Window replacement

[LauraTom]

I live in Toronto. My house and windows are 45 years old. The windows are overdue for replacement. I am in the process of getting quotes from a window replacement company. There are about a dozen windows of various sizes. I was wondering if you have replaced the windows in your house, is there any words of advice or lessons learned that you can share with me?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

The physical action of replacing is straight forward enough.

As to the features of the design, they (like many other things), are a you get what you pay for. Go cheap, you get cheap. Chances are the windows you are buying are leaps and bounds more elaborate in design and performance than what they will replace, which also means more parts to fail and replace.

In cold climates you will want something with a thermal break to help prevent condensate freezing.

Personally, I avoid vinyl. The price point is much more palatable but the durability is not.

 

[Drumminguy81]

I am in the process of installing windows in my second home. The first set I installed in my last house about 10 years ago. It was a 50 year old small house and I wanted to go cheap. I went with milgard vinyl windows from lowes. I was very pleased with their quality as well as price. Fast forward to now, i shopped and researched a lot of brands to replace the 30 year old windows in my new home, which I plan to stay in for a very long time. After comparing the reviews and cost of several more expensive brands I actually went with milgard again. They came in half the price of the competitors (while on sale), included a full lifetime warranty on the entire window including glass, and had some of the highest thermal/ energy star ratings of any I looked at. So far I'm about 1/3 done installing them and I am very pleased with my purchase. Lowes also offers install but I do my own remodeling. I live in New Mexico where we experience 100* dry summers and snowy below freezing winters.
For an idea I got 13 windows ranging in size from 24x48 to 60x48 all basic, rectangular, single hung/sliders, in white vinyl for right at $2000.
Just my experience, hope that helps. Price can be drastically different depending on the type of house, size, and shape of your windows.

 

[Godot]

I wouldn't ask about buying windows in Canada on an American centred site like this. There are different manufacturers, requirements and needs from one country to the next. I'm fairly certain you will be unable to buy Milgard windows, for instance, in Toronto.

As a fellow Torontonian I'd suggest holding off on getting those quotes, if you can. I'm sorry to tell you but you just missed the best window (err...) for buying windows in Ontario. Thanks to Buck-A-Beer Dougie, all energy savings rebates have been cancelled (climate change is apparently a hoax and something our grandkids will have to take care of). This not only means you are presently out of luck, but also, that right now manufacturers and installers are scrambling to get pre-Dougie GreenOn rebate orders in before installation contracts (and their accompanying rebates) expire. Apparently it is not going too well. Any quote you receive for manufacturing and/or installation of windows will probably reflect the current chaotic demand.

 

[b-boy]

I have to ask. Who the Hell is Buck-A-Beer Dougie?

As far as windows go, I replaced all the windows in my old house. They were vinyl Anderson using a Lowes contractor. The windows were great, the contractor(s) were not great. We actually ended up with 3 different guys doing the install. They kept quitting after a day of work. I swear one of them was a homeless guy. I won't go that route again.

In my new house, I've replaced 6 so far. My house is 140 yrs old, so I tried to get windows to match the house.

My advice is to get lots of quotes. I had quotes ranging from $3,000 to $12,000 for six windows and an entry door. Some of these guys wrote their quotes on a paper napkin, and other showed up in a $50k truck with a PowerPoint presentation, a lifetime warranty that extended to my kids, and a fancy sample suitcase. Guess who was the most expensive?

If you're looking for wood-look windows, I'd avoid the 'customer finishable' windows. They do not stain very well. I'd get them pre-finished if possible.

Overall, there are a lot of shady guys selling windows, so be careful and vet everyone.

 

[Godot]

I have to ask. Who the Hell is Buck-A-Beer Dougie?

Surely, you have heard of Toronto's infamous crack smoking mayor, Rob Ford? Well, Doug Ford is his (alleged) drug dealing brother. And to our eternal embarrassment and our ridiculous first-past-the-post electoral system he is now our Premier. He promised the people of Ontario that if they elected him as Premier he'd return us to the glorious land of "buck-a-beer" (beer is expensive in Canada). Forty percent of Ontario voters bought his tripe and now we are stuck with four years of an incredibly regressive doofus who makes Trump look like a statesman and a genius. As for "Buck-A-Beer? It lasted a total of one week. All he did was lower the allowable floor for selling suds from $1.25 a bottle to $1 a bottle. Nobody was selling beer at $1.25 anyway. It was a big con job and we're now all paying the price because of those who fell for it.

So anyways, back to windows...

 

[b-boy]

I live in Buffalo, so I'm very familiar with Rob Ford (he's kind of a cult hero) and expensive Canadian beer. Never heard of Doug though.

 

[matt_m]

I wouldn’t totally avoid Vinyl but no advise in finding a premium vinyl product in your area. My parents did vinyl and they were a great window with a lifetime warranty to the point where a contractor working at their house had an oops with a 2x4 and the company replaced it free when he called to buy a replacement.

We had “replacement” windows in our first house done by a previous owner. They we just OK. Second house we had Andersen 400-series new construction windows installed which required our contractor make custom trim outside and modify the inside trim. Our current house the previous owners’ contractor son in law did virtually the same thing. I’ve been very happy that approach and with Andersen. One negative though they seem to have a fairly limited repair network. The owner of the property behind us put a rock into one of ours with a mower and the authorized repair guy for our area was an ass—wanted 100% payment up front, cash only. Ended up just having a local glass guy fix it with non-Andersen glass.

 

[CKuhns]

Agree get a lot of quotes. I live in MN and went with Anderson about 5 years ago and utilized their recommended installers. They did 10 windows, a sliding glass door front door and storm in 12 hours, no trim work outside as siding and trim was being done as well. All were standard size replacement slide ins. Pretty costly (almost 1.5 to 2x what some others wanted but not the most expensive quote either.) If your planning on being in the house longterm well worth the money.