Photos

Those are not PGT and definitely not a 2" frame. Steel thin frames like that would be 10x the price for the PGT units.

PGT is very popular in FL and most of their frames are anything but thin! They have a big market share here in FL with their more budget friendly hurricane/impact rated vinyl windows, but you aren't going to get a thin high end look.

We used Marvin when we built in 2021 and very happy with their product. They have a Modern collection.

Look at https://www.marvin.com/products/collections/signature/modern

@chispa - Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll take a look at Marvin.

Marvin is a good option. You can also minimize the width of the frames with more sheetrock.

@toddinmn What do you mean by that? I don't know anything about sheetrock. Thanks for the thought!

Western Window Systems has a simulated steel line with narrow sight lines that is constructed out of aluminum they are a PGT owned company. trucks will be running between the two plants opening up availabilty in Florida and wherever PGT trucks deliver. Western does not offer inpact products if that is required

Arcadia has a "Steel" look aluminum as well. Torrance Windows out of Calif. makes a reasonably priced steel unit from what I am told as well.

If you want a cheap way to do this, Amazon has stick on pieces. I am using this to go over windows that have panes inside the windows.

I used a relatively narrow sash but I heightened the narrowness on the interior by painting only the movable sash black and the rest of the trim the wall color. So they look very thin on the interior, wider on the exterior.

@palimpsest How creative. Would you mind snapping a few pictures of your windows? I'd love to see how that turned out!

@Uneeda Home Improvement Co., Inc - I've been looking at the Western Window Systems online catalogue and really like their products. Would you be able to give me a sense of their price point? For instance, relative to a PGT aluminum frame window?

" Would you be able to give me a sense of their price point? For instance, relative to a PGT aluminum frame window? "

Solid 15-20X minimum. Steel is a he** of a lot more expensive than vinyl or aluminum.

Western is a PGT owned company but I only have access to PGT, CGI, WinDoor & EasyBreeze pricing. PGT plans on bringing the Westerns Product line to Eastern Distribution so i would not be afraid of calling them directly.

Westerns Simulated Steel Line is made from aluminum profiles so it may not be the kind of premium over the typical aluminum products that Millworkman refers to.

For those saying there is no way they are PGT; do you understand that you can bury the frame to create the reveal you'd like? Western 600 Series, owned by PGT, has a 1.5" frame profile, in (2) .75" steps; first the frame, then the glass leg/stop. Western offers a .875" muntin, so to have your reveal match that of your muntin bars, you'd simply bury .75" of the frame and leave the .75" glass leg/stop exposed, which would read to most eyes as being the same dimension as the muntin bars. Fleetwood 3800-T has a similar profile, as does IWC, and both frames can be partially buried to create the reveal dimension you'd like (within reason). Awake, a window and door manufacturer out of Gilbert, AZ, has a 1" perimeter frame on their fixed windows that cannot be buried, as it comprises of a beauty cap and pressure plate. If you were to bury a portion of the beauty cap, and you suffered a glass or igu failure, you'd need to destroy whatever exterior finish that buries the beauty cap in order to get the glass/igu out. Fleetwood has a similar condition with their Edge series, so be cautious of that as well.

Steel is expensive. Ridiculously expensive for most build budgets. Very heavy too, which would increase the install/labor price. Nothing matches steel though, as steel is a window or door all its own, with an incredible look and feel. With most steel windows will come imperfections, as they need to weld, grind, then finish the frame. During this process, pits can be created in the welds that are then not filled or masked by the grinding flat or finish that's applied.

" do you understand that you can bury the frame to create the reveal you'd like? "

Yeah, easy to do with fixed windows and direct set but what do you do with operable's and sash type windows? NO getting around those.

Here is one of my wood clad windows with operable sash painted black and rest of frame painted trim/wall color to create the general effect of steel sash. Ignore the terrible view.

Millworkman - a sash sits within a frame, that it operates from; locking, hinging, operator arm. You bury the frame, not the sash. No different than burying a flush sill on an Awake, Western, or Fleetwood door, where you have 3/4" height from the sill and 1/8" from the sill pan, and figure an additional 1/8" for the sealant to waterproof the sill to the pan, and the pan to the slab/floor.

When building a house, or doing a renovation project, reveals demonstrate your attention to detail, and provide the excellent fit and finish most people desire. When my team and I perform measures, we require the superintendent and framer to be present so that we know A) finish thickness coming into our product (this would include both interior and exterior, from lid/ceiling to walls to flooring, and B) framer understands what we need for Rough Opening, which may include bucks, so that the overall team is all on the same page.

Just a little insight from my experience in the window and door field.

Trying to "bury" the frame on a casement window to get a thin reveal and you will find that the operator, lock, and other mechanisms will keep that from happening. Same thing would be true for many of the other DH and slider operators as well. Many windows have frame bevels or mechanisms on the frame that will prevent that. Picture windows and other fixed units, possible. The idea of just burying the frame to the extent where you are going to have the thinness of reveal that most people see in a steel or aluminum window is mostly incorrect though as @millworkman stated above.

@palimpsest - beautiful! Thank you for sharing.

If no one has mentioned it yet… we used Jeldwen windows to get the look you like…very happy with our choice ( except at first… I ordered them wrong and the interior casing came black as well! I adjusted to them and actually prefer it. ). But if you order them correctly, I think you’ll get the look you are looking for.

@Robert B can you message me? i would like to speak to you live if possible. Thanks so much