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krissy_quinn

Help please! re windows on Tudor

2 years ago

Hi. We are replacing the windows on our 1930s tutor. For numerous reasons it’s not feasible to keep the steel casement. I want to retain the look and have decided to go with the Marvin ultimate casement windows. I am debating adding a transom on the top. I originally requested this but I haven’t been able to see any real life examples and I’m worried I am making an expensive mistake. If I don’t have it, I would just have a larger French casement. Does anyone have windows that look like the second share a pic or opinion?

Comments (13)

  • 2 years ago

    No transom

  • 2 years ago

    Since you're replacing steel, I'd check if Marvin can make a closer copy with thinner frames in the Modern Signature fiberglass line.

  • 2 years ago

    Those would be very large casements. Could you do three windows, middle one fixed and the outer two operational?

  • 2 years ago

    I am doing three 24s on the bottom window, which is 72 wide so I’m not sure I want it to be the same on top. Marvin recommended the ultimate to go with the classic architecture. I know the thinner model you were thinking of, but I believe it may be too modern for the home.

  • 2 years ago

    " but I believe it may be too modern for the home. "


    Definitely a more modern look (hence the name) and not fitting for a Tudor,.

  • 2 years ago

    I would want them to look as close to the original steel windows as possible. Those windows would have been Modern when the house was built. If the house is from the 20s to 40s it would have had some Deco Moderne details regardless of the historic style of the house. That's how they did Revival houses and why a 1920s Tudor Revival house looks different from a 1970s Tudor Revival house. They aren't strictly authentic with wood and leaded windows, they rarely were trying for that sort of accuracy.

    The most authentic thing for your house is what it was built with, or whatever replacement looks most like it...most of the time.

  • 2 years ago

    Unfortunately, there is nothing like steel casement. The thinner Marvin’s just don’t look like steel, nothing does. In an ideal world I would keep them, but the cost is sky high and then they still will not be energy efficient and will require stormers. We just can’t justify it. But I hear what you’re saying.

  • 2 years ago

    There is a "steel look" aluminum window made by Arcadia as well as a few others. They are not cheap, but definitely not as much as steel and better thermal performance.

  • 2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    My house was originally designed with steel windows, and it was one of the things the builder cut, 60 years ago. It actually got pieces of plate glass held in by stop or quarter round in a lot of places, not even real windows. But the idea was minimal frame, maximum glass, which is what you get with steel windows, too.

    So what I might not have been clear about is that I don't think the Marvin Modern,(or something like it) because it provides the narrower frame and I think the narrowest muntin profile, would be "too modern" for your house, because it would be closer than the more traditional window with the thicker frames and muntins--it would be closer to what you've already got, even though it will not duplicate it.

    I looked into steel windows and like you found them much too expensive for my budget. I used a lower profile clad wood window with the narrowest muntin, and although it does not have the narrowness of steel it is Much better than the thick framed replacement windows that had been put in some parts of my house to replace the plate glass. So. there is less glass area than either a steel window or plate glass would provide, but more than a "traditional" style, thicker framed, thicker muntined window. So no, it's not fooling anyone that it's steel, but its closer to the original intent.

  • 2 years ago

    Thanks so much for all of the comments. You have given me a lot of to think about!

  • 2 years ago

    What do you end up doing about the windows? We need to do the same thing. Keeping our beautiful steel window but need to buy several new windows for small addition.

  • 2 years ago

    Casements without the transom.