Best Wood-Aluminum clad window/ sliding door for high rise?

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royaltywindows1
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Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2019 10:18 am

Best Wood-Aluminum clad window/ sliding door for high rise?

#1 Post by royaltywindows1 »

Hello,

I am a contractor in the Chicago area and recently stumbled into a project that has some sliding doors and 1 window unit for replacement on the 15th floor.

The building requires replacement windows/doors with extruded aluminum.

Right away, I priced out Marvin windows, however the customer asked if there were any alternatives that were cheaper.

This made me look into some other alternatives, which included Sierra Pacific, Weathershield, Andersen & Kolbe.

Out of those 4 options, only Sierra Pacific and Weathershield are cheaper on price (roughly 9k vs 15k Marvin).
This makes me question the quality of those windows, although I have heard decent things about them (but my reasearch tells me weather shield has lots of problems with seals failing and poor customer service, not sure if this still holds today)

Do you guys have any suggestions or comments as to which brand to choose or stay away from. I want to get the project, but at the same time I don't want my customer to have problems with their windows/doors failing, especially since its 15th floor, so its more prone to strong winds and rain.

Also on a sidenote, why is there no search function on this website? It would make researching windows way easier.

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TheWindowNerd
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Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:05 pm
Location: SE PA & NJ; DFW/Metroplex

Re: Best Wood-Aluminum clad window/ sliding door for high rise?

#2 Post by TheWindowNerd »

Obviously you have to make sure the units are rated for those heights.
I would think that the pricing among the big three for similar product will be close. I would look at AW E series.
I am not a WS or SP fan.

wayne theWindowNerd

royaltywindows1
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2019 10:18 am

Re: Best Wood-Aluminum clad window/ sliding door for high rise?

#3 Post by royaltywindows1 »

I looked into Andersen E-series, which came out to be a little more expensive than Marvin. However, I excluded them because they are unable to make the custom window unit that the building has ( transom on bottom, large slider on top).

Also I'm not too big of a fan of Andersen. We've used mostly their 100 series for countless projects, but their quality control is terrible. Every job has something either missing or damaged.

You mentioned that you are not a fan of SP or WS. Could you state your reasons so I can get a better understanding from a contractor's point of view? Typically we are the ones that see all the issues in the field since we deal with it on a daily basis.

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TheWindowNerd
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Location: SE PA & NJ; DFW/Metroplex

Re: Best Wood-Aluminum clad window/ sliding door for high rise?

#4 Post by TheWindowNerd »

SP is not a dedicated window company, is sold through big box stores in my market.

WS Has a history of rot and seal failure. See it here frequently. 15 years ago or more one of my primary vendors saw the same thing I did and broke off of WS.

royaltywindows1
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2019 10:18 am

Re: Best Wood-Aluminum clad window/ sliding door for high rise?

#5 Post by royaltywindows1 »

Thanks...will be sticking with Marvin for this project for sure!

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