Hi oberon! I hope that you realize that part of my exasperation at this point was that Guardian showed us what was possible, and now we are just trying to achieve that goal. But on to your questions... Guardian was the supplier to Benor well before we entered the process. When we went looking for windows and found Benor, and when our architect realized that the Guardian Architectural Division was willing to participate (there are some personal relationships involved here that made this happen), we started to get a tremendous amount of involvement by a couple of their engineers. The Guardian folks were very helpful in explaining to me and my wife ALL the sources which would degrade both the VT and CRI, and then discussed all that they could do to reduce their impacts. One of the larger impacts on VT that could be mitigated was the interlayer index of refraction mismatch by supercritical choice of the laminate interlayer (including the batch number). They spent hours showing us more than two dozen samples, taught me the laser trick, and then explained why we would want to use their ultra-white glass with Saflex rather than some of the other PVB products available, and why the PET interlayer while it delivered better impact performance was not the right one for us. That decision alone they explained would improve our VT dramatically. They then introduced us to the Munsen Color chart as a way to assess color neutrality, and a myriad of other details that would appeal to the artist in my wife. As we went through this process, they kept plugging the various lite selections into a program ("Windows 5.2") that predicted the performance of the whole glass assembly. Here is where I received the real education. What appeared to be relatively small changes in the components of the glass assembly (such as using the the ultra-white glass with Saflex) were responsible for increasing the VT by 5% (which I have come to find out is HUGE!) The spacer that they suggested was a specialty, "two polymer, warm-edge" system that separated a dual pane glass system. The gap was was about 0.267" and filled with krypton. No window glass on our house was wider than 32" (based on the advice of Guardian engineers). After Guardian designed the complete glass assembly, Benor used that data to estimate "whole window" performance (including frames) and based on these data Benor suggested that they use a "fully foam insulated" vinyl sash and frame for our windows. After this good experience, I had been very disappointed speaking with nearly all of the "established" window brands. Since then however, we have found a couple of specialty window makers that appear to be willing to work with us. The glass samples that they have sent us for inspection appear to be quite good and I am hoping that we end up with a positive outcome. If anything, I think I am the product of "raised expectations" that were the result of a specialty window manufacturer who had tremendous pride in his work and a glass supplier who (for whatever reason) decided to show us the "bleeding edge" "art of the possible" for our house.

Good morning Michelle, Have you considered fiberglass frames? This picture is an Andersen A series fiberglass window. I picked this picture because it looked reasonably close in color and style to the window in the picture that you posted, but there are many different styles of fiberglass windows on the market from many different window manufacture. Fiberglass windows and doors are more expensive than vinyl, probably more comparable to higher quality wood windows in price , but not anywhere near the price of steel.

Didn't know they did the architectural windows now. Note to self. As to the claims that Aluminum is not indicated for coastline, nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, on the metal roofing side of the equation, it is the only thing we use. Anything, if given the right conditions and exposure, will oxidize from the metal family of product and until they start making windows out of stainless steel (still oxidizes) aluminum is your best choice in that family of products. Couple that with the fact that the window is actually painted or otherwise covered in a type of finish that should isolate the bare aluminum from the elements. Aluminum windows have been used on coastline applications for decades and unless you are going with something like fiberglass, all of the wood products will have some aluminum cladding in them (vinyl in the case of Andersen). I think you are in good shape with Aluminum if that look fits the build.

Those quotes seem high. We had Window World install 12 windows and 1 patio door with excellent impact windows for $9000 this year. All permits and and they had to do some reinforcement to the window openings to bring up to the current code for Florida, were included. I felt so much better when we thought Dorian was going to hit here.