Windows

[SuzySunshine]

Hey gang - so who has had to replace windows?

When it rains it pours...DH couldn't get one of the windows closed last night and the more he played around with it the sill basically came apart in his hand. So now we're afraid we have rotting sills around most of our windows. I'm told "builders grade" windows last about 10 years which is probably what we have and the house is 15 years old so I guess we shouldn't be surprised but this expense was not in the budget and we just put the money for the carpet in a 12 month CD b/c we got 12 month free financing so we can't use that.

Anybody have any words of wisdom for having windows replaced and/or repaired?

Ugh. Windows can get expensive. Maybe it can just be repaired? I would think that a newer house is more likely to have standard size windows. I know they get really expensive when you have to order custom sizes.

I'm sorry!

[alison]

My parents have had to replace their windows for wood rot. All of them. If you're just beyond your warranty, ask them if there's a way to at least get a price break.

My parents are architects, so they get an architects price on nearly everything. And warranties are basically thrown out the window (so to speak); they don't want to lose my parents' business.

ETA: Wood rot is iffy and difficult to repair because it crumbles. Yuck.

[SuzySunshine]

I'm pretty sure there is no warranty, they are about 15 years old and there doesn't seem to be any information about them in the household info the previous owners passed down.

SueC had her whole house done last year - to the tune of $10K or so. They had some odd sized windows that had to be custom, so I know that inflated the price.

[SuzySunshine]

So we just talked to our neighbor his BIL is a window contractor so hopefully that will help us on the price and the install.

[SuzySunshine]

Well we got our new windows installed yesterday. They forgot the grids on the front windows so they have to re-order them but they said they can pop the ones we have out and put the right ones in very easily, we'll see how long that takes. All in all we're very happy with them.

Before:


After:




We still haven't decided if we're going to paint the white on the outside, I think we're going to wait until we get the grids in and see what they look like.

[samssugarmomma]

I love the windows Cheri!

We just had all of ours replaced in August. We had the original 1950s kind that you had to crank open. It is amazing how much brighter the rooms are and how much quieter it is in the house now! I'll see if DH will take some pics for me to post this weekend. (If I can figure out how to post the pics that is...I always forget how...)

[SuzySunshine]

Kate - ours were the crank outs too, but they weren't quite that old. They really do lighten up the rooms, I'll be very interested to see what our heat bills are like this winter compared to last winter.