Good Day To All
I am beginning a rentovation project on a 100 year old farmhouse that will be getting a complete make-over and have some questions concerning replacement windows. In trying to keep the historical appearance of the house I want a wood interior window. I am still up in the air on whether the windows should be wood clad vinyl or wood clad alumimin? The brands I have looked at are Loewen, Anderson and two lines that Jeld-Wen sell, Norco and Caradco. I know I will be in the 200 to 500.00 price per opening given the size I have. I will be adding an addition to the house and buying 11 additional acres wihin the next 5+ years and do not want to have a window problem that might slow these plans and with a tight budget for this project I only should spend around 6,000.00 for the windows. Can anyone tell me what brand and type would be the best bang for my buck?
Replies
I am not a big fan of vinyl clad wood for the reason of expansion and contraction. Vinyl moves through the hot and cold seasons differently then the wood portion of the window, so the vinyl corners are only over-lapped to allow for this movement. Aluminum also moves through the seasons but it moves almost the same as the wood so the aluminum joints are seamed and sealed a bit better. Also vinyl only really comes in white (any colour added to vinyl usually fades a lot over time). Most window companies will offer at least three colours of aluminum and some manufacturers offer a lot more. The next question to answer is if you were wanting the look of divided lites. Most vinyl windows just have the grill pattern in the middle of the thermal unit where as some aluminum clad windows offer an exterior divided lite which would look more authentic to the century home. For window companies to choose from, I have seen 30 year old Anderson wood windows still look and operate like new, Pella is a lot better window now if you can look past the cost, Hurd windows compete closley with Pella but have Heat Mirror glass options. If this is for your own house that your planning to stay at for a while, just remember with windows, a dollar saved today is going to be two dollars spent tomorrow. You get what you pay for!