Pictures of the front and the back of your house would be helpful.

If you don't mind white vinyl windows then Simonton is definitely my favorite, because they have the best warranty, lifetime transferable. Also they have a moderate price tag and quick delivery time.

The home center windows are usually junk by comparison but there are other choices. So, Simonton are under $400 each but there are other brands that are either aluminum clad, Sierra Pacific, or composite clad wood, I think Marvin has these. These windows will cost you just about 2 times the Simonton 5500, which I would recommend. You can also get solid wood windows that are painted on the outside, Andersen Woodwright.

I'm a PA contractor and I get my windows at building supply or lumber yard.

If a contractor wants to give you home center windows I would probably move on.

Hi Glenn, thank you for the reply! My wife's preference is to go with a white window, inside and out. I've added Photos of the front and back of the house.

Are there any other considerations that need to be made? Also seems like a generic unanswerable question but would replacing 30 year old windows have an appreciable difference as it relates to u-factor and shgc? Not familiar with the technological advancements in windows.

Same situation here, looking for replacements for our windows here in MN for our 30 yr old house, that are mostly casement, old windows are vinyl Wellington and are about 19 yrs old and are failing.

We are sticking to a major name this time (Wellington folded), so looking at renewal by Andersen, Marvin, pella. We are going black exterior, white interior. Our first bid back is about $1600+ per window, but we are looking at fiberglass. Extreme temps here are making us shy away from vinyl.

OP, why slider's? They are typically the weak link in any manufacturer's product line. Are you looking at full framed replacements, it sounds so. I would look for a Okna, Polaris or Kensington dealer were it me and look at a quality vinyl product. Marvin or Kolbe in a fiberglass would also be worth considering in my opinion. Nothing Pella or RBA in my honest opinion.

Millworkman, I grew up with sliders so I really haven't familiarized myself with "if we should". I suppose my dislike for casements is a bit petty considering the house my wife and I just bought has the originals in more or less working order, albeit hard to crank even when cleaned and lubricated. I see all the moving parts required and the stem under the handle and can't help but see so many failure points; likely things that will be no longer available once they do fail. Sliders to me seem simple and I have no familiarity with other kinds of windows which is why I leaned into sliders. That's not to say I have no interest in learning of other options so please don't hesitate to offer information and your experiences.

Can you give me an example of what you mean by Weak link?

I contacted Okna and unfortunately they "do not have a certified dealer in Minnesota"

Do you have a preference between Vinyl and fiberglass? I'm guessing fiberglass is considerably more expensive?

Weak link being the performance (air infiltration, condensation rating, etc.) is typically the lowest in sliding windows. Fiberglass is more dollars but the difference really depends the look you are looking for and the budget. Marvin and Kolbe make pretty good fiberglass. Their are Canadian companies that make great fiberglass. And the brands I mention all make quality vinyl products. If going vinyl I would only use one of the better brands.

Maybe message toddinmn. He is a respected professional on here who may be able to help. Not sure where you are located but I believe he is in the Minneapolis area.

toddinmn, what are your thoughts on the Sunrise Window brand?

I like there casements but not a fan if there double hungs and sliders.

Any suggestions on how I go about finding a contractor that installs either the Soft-Lite and/or Polaris windows? I tried HomeAdvisor but there's no ability to narrow the contractors by brand and now I'm getting constant phone calls that don't leave messages if I don't pick up. So far today I've been able to talk to 6 that have called and none of them install either brand.

I think Universal Windows Direct is one of the very few Polaris dealers. There more than a few soft-Lite dealers.

So far, we've a few contractors come out. I'll try and update this as I get more information

Polaris:

Contractor 1:

Seemed to be new to the company and didn't really know what product his company was selling, simply called it the 800 series window. Didn't have much information on what all was included on a full frame install. Overall if I didn't know anything I still wouldn't feel confident in purchasing there.

Bid was $24k for "800 series" triple pane - I asked for double but got a "free upgrade" to triple. No NFRC ratings were given in the bid.

Soft-Lite:

Contractor 1:

knew what he was selling, for the most part kept things above board with a few claims of being hundreds of percent greater than "the next brand". Either way he was knowledgeable and not pushy which was appreciated.

Bid was $38.6k for the Elements triple pane - again, I asked for double but got a "free upgrade" to triple. U-Factor: 0.19 | SHGC: 0.22 | VT: 0.36 | CR: 70 | IGU Thickness 1"

Contractor 2:

Not pushy with no claims that make you double take.

Bid was

• $22k for Classic Plus - Double pane - U-Factor: 0.29 | SHGC: 0.28
• $25k for Pro - Triple pane - U-Factor: 0.19 | SHGC: 0.22

The difference in Soft-Lites Double hungs can be big, but when it comes to casements there all built on the same chassis with the only difference being optiins. The Pro casement is an excellet value in this case , its gonna come down to the dealers credentials and the install method. When comes down to it Ii am not fond of any. It seems there all focused on the sales and are off no help on the details. I am not sold in anything at this point. it seems they are failing to walk you through the steps on adetailed driven jobthat is easy to explain for a company that is specialized in windows.

Scott,

Go with the triple pane in MN, the upgrade is worth it.

All of those prices were for updating all 14 openings but changing the 9 standalone Casement windows to Sliders. The Soft-Lite Contractor #1 gave us a breakdown of the window, the install and everything in between and he seemed very knowledgeable but they only sold the Elements and $38.6k is well beyond our reach.

As a Minnesota Building Inspector, the best window replacement jobs I see are done by Renewal By Andersen. I don’t know what they cost, but they would be my personal choice. Do a few windows at a time if you need to, don’t go with cheap windows, they may not be any better than what you have. Don’t do sliders, no matter the quality, in my opinion they look cheap.

We ordered Fiberglass Marvyn's for us here in MN. 4 months to build/install.

if you don't mind me asking how many windows, what type and roughly how much did the fiberglass windows cost?

It was expensive. I never want to look at windows again for this house. Honestly, we bid the more traditional places (Pella, Renewal, and Marvyn) and all were similar in price range. The prior owner bid/replaced with Wellington, lower cost, vinyl and went out of business without a warranty. Those windows are failing 18 years later. This is the main reason we went with the 'traditional' names. There are a couple of original wood windows left, that are in real bad shape.

We are going mostly casement with about 33 panes. Black exterior, white interior. I would say each pane is 1500-2500 depending on configuration.

Soft-Lite:

Contractor #3:

Spent 25 minutes here, didn't explain really anything about the window or the install process, measured a few windows and gave a bid. Tried to push to get something setup, "if we can at least do a few windows now then I can lock in the price for the rest of the project".

First Bid was

• $25k for Imperial Elite

Ensuing conversation:

ME: "is that full frame install" || HIM: "Yeah that's for the whole thing. Have you gotten any other bids yet" || ME: "Yeah, we've had one other so far but it was beyond our price range and it was for the Elements model" || HIM: "How much was it" || ME: "38k" || HIM: "Oh wait you said full frame? I gave you the wrong quote. Our price is $32.8k"

Ending bid: $32.8k

When he tried to push for the sale and I mentioned that I had the estimate scheduled before we just started the process to get medication for my 4 month old son's Cystic Fibrosis and I didn't want to give any solid timeline just to have to back out later. Without insurance the meds are, no joke, 360k per year. He didn't know what CF was, I explained it and how bad it can be for the people who have it, his response was "I hate to be a downer but if they haven't cured it by now..."

I called the manager to log a complaint, he said that I probably caught the guy off guard and rather than saying nothing he probably just said somethings stupid. He also had to explanation for the price increase.

I've been seeing some brands/models volunteer the Air infiltration rating and others simply mention that their windows reach "as good as .01 cfm". Is there a point at which the cfm of a sliding window would disqualify it from your consideration; this assumes you, like me, are considering a sliding window

Slider are gonna typically be closer to 0.10.

I get hung up sometimes on the NFRC ratings.

is there even any appreciable difference between 0.10 cfm and.08 or .01?

one other example:

SHGC of .34 vs .29 vs .21

at what point is there an appreciable difference?

Yes, there are differences among all of those numbers.

1) They tell you the performance to expect

2) For the most part, they go hand in hand with quality. There are a few exceptions such as fiberglass and wood windows which generally don't have great air infiltration ratings. The nicer units like Marvin, Kolbe, etc are still quality products, you are simply trading off the aesthetics for performance.

In a vinyl or composite window, Air infiltration for a casement should really be .01-02cfm at worst. Double hung (lower is better .01-.03), but there are some well made units around .04-.05. Much higher than that is generally a red flag. Sliders are inherently leakier, so most good ones are still .05-.1x, the only stellar unit I can think of is Okna's Starmark EVO at .03, Todd may be able to cite another or two.

SHGC: that makes a difference as well, however the rating that you want here is determined by your climate. In a colder region like MN, you will want that rating to be moderate to high. Mid 20's are okay as long as its traded off for an excellent U value from triple pane glass (.20 or lower). If its double pane and a rating like .27 (energy star for your area), you'd want that to be in the upper 20's and 30's. Seeing something like a .27-.30 U value accompanied by a .21-.24 (or so) SHGC will tell you that this is an inferior window with glass designed for Arizona or TX, not MN. A very high number (think 40's) can be good, but only if your home is designed to take advantage of that passive solar gain, and not turn into a hot box in the summer months.

Watch for Condensation Resistance (CR) as well. These days some manufacturers will achieve a nice U value by using a low e coating on the interior surface (surface 4), which can be problematic in cold climates that are prone to condensation issues. Ideally you'd like to see that rating in the 60's for double pane and 70's for triple pane.

You have some solid product choices to consider there, hopefully you are able to find a dealer that is reputable and trustworthy.

Update to this, we ended up going with Richlin windows, just the back of the house for now.

4 - 900 Series sliders

1 - Heritage Series Patio Door

The Casement/Picture combo was 500 Series casement

Solid update. Happy with the product/install?

They just finished the install two days ago so it hasn't been long but for sure it's already made a difference in reducing outside noise. There's also been a noticeable difference in solar heat gain reduction; we have no shade in the afternoon because the tree in the backyard died and it'll take a while for the two trees we planted to help out.

We went with Craftsmen Home Improvements and they did a great job from beginning to end; great communication, explained how they go about the install and once we got to the installation I thought the installers were awesome. I was seeing a massive discovery of water damage from the old sliding door in my nightmares but when I mentioned I was concerned about water from the old door they called me down after they removed the door to show me that there was nothing to worry about; not that they installed the old one 32 years ago but I thought that was pretty nice of them.

The only thing of all of it that surprised me was that the Richlin sliders don't have wheels, just flat on the bottom with weather stripping. I didn't even think to look but simply didn't expect it. Overall the windows are great.