I live in southwest Ohio and have a cedar sided (1X6 tongue and groove ) house built in 1981. In addition to the expensive maintenance needed for the cedar siding, my biggest problem now is that most of the originally installed windows are deteriorating and are not efficient. They are double hung Andersen narrowlines in terratone finish. The wood frames are vinyl cladded and have warped and probably rotted under the vinyl in some areas. The sashes are wood treated with that plastic/paint coating that has weathered and failed. Talked to local Andersen Renewal dealer and they recommend the insert approach which will not address the frame damage. They also stated that the window I have is probably the worst window Andersen produced?

I am overwhelmed with all the maintenance the house is/will need. It seems to me that I will need to totally remove old windows including frames to do job correctly. As I understand it, the exterior wood window trim will need to come off, cut nailing flange on existing window and remove entire window unit. This will require wood replacement on exterior and will affect all existing finished wood trim inside, window sills, wall coverings and possibly drywall.

I am looking for suggestions from others who have had similar experience and from window installers with such experience. I do not know what type of window will best serve my needs. I am leery of vinyl and aluminum framed windows and I do not trust getting cladded windows since the existing ones are cladded. I have 14 windows and 2 sliding patio doors that are in play with various levels of deterioration.

Sorry for the long post and I have done some searching here for answers but I thought a specific post would yield better results. Thank you