Replacement Windows | The Boneyard

Replacement Windows

HuskyHawk

The triumphant return of the Blues Brothers.
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Not looking for advice, because as of last night, it's a done deal. But has anybody else put in replacement windows? It's unbelievably expensive. In 2017 we did half the house (front gets all the weather) and replaced our old crappy wooden windows that stuck, had a bad R value and were just awful. Cost $16k (which is why I didn't do the back at the time). Well that was short-sighted, now we are doing the back and it'd $24k. So 40 thousand all in. That's just crazy. How do most people afford anything like that? Smaller houses would be less, sure, but still it seems high. We got multiple quotes, Andersen Renewal came in at $36k for the back.

I don't expect to recoup much of that cost when we sell. At least it will lower my capital gain on the house. Home ownership isn't all it's cracked up to be. I will definitely being looking at the windows in any house we buy. It's an expense that I don't think most people give adequate consideration to.

Anybody else share this pain?
 

CL82

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Not looking for advice, because as of last night, it's a done deal. But has anybody else put in replacement windows? It's unbelievably expensive. In 2017 we did half the house (front gets all the weather) and replaced our old crappy wooden windows that stuck, had a bad R value and were just awful. Cost $16k (which is why I didn't do the back at the time). Well that was short-sighted, now we are doing the back and it'd $24k. So 40 thousand all in. That's just crazy. How do most people afford anything like that? Smaller houses would be less, sure, but still it seems high. We got multiple quotes, Andersen Renewal came in at $36k for the back.

I don't expect to recoup much of that cost when we sell. At least it will lower my capital gain on the house. Home ownership isn't all it's cracked up to be. I will definitely being looking at the windows in any house we buy. It's an expense that I don't think most people give adequate consideration to.

Anybody else share this pain?
I will say watch on the installation. We had ordered a replacement of the existing windows swapping out the frames and our company bought windows that fit within the existing frames. I wasn’t willing to compromise or take a credit on it because one of the things we love about our home is the floor ceiling windows. Especially on the northside, I feel like it makes a material difference in the amount of natural light we get.

The one place I did compromise was in the swap out of the large custom window above the kitchen sink. My contractor did the work quickly enough that there was no way for me to look and verify that he pulled out the frame and replaced it with a full-size window. I guess I could’ve had him pull off the trim and verified it, but he “gave me his word“ that he had done it according to the contract spec. He had corrected the other stuff and was giving me a lifetime labor and material warranty, so I have an ongoing relationship with him. It’s on the south side of the house so the slight reduction in dimension didn’t matter to me as much. I looked at him and told him your word is good enough for me. Fast-forward a couple years later when we did a kitchen renovation and sure enough I could see the old window frame in place. As it turned out, the larger window would have been problematic for cabinet placement, so everything worked out for the best.

TL;DR: If you are paying a premium for full replacement, make sure you’re there to verify what they put in.

Post script: The triple paned, UV screening, double sash, divided light windows we got have been everything we hoped for. I suppose that’s not a surprise since we were upgrading over from 40 something-year-old single pane double sash windows. It is expensive, but well worth the money.
 

8893

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Not looking for advice, because as of last night, it's a done deal. But has anybody else put in replacement windows? It's unbelievably expensive. In 2017 we did half the house (front gets all the weather) and replaced our old crappy wooden windows that stuck, had a bad R value and were just awful. Cost $16k (which is why I didn't do the back at the time). Well that was short-sighted, now we are doing the back and it'd $24k. So 40 thousand all in. That's just crazy. How do most people afford anything like that? Smaller houses would be less, sure, but still it seems high. We got multiple quotes, Andersen Renewal came in at $36k for the back.

I don't expect to recoup much of that cost when we sell. At least it will lower my capital gain on the house. Home ownership isn't all it's cracked up to be. I will definitely being looking at the windows in any house we buy. It's an expense that I don't think most people give adequate consideration to.

Anybody else share this pain?
Is there any tax credit available for making your house more energy-efficient? I know they offered that a while ago but I don't recall the specifics.
 

HuskyHawk

The triumphant return of the Blues Brothers.
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Is there any tax credit available for making your house more energy-efficient? I know they offered that a while ago but I don't recall the specifics.
That is an excellent suggestion. I will check. These will be far more energy efficient. I will check for my garage doors too, recently swapped the original wood doors for big thick heavy vinyl and steel with insulation.
 

HuskyHawk

The triumphant return of the Blues Brothers.
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I will say watch on the installation. We had ordered a replacement of the existing windows swapping out the frames and our company bought windows that fit within the existing frames. I wasn’t willing to compromise or take a credit on it because one of the things we love about our home is the floor ceiling windows. Especially on the northside, I feel like it makes a material difference in the amount of natural light we get.

The one place I did compromise was in the swap out of the large custom window above the kitchen sink. My contractor did the work quickly enough that there was no way for me to look and verify that he pulled out the frame and replaced it with a full-size window. I guess I could’ve had him pull off the trim and verified it, but he “gave me his word“ that he had done it according to the contract spec. He had corrected the other stuff and was giving me a lifetime labor and material warranty, so I have an ongoing relationship with him. It’s on the south side of the house so the slight reduction in dimension didn’t matter to me as much. I looked at him and told him your word is good enough for me. Fast-forward a couple years later when we did a kitchen renovation and sure enough I could see the old window frame in place. As it turned out, the larger window would have been problematic for cabinet placement, so everything worked out for the best.

TL;DR: If you are paying a premium for full replacement, make sure you’re there to verify what they put in.

Post script: The triple paned, UV screening, double sash, divided light windows we got have been everything we hoped for. I suppose that’s not a surprise since we were upgrading over from 40 something-year-old single pane double sash windows. It is expensive, but well worth the money.
It's an excellent point. One I learned about doing the research when we did the front half of the house. These are full replacements but slide right in to the opening. There is a level of replacement beyond that (had it done on two windows when we had rot). Then the cheapest are the inserts, which decrease the actual size of the glass part of the window significantly.

For folks on a budget, the inserts could work, but like you I wasn't willing to make that compromise. I love the windows in front of the house, just no comparison with the 30 year old single pane, double sash like yours. Windows have come a long way.
 
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It's been a while. When I did windows on the house in '07, full replacement/new construction windows were cheaper than the slide in replacements. The slide-ins had to be manufactured more rubustly to match the efficiency of a new construction window.
 

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