What do you want the look of the window to be on the interior?

Thank you for the reply.

I asked my wife, and I believe we're pretty flexible on the look as far as material goes - wood or wood like is fine, but something more plastic / vinyl looking would be okay also. Her only strong opinion was that she doesn't want it to be "white". I'm primarily concerned with performance / maintenance / longevity.

I did some further reading last night and don't know if "replacement" is the right word now, I'm not sure if there is damage to the wood / materials around the existing windows. Not sure if that impacts recommendations or not.

Does she not want it to bright white or white at all?

In terms of what you want for longevity and durability, vinyl is very well proven in your climate and you will get more efficiency dollar per dollar comparison.

I'm not sure on how severe the "no white" position is, she could change her mind as we start looking at options. I think the main goal at this point would be to try to narrow down the number of brands or at minimum the composition of the window so I can look into getting estimates.

For vinyl windows do you have any recommendations for brands or models for (crank out) casement windows?

Michigan is the home of Sunrise windows and they make a very nice casement.

Their Vanguard and Restorations lines (in the DH operator) are the more well regarded units but all the casements are the same.

Thanks again, I've put in a request for a dealer to contact me.

When reading the other message threads I'd see discussion about fiberglass windows, any thoughts on those?

Fiberglass is a fine product and does offer a different aesthetic and typically more finish options but there are no real significant performance benefits as compared to well engineered other material equivalents.

Wow...when I read that back...it makes no sense.

The long and short is that if your wife is okay with vinyl and the look, there are plenty of great performing vinyl windows that are as good, if not better, than their fiberglass equivalents.

I understood it :)

Question on vinyl - do modern vinyl windows that come in a color (other than white) still fade? I saw old message threads where people complained about fading but I wasn't sure if that problem had be reduced or solved (I think these were circa 2006 - so awhile back)

Again - thanks very much for the information, this has simplified things a lot.

Everything fades, even vettes made from fibrex.

Ha...!!

Todd made a funny again.

But in all seriousness, the paint technology is very good these days and many are coming with 20 year warranties.

We have painted windows that are 10 years old that look like the day they went in.

The first estimate for Sunrise came in at $26.8k on 4 picture, 18 casement, 1 bay for pocket installs.

Our second estimate which was for infinity ultrex fg - with 4 of the casements switched to double hungs and 2 of the picture (with flanking casements) switched to sliders came in at $25.8k on 2 pictures, 10 casement, 2 sliders, 2 double hungs for full frame install.

Both quotes were for color on the outside (non-white) with a fake wood interior.

I'm going to ask the Sunrise person for a quote with the adjusted window styles and for a full frame version as well as ask him about if they have experienced problems with the extra tall casements (80") - according to this other thread they do have ones that tall on their price sheet. The tall casements were switched to double hungs in the infinity quote.

Are there other questions / concerns that I should be raising with these people? At this price point I'd rather over do it than under do it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread about tall (80

I am not a fan of 80" casements for certain.

The rest of the questions look good.

References.