Renwal by Anderson (house, maintenance, prices)

[BadAndyHolbrook]

Can anyone advie if they have any experience with Renewal by Anderson replacement windows.

[GMalo]

We got the upstairs of our house done by them a little over a year ago.

The windows are very expensive but depending on your situation, they can be worth the money.

The process is pretty simple. They measure your current windows and order windows slightly smaller. Then they cut the old windows out and slap new windows in to the holes they made. There are other manufacturers that do the same process but their quality is crap compared to the andersons.

Now having said that, it still may not make sense for you to go with anderson renewal windows.

We went with anderson because the outside of our house is all cedar shakes. If we did a normal tear down on the siding, pulled the windows out and then replaced them with regular new windows, we would also have to replace all of our siding. Also, all of the walls inside our house have the sheet rock textured with a pattern which would be very hard to match without noticing the transition, so the inside of our house would look weird unless we redid EVERYTHING.

Because of these two reason, we went with anderson renewal windows. We paid a little over $16k for ten double hang windows and one custom six-foot semicircle window over our foyer.

They are very expensive, but they can be worth it if you have the right circumstances. We are very happy with our windows and I feel that they were worth every penny.

[nuts2uiam]

The only experience I have with Anderson is that we had a problem with one and they replaced the entire window free of charge. As the above poster said they are pricy. I would look at another window AFTER I educated myself about Andersons and then compare and ask questions.

[NYMike722]

I don't have specific experience with Renewal by Andersen windows, but I recently did a lot of research into replacing my windows in my entire house. I started off dead set on Andersen windows until I started getting the prices back on what it would cost to do my windows.

It was very important to preserve the look of our double hung windows with had 6 lites on the top and the bottom open. We also like the look of the grills on the outside of the glass (not in between the glass like most people get nowadays). We also wanted to replicate the nickel tone of our original wood window locks and hardware.

Windows of the Future Today - OKNA Windows & Doors

Okna windows is the window we went with. They also have composite windows (the same or similar material to Andersen windows) under the Starmark name.

We did some research and found numerous posts about the quality of the windows. Their energy efficiency numbers were excellent compared to Andersen's. We personally went with the Enviro-Star 800 series and got all the features we wanted (Simulated Divided Light, Nickel finish hardware and all white). They match the original windows (actually we left two of the original windows between our kitchen and sunroom - They look nearly identical). The best part was the price. We did 21 windows (17 Double hung and 4 basement sliders) and 1 dead light to insulate a stain glass window in the front for a total of around $11,500 installed.

This is our first winter with the new windows and the difference is major. No drafts or noise (even during the major blizzard we received earlier this month the windows didnt rattle and shake. We hardly know when the window is blowing). The look is beautiful and we are happy with the quality of the install. If you do some research you will find many positive reviews.

If we were going to go Andersen we were going to do the Woodwright 400 series which also comes as a replacement window, but the price was literally double of the Okna windows. We were also concerned about the maintenance of the wood windows and having to have paint them white. If we were going to keep the wood look of the windows (not white) we probably would have went in this direction. Since you are already considering a composite then do yourself a favor and do a bit more research. You will find their may be better options then Renewal by Andersen out there.

[lubby]

My mom had Anderson windows installed over 25 years ago and they are still as good as new, No drafts, leaks.

[AndreaII]

A window is only as good as its installation.