Greetings,
My house is 17 years old and has wood windows. Plenty of leakage and condensation on windows. I've been vinyl researching windows for quite some time now. I checked out Anderson, Craftsman, Pella in home centers. Also had salespoeple installing Bristal and Schuco come over and give their sales presentations.

After taking everything into account. I'd like to buy and isntall replacement windows myself. I'm still not sure which windows to go with. My criteria is excellent insulation and long life. Price can be high but it has to be something I can install myself. Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Gravity

 

Don't like that installation charge huh. Yea me either. That coupled with the markup=bf$$$$$$$. out of those 3 =Pella. Can you buy them if you are not an authorized installer, and if you install them yourself does it void the warranty I see those craftsman ones and am not impressed. Anderson is good too but not like Pella. Who gives me the best legitimate warranty is important and may be most important especially on the glass seal. This is one of the easiest projects you can do, just measure correctly . Make sure you fill out the order with the length and width in the correct column. Have someone check it. Make sure doing it yourself does not void any warranty's. This is just my opinion and I don't do this for a living but I have done some including capping the outside. My first job was in a relatives house done more than 25 yr ago. Went smoothe even with absolutely no experience putting in replacements

 

Thanks for reply Joneq.

More thoughts on the same. Anything custom-made will be costlier than a mass-manufactured item. It's as basic a law in manufacturing as supply-n-demand in economics. My windows are all standard sizes. Therefore, I feel it's not economical to have the windows custom made. Of course, I don't like to pay for something that I can do myself.

I still want to use the best replacement windows I can. And the best ones I have found so far -which are directly sold to consumors- are Anderson. Is there anything better out there?!!

Thanks,
Gravity

 

Marvin is also readily available and as far as I know pretty good. Maybe better. I don't know. With anything I buy I usually go with a reputable company that will stand by their product.Especially the glass seal in this case. You may want to look into getting a window that is low profile Or something like that. More glass and looks less like a replacement. You may also look into just replacing the sashes. More expensive but easier to do I think and they work the same as replacements as far a s cleaning goes. I am really not the expert aound here on windows but Marvin or Anderson both seem like good choices. Since you have the money to spend you may as well get all the extras like low E and argon filled and whatever else is available. You also want to ask about condensation on the inside glass. Like what do I do if I get it?