Replacement windows...wood or vinyl ?

[busy mom]

We are replacing all of our windows, and looking for recommendations on wood vs. vinyl.

Opinions and suggestions welcome!!!

 

[jensen]

I'm no expert, but we did some vinyl windows in our bedroom in our old house. They were probably middle of the road quality. Not the cheapest, but not the most expensive. We hated them! Always so cold! Then we put wood Pella's in our kid's rooms. They were awesome!

 

[davper]

There is a big difference between Pella and middle of the road. Bad installation could also affect comfort. It is not always the window.

I buy Anderson vinyl clad. Wood showing on the interior and Vinyl on the exterior.

 

[kymom99]

I would not use wood on the exterior. I have a window with rotting wood as we speak.

 

[kid-at-heart]

I would not use vinyl. Bad for the environment and does not "age" gracefully. Natural products look great as they age, man-made products such as vinyl turn a yellowish color and become brittle. It is worth the extra expense for wood to have a longer lasting product that does not damage the environment. If the wood is treated properly and the windows are installed properly, they will not rot.

 

[kirstenb1]

We have some of both. Our house was originally built with wood windows. Stupid move on my part, because the builder said he could put in vinyl for a little more. Our addition has vinyl, and I love them. We've had them 10 yrs, no discoloration whatsover. We live in Virginia, so lots of sun and humidity. The wood on the outside of the kids' dormer windows upstairs is rotting because it has less of an overhang than the rest of the house. Also, with a west-facing exposure, it tends to get lots of rain and wind beating on it.

 

[JenzyHP]

My parents despise their wood windows. They are about 25 years old and they are constantly fighting rot. They wish for my vinyl windows.

 

[3boymthr]

I have wood windows and very little rot and most of my windows are 50 yrs old. I also have one newer wood window (18 yrs - we took out a door) and also has no rot. I think it's all in how you take care of them. My windows are painted on both sides and the older windows have storm windows. The newer window is double pane with a screen. We are also looking at replacement windows - not because the windows are rotting but because some of them have broken glass (we were told $250/pane to replace) and they are single pane and most of them have to propped up with sticks to stay open (the weight or whatever it's called in the side is broken off) and the storm windows need to be replaced on all of them. The cost of repairing the windows plus new storm windows plus the heat loss (even with storm windows) equals out the cost of replacement windows (Plus I have some windows really odd sizes and finding curtains, etc is totally annoying). Still haven't made a decision of wood vs. vinyl but will probably go higher end vinyl or wood. We had recently considered moving and did a lot of home tours. I noticed that the homes with the lower end white vinyl windows had a lot of yellowing of the vinyl. A friend recently did red vinyl (they blend beautifully with her trim). Not sure how the red will hold up.

 

[xlxo]

Thoughts...

• love the winter heat retention of my new windows.
• love the sound reduction... neighbors can mow the lawn all day and I don't need to turn up the TV volume as much. Might want to consider triple or quad pane for additional sound reduction if you live near an airport or have a noisy road outside
• consider adding a thermal tint or LowE for South facing windows to keep out the summer heat
• hate the ugly flanges on a heritage home. Some replacement windows have colour flanges to minimize the impact.
• hate the mess when they need to cut into the window. Cover everything in your rooms, it's like giving a sack of flour to a preschooler as they spin around the room with it.
• my installer noticed we lacked a dehumidstat bathroom fan. Great addition, especially in winter to vent humidity or odours.

 

[tnklvr]

There is a big difference between Pella and middle of the road. Bad installation could also affect comfort. It is not always the window.

I buy Anderson vinyl clad. Wood showing on the interior and Vinyl on the exterior.

 

[tnklvr]

I bought Pella vinyl windows and they are no better than the one my husband put in himself that we bought at Menards. The saddest thing is that our big living room picture window that Pella installed has leaked since it was put in. We made them come out and redo it 5 times and every time they blamed it on something else. First it was the roof till we told them it was brand new installed 6 months ago. Then it was bent siding that we fixed and it still leaked. Then it was the holes in the siding that lets out water are clogged so we cleaned those out. The window still leaks and they told us too bad so sad. I wish we had kept the old window in there that didn't leak. I just don't think Pella windows are as good as they once were and their service is not good at all. I did not notice a difference in noise reduction or heat and cold getting in like we were told we would see.

 

[yeahdisney]

We just replaced our this week. Went from Hurd vinyl wrap to anderson vinyl wrapped. We are removing the sliding and bricking the house so decided to do the windows at the same time. We knew under each window the wood was bad so we went with all new windows. Cost us more for new windows , saved on labor to replace.
Some of our windows were leaking (which we were not Aware) behind the seal into the house we were fortunate that we replaced the entire window, the contractor said we would not of known and in years to come had a horrible problem.
And like xixo wrote it is like flour everywhere, I swept, vacuumed everyday after they left. Our house is a open floor plan. And they also replaced the French doors with a slider and replaced the front door. The original Builder did not leave any room for shims, he just put them in without adjusting, for years our French doors were a witch to open. The new contractor had to cut the drywall to have them fit properly more flour type dust.
Our old Hurd windows were 21 years old and moisture was between the window panes.

 

[manning]

Heard Marvin's are pretty good.