia

Reply to
Caledonia

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.