Residential Window Replacement questions

VortecJeep

VortecJeep

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Aug 24, 2005
Location
Concord, NC
Our house is 41 years old. We just replaced the rotting and woodpecker-holed cedar siding with Hardy siding.
Many windows need to be replaced, but two need replacing right now. The rest will have to wait until I financially recover from the siding replacement! All windows are wooden Pella casement windows.
The two that need replacing are on an East-facing and West-facing wall. The original siding on these walls was diagonal instead of horizontal and there is no overhang in these walls. That just funneled all rain water to the windows and rotted them and the sheathing. Replaced sheathing with the siding and wrapped the house too. New siding is all horizontal, so fixed that design flaw.

So I got quotes from Pella and Renewal By Andersen.

Pella wood clad in aluminum and Pella fiberglass are about the same, around $11,300 installed.

Renewal By Andersen Fibrex is about $15,700 installed.

Anyone used either of these companies for replacement windows? Or any other companies in Concord I should contact?

Will I have any expansion concerns with any of these materials in the sun? Will I have any water concerns with a clad window?



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East facing, two large windows at bottom open, top two do not.
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West facing window, both open.

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They give you prices for just the windows? I'd price them out through someone else just to see what you could get from another supplier.....that seems like alot of money to replace 2 windows but sounds about on par for an Pella/Anderson replacement operation. I put aluminum clad wood in my 90 year old house.....no issues that I can notice and we put pella aluminum clad in @jcramsey new house a couple years ago that turned out really nice. Never used the fiberglass so no help there.

It would have been nice to been able to do the windows before the new siding.......but if 2 windows are running that much I'd hate to see what they wanted for all of them.
 
jeepinmatt said:
We have Andersen fibrex windows in our house and I like them. More solid feeling and sounding than other comparably priced options. Installed during new construction though. I have nothing to ad regarding replacements. 33 windows was about $15k in 2018.
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That’s a heck of a deal.

During the height of COVID we did our windows. A national company called APEX. It’s a triple pane glass and they’ve been good for us. I think 13 windows was $12k installed.
 
Anderson is a solid company from all accounts, and they will tell you up front they are not the most economical. I would pay more for the Fiberex after looking at their product in person as well, plus this is literally all they do (replacing windows) so i think you will be happier with the outcome.

Although take my opinion as a grain of salt. One of the people in my Vistage group is one of the partners of RBA in the Carolinas, so i have heard the sales speech a lot.
 
I would also look at Sierra pacific. They should have something that will match up.

Also I would steer away from a drop in replacement window. I'd get new construction windows and then come up with a 4" trim detail. It's going to be more invasive on the house. Will most likely need to redo the interior trim.

I would contact several building suppliers to get pricing. They all have their preferred windows that they push
 
Flashing is one of the most important parts of a window install to loganwaynes point, the flashing of replacement windows is not as good. Liquid flashing from my research is better than tape as well. The flanges are what’s different on the new con that makes the flashing system better
 
What kind of sheathing, what vapor barrier system, and how were the windows detailed?

You'd have to post what the quoted, but a replacement window is usually an insert that goes inside the frame that's already there. Without knowing what products were used and how it was all installed, it's entirely possible you've already got a leaky system. If the windows are rotten, how was the vapor barrier tied in? What's the siding sealed to? How's it all flashed?
 
shawn said:
What kind of sheathing, what vapor barrier system, and how were the windows detailed?

You'd have to post what the quoted, but a replacement window is usually an insert that goes inside the frame that's already there. Without knowing what products were used and how it was all installed, it's entirely possible you've already got a leaky system. If the windows are rotten, how was the vapor barrier tied in? What's the siding sealed to? How's it all flashed?
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The siding was diagonal. The ends of the siding ran right into the brick mold around the windows, so it just funneled the water right into it. There was no vapor barrier or anything between the old siding and the sheathing. Maybe it wasn’t required in 1984??
The new siding is horizontal. The entire house is now wrapped with Tyvek. All rotten sheathing was replaced. All joints on the Hardy siding were caulked. Flashing replaced.
 
shawn said:
What kind of sheathing, what vapor barrier system, and how were the windows detailed?

You'd have to post what the quoted, but a replacement window is usually an insert that goes inside the frame that's already there. Without knowing what products were used and how it was all installed, it's entirely possible you've already got a leaky system. If the windows are rotten, how was the vapor barrier tied in? What's the siding sealed to? How's it all flashed?
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Stop talking like you know anything about architecture. Tell them fluid applied with outboard insulation and fiberglass z girt for no thermal transmittance or GTFO. Hahaha
 
farmboy said:
Stop talking like you know anything about architecture. Tell them fluid applied with outboard insulation and fiberglass z girt for no thermal transmittance or GTFO. Hahaha
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Nah, wrap it in Tyvek, poke a million nail holes in it, then hang your entire waterproofing system on a little bit of DAP, knowing full well that whatever water gets behind the Tyvek is never coming out again.

Not like I've never seen OSB sheathing rotted through on buildings that are a couple years old because of a little bitty window leak.

I'd definitely want proof of the wet film thickness of whatever fluid applied system was used, but for the money you can't beat Zip. Hard to mess up and not much labor premium.

The best solution in this case is to do as someone mentioned earlier and pad all the window ROs in 3" on all sides. At least then you can control the WRB continuity around the windows. It'll add a big trim band and make the windows smaller, but what else are you going to do?
 
shawn said:
Nah, wrap it in Tyvek, poke a million nail holes in it, then hang your entire waterproofing system on a little bit of DAP, knowing full well that whatever water gets behind the Tyvek is never coming out again.

Not like I've never seen OSB sheathing rotted through on buildings that are a couple years old because of a little bitty window leak.

I'd definitely want proof of the wet film thickness of whatever fluid applied system was used, but for the money you can't beat Zip. Hard to mess up and not much labor premium.

The best solution in this case is to do as someone mentioned earlier and pad all the window ROs in 3" on all sides. At least then you can control the WRB continuity around the windows. It'll add a big trim band and make the windows smaller, but what else are you going to do?
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I'm gonna argue zip is the easiest to mess up. One over depth nail and the system fails. No one wants to roll the tape or go back over with the caulk to make fixes.

I started getting our main framer crews zip certified. And will do random zip inspections from the manufacturer rep to insure its still being done correctly.
 
Loganwayne said:
I'm gonna argue zip is the easiest to mess up. One over depth nail and the system fails. No one wants to roll the tape or go back over with the caulk to make fixes.

I started getting our main framer crews zip certified. And will do random zip inspections from the manufacturer rep to insure its still being done correctly.
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Yeah, but overdriving nails is a problem on any shear panel, easy to fix with zip. Finding a guy that can install fluid-applied and do it to the min thickness is a lot harder.
 
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