Your Old Windows
It’s likely you are replacing wood-frame or aluminum-clad windows when you step up to superior Windura windows. Those materials were the best in their day, but today, your home can be greatly improved with 21st-century materials that provide ease of use, great energy efficiency, and lasting beauty.
Your old windows probably stick, are drafty or are hard to clean. Perhaps you have endlessly scraped and painted the old wooden frames. Maybe you noticed your aluminum windows were chilly to the touch indoors on a cold Kansas City day.
By choosing either fiberglass or vinyl replacement windows, you can say goodbye to all those concerns. With either choice — fiberglass or vinyl — you get an energy-efficient, easy-operating window that requires almost no maintenance.
Fiberglass Replacement Windows
Think of fiberglass as a sort of super-wood. Fiberglass is dimensionally stable (wood is not), so your replacement windows will not stick, bind or pinch. Fiberglass can be painted or stained but requires no constant maintenance. Wood can crack, peel or warp; fiberglass cannot.
Add to all that the great energy efficiency of fiberglass windows, and you have a nearly perfect material for replacing all your home’s old wooden or aluminum windows. Of the two choices (vinyl or fiberglass), fiberglass is a more upscale look. That also means, however, that it will cost more per window than vinyl.
If you are replacing windows on all four sides of your home, fiberglass is a great choice. The north side is typically colder; the southern exposure is typically hotter. Yet all your fiberglass windows will be unaffected by ultraviolet rays, infrared radiation, wind, heat and water. Fiberglass, unlike wood, is impervious to water.
All modern replacement windows offer the same convenience features:
- Tilt-in sashes for easy cleaning
- Tight, built-in locks
- Effortless opening and closing
- Choices in energy-efficient double- or triple-pane low-e glass
Fiberglass is far stronger than vinyl or wood; if you need strength and long life, and have a generous budget, fiberglass is the better choice.
Vinyl Windows
Once upon a time, vinyl windows had a terrible reputation. They were the cheap alternative to aluminum replacement windows, and they were often made with inferior materials. Today’s virgin vinyl windows use polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the same tough stuff used in plastic pipes and patio furniture. By using virgin vinyl, our manufacturing partners ensure economical windows that stay clean, hold their shape and insulate naturally.
If you need to replace a lot of windows, vinyl is less expensive than fiberglass. The color you select (from a more limited palette than fiberglass) goes all the way through each frame and window, so the occasional scratch is invisible.
You still get all the carefree operability of fiberglass, such as tilt windows for easy exterior cleaning, but the cost per window will be lower.
How to Choose?
Remember that your home need not be all one thing or another. For grand entrances, the living room and that breathtaking view out the master bedroom, consider the sophisticated look and high quality of fiberglass. For the upstairs bathroom window, or the children’s bedrooms, vinyl may be a perfect and economical choice. Also, a particular window shape — half-round, ellipse, eyebrow — may only be available in one material or another.
To learn all about your modern replacement window options, contact us today. We would be happy to help you select the right replacement windows for your home and budget.
