I am about to make a huge investment in windows for an addition to our house (61 windows total, 6 exterior french doors). We are considering Weathershield, Marvin and Jeld-Wen. The costs are staggering to begin with, and now we struggle with whether to save money by installing windows with wood exterior, or with biting the bullet and going for aluminum clad.
I don’t want to be 80 and painting divided lite windows for the 5th or 6th time! But can’t quite get past the extra cost up front. Payback for clad is years out. But we plan on staying.
Advice?
Replies
Every time I take a client to see windows in the window "showroom", the more educated ones turn up their noses at the clads. Marvins are the clear favorite, by far.
But the clad advantage is actually financial as well. Rightn now, add in the amount to paint those suckers, and multiple coats if you're going with a dark color. Not a small number!
Still, the clads look less...ummm....correct.
JMHO, of course!
Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
If you're puting on an addition with 61 windows, you can afford the price of the clad windows if that's what you want. Newer paints hold up better too. Some object to the look of aluminum and refer the more authentic look of wood. I'd use the Marvins.
i just went through this same thing- was looking at jen weld and anderson, i ended up purchasing the anderson clad/wood inside.they are really nice windows,andersons clad is vinyl not metal. when i priced the 2 brands the anderson was about 5% higher.i had read a lot about windows on this site and the vote was overwhelming anderson. good luck and buy some lottery tickets to help pay for them!!!larry
Any opinions on the American Craftsman window? I like the words "lifetime warranty" if the company will be there. I keep reading about "good" windows that have seal failures at 10 years plus 10 minutes, and all the energy savings are gone replacing the thermo glass.
Currently, my Caradco windows are beginning to fog, at $105 per panel for the replacement glass.
Rest of house has replacement windows by Softlite, with lifetime warranty that transfers to next owner. Have any of you had any experience with them? PaulEnergy Consultant and author of Practical Energy Cost Reduction for the Home
I'm interested in the opinions on new windows since I need to replace mine as well.
However, I'm even more curious to see a picture of this addition. SIXTY-ONE WINDOWS! WOW. I wondering if you finally ran out of lumber or if you just hit the edge of the lot line.
Paul
Just finished painting 131 Marvin tilt paks and 12 of thier ultra doors (8')for a house we are doing on Nantucket Island.Thier product is the one of the best I do ,but there is an extreme amount of work painting this amount of glass ,even as bench work in a shop(as I did) . Having said all that I can tell you the builder of this (Very large) house used alum. clads on his own home and I have never seen better.No work , no fuss, no prob..And no painting. If that doesn't get you thinking then my paint bill would $14,000. That said I have Anderson's and love em so go figure.
spiff... Nantucket huh?..
my millwork salesman has the Islands for Horner Millwork... Jim St. Laurent..nice guy ..
have you ever seen Horner's Nantucket series? they build the frames and casing out of cedar and use a Kolb&Kolbe clad sash..
they used to use a Hurd sash, but changed when they dropped Hurd for Kolb&Kolbe
do you live on Nantucket or are you one of the fly-ins ?
my painters convinced me a long time ago about the expense of painting sash..
not to mention reglazing the real authentic sash.....
. i like my painters , but why would a homeowner want to deal with a painting crew working their way around the house every year.. " well , this year we'll get all of the north sash.. then next year , the west sash.... yada, yada, yada
some of these mansions require full time maintenance.. anything the designer and builder can do to reduce that is money well spent...Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
runner... lemme give u the benefit of my 30 years of fixing and building houses..
buy clad windows !
here's one example..
our current project .. adding a bath and bedroom.. the owner also wanted all of the exterior trim painted .. lots of exterior trim..
the house is only 8 years old.. big house.. some of the trim is in great shape, that's the GP PrimeTrim.. some is really bad... primed finger joint...
i never looked at the windows i mean .. the house is an upscale 7 year-old house..
my painter wanted $7,000 to scrate , prime and paint all of the trim..
when i talked about our final price, the owner wanted to know if the painting included the windows.. boy , was my face red.. i just ASSUMED any good builder would include clad windows.. well they aren't .. and the painting will increase by $10,000 ...
when i started building , the standard was single-glazed windows with snap-in muntins and triple track aluminum storm windows..
this builder ( who has gone bankrupt twice) used true divided single-glazed lights (brosco) with aluminum triple track storm windows..... why?... to save money... not for the owner.. for himself... one paint job will double the additional cost of using clad windows..
and your windows will have to be painted every 6- 8 years just to keep them from falling apart..
our house is approaching 20 years old.. Andersen Narrowline.. the exterior trim has been painted twice... the exterior of the windows has never been painted..
same with all of our customers since the early '80's
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
WOW! I get the message. Amazing how passionate people are about this subject. We will find a way to do clad, even if it means defering completion of some other portion of the project.
Thanks all for your feedback! Now we just have to decide which manufacturer.
What's your vote (remember budget is not limitless!) Marvin?, Weathershield?, Jeld-Wen (Summit, Norco, Pozzi), Andersen? (don't like vinyl). Other? Have to balance value with workmanship.
Windows will be mostly casements (some simulated divided lite), some with transoms above.
Andersen is my number one....
Marvin would be my number two..
you couldn't pay me enough to deal with Weathershield again
in terms of value for performance... Andersen head and shoulders..
deal with a millwork house ...or a "preferred dealer".. do not deal with Home Depot Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Andersen windows are about as good as they come, but the sash are not vinyl clad.
I haven't dealt with any Andersons, so I'll refrain from comment on them.
I like the construction quality of the Marvins, but more than that, I like the overall design of the line. So many of the manufacturers stuff just doesn't look quite right when used next to each other. Transoms don't line up correctly with the french doors below and that sort of thing. Marvin seems better in that respect.
I'm probably weird, but I think windows are a very important part in the design of a house, and so many houses I see look downright goofy with the odd collection of windows that don't belong together. Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
I just made the same "big" investment......for Marvin windows and a whole buncha Marvin doors.
Weather Shield is total crap. Even the distributors say so..they say the service is horrible as well.
I looked at them and they look like junk to me.
Personally I needed wood exteriors to blend in with my circa:1680 house and there weren't tons of options.
I've recently installed four Marvins for customers and they are an incredible window.
Very substantial and well thought out..although when putting the trim on one dbl hung I screwed up the mechanism in one of the jamb springs.
Too bad they don't have a red warning lable on them like Anderson does. Oh well.
Have fun and
BE well
andy
My life is my practice!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM