wood vs. vinyl

[dgjk70]

I'm curious as to why every person who has come out to give me quotes has quoted vinyl. Is this because the majority of people want maintenance free windows? I thought vinyl was the way to go but wood looks so much nicer. I can't get away from the feeling that the vinyl looks cheap. More specifically, the Great Lakes Uniframe. I was set on buying these until I walked into the showroom and saw the ones they actually installed in their building. They put a piece of quarter-round around the window to merge the original wood with the new window. I thought it looked cheap. If we go with wood I am worried about moisture and the wood turning black like it has with my current windows. Any comments? What are thought on Loewen triple-pane, lowE w/ argon windows? Quality or not? If not, what other brands/model are better?

[JScott]

Wood is a four letter word to many vinyl folks here. Lowen has a fine window. There are pros' and cons' to either wood or vinyl. Best rule of thumb- do alittle research- buy what you like and with the performance ratings you need(site specific). Extruded clad direct glazed wood units hold up fine when proper maintenance and installation guidelines are observed, very easy to achieve R40-R60 or higher while most vinyl units are performance rated R20-R30. I like stained wood, its elegant. Vinyl, its plastic, each have their place. The project should have some guidelines, we see million dollar homes being built with R20 windows and feel the builder sold them a Hummer with an old Ford 4cylinder engine. Go with LowE insulated glass at a minimum(99% of USA). Besides vinyl and wood, including vinyl clad wood, aluminum clad wood, fiberglass clad wood and copper clad wood you also have fiberglass, composite and aluminum framing material. You can even import windows made with bronze clad from europe. Hope this helps(no ill intention to wood haters intended).