Opinions on Sunrise/Vanguard Interior Laminates

[Jason.creoli]

Hi there - thanks for recommendation earlier on a good vinyl replacement here in Colorado. We are considering going with Sunrise Restorations, but the lady of the house is having reservations about vinyl in our historic-ish (1930's) home replacing original single-hung wood windows.

The interior laminates from Sunrise seem like a viable solution to add some more historic appeal, but I haven't seen many pictures outside of the catalogue. For those that have installed - do they add more of a classic/realistic wood window look to the windows?
Our window casing and trim (we will preserve the original) is all white so we would go with the painters white interior laminate - the installers have all said 'just go with the vinyl, you won't notice much of a difference' but would be curious if anyone has actually had experience. Thanks!

[Windows on Washington]

Tough sell to be honest. As soon as you say "historic", anything in vinyl is going to fall short on that marker.

Have you looked at some of the hybrid windows that are fiberglass exteriors with a wood interior?

[Jason.creoli]

We haven't - everyone who has given us a quote has been pushing their vinyl products. Is there a product at a 'reasonable' pricepoint I should look at? Marvin Integrity?

[Randy]

Marvin’s Elevate series (formerly Integrity) would be a great choice.

[WindowsDirectCinci]

I've done a few job with their Paintable/Stainable interior laminate. It comes in a pine laminate material and can be painted any color for that "wood" feel. This is as close as you're going to get and has turned out great each time someone wants the look and finish of natural wood. Also I'm unaware of an interior white laminate.

[Jason.creoli]

I've done a few job with their Paintable/Stainable interior laminate. It comes in a pine laminate material and can be painted any color for that "wood" feel. This is as close as you're going to get and has turned out great each time someone wants the look and finish of natural wood. Also I'm unaware of an interior white laminate.

Thanks for this - and you are right, there is no interior white laminate. I was mistaken and the 'painters white' it turns out is just the standard white vinyl interior with no laminate.

Having installed the paintable interior laminate - would it be totally crazy and a waste of time to get the paintable interior laminate and then paint it white to match our trim? Would it give it more of a wood feel, or am I just splitting hairs and should go with the standard vinyl interior (admiittedly, getting an additional vinyl laminate just to paint white does sound silly)

[TheWindowNerd]

Couple of things:
Do your windows have colonial grids. If so SDL is a must to get close to the look you want.

The interior white depends on how fussy you are about being dead on to your painted white wood. If the white vinyl interior works for you it will be the least cost and lowest upkeep.

[HomeSealed]

Depends on how discerning you are... although between the laminate and painting, you'd probably be adding at least a few hundred dollars per window and there will still be some tell-tale signs of a vinyl window like the angled corner welds... Don't get me wrong, it will look nice and there's nothing wrong with those welds, I'm just not sure that the price difference would be justified when they will look the same as white vinyl from five feet away.