I just heard while atHome depotthat you can call an 800 number and have Simonton come out and do all the measurement and give a quote for their windows. Does anyone know what the affiliation is between the two?

 

We had Home Depot come out last week. Yes, their "installation division" is selling Simonton windows. The windows are decent (wasn't too crazy about the sill), but the problem is that Home Depot installs them. And, if you know anything about Home Depot installation it isn't the greatest, mostly because they use subcontractors.

We looked at the 6100 (I believe) and the 6500 series. The 6500 was the better choice.

You might want to look into Preservation windows. We just met with them tonight after talking to Pella, Simonton (Home Depot), Champion, Gilkey and two lower models of Alside (Excaliber and Sheffield).

The Preservation are by far the best we've seen.

 

Never heard of preservation but will look at them now. I had HD install my daughters windows a few years ago and the sub contractor didn't know what windows went on what side of the house. What a mess.Will never use them again. I just wanted to see what they had to offer. Thanks for the input.

 

Actually Preservation is a private label alside window, same product just different name on the locks :P. Most companies use subs, I'm not sure thats a bad thing. In my experience window subs do just and only that..install windows so they are pretty good at it. The guy with employees is generally doing more kinds of work, his guys may or may not be good window installers.

The quality of the work depends more on the companies standards than wether they use subs or not. I think if you stick to the middle size companies you will get the best job. The guys running 10 crews..its just luck, you may get a great one or you may get the crap one lol. The small companies may do a great job but then again they may just get thru it and be gone in a year.

I doubt simonton has any involvement with the job either, aside from home depot ordering the windows from them. Prolly just a lil misleading info at the store.

 

Preservation windows are indeed Alside - they are their highest end windows - and like I mentioned, they are by far the best we've come across. If you read this forum, you'll noticed that I am extremely picky (probably too picky).

Here's their statistics, if you are interested!

Preservation Climatech 10 window statistics (triple pane, krypton gas):

R-Value = 10.00

U-Value = .10

Visible Transmittance = .57

Ultraviolet Transmittance = 5%

Solar Heat Gain Coefficient = 33%

 

I had a great experiance with Home Depot and my windows cut my energy expence by 25%. I have only had 2 problems with the window while i was mowing a rock hit the window and cracked it and a neibors cat clawed up the screen on another window both cases Home Depot fixed it no questions asked