I would appreciate advice on our purchase of replacement windows and doors for a beach home on a barrier island off North Carolina. We've owned it for almost 15 years, and it's a vacation place. The house has 4 sliding-glass door openings that are 8 feet wide. A fifth sliding-glass door opening is 6 feet wide. The sliding glass doors are constantly off track, leaky, and wobbly. One has a totally clouded stationary glass pane, thus obscuring 50% of the view at that opening. The house has 10 windows. They're double-hung, vinyl, with leaks and disintegrating parts that make the tilt-to-clean mechanism in the bottoms non-functional. (The tops don't tilt at all, so they either stay dirty or make us risk falling out a window to clean a top pane.) 8 of the windows have redwood bermuda shutters that we make sure to latch to prepare for hurricanes. For the sliding glass doors, we have 4X8 sheets of plywood that we have to pull out, get up, etc. It's time to replace all this. We've contacted a contractor about impact-glass windows and doors. He has proposed replacing the sliding glass doors in the 8-foot openings with 1 hinged 3-foot door per opening, flanked by 2 stationary doors (framed sheets of glass)that would be about 2 1/2 feet wide each. (So, each opening would now be a hinged door in the middle of 2 solid panes.) The 6-foot opening would have a 3-foot hinged door and a 3-foot solid pane. The windows would all be double-hung. All this would be in the Miami-Dade storm-impact, Low E, glass, Andersen brand. The proposed cost for just the windows and doors is $33,500. (That's right off the computer sheet from the Andersen rep, computer printouts and specs right there.) When building materials, paint, labor, etc., get added, it comes to $51,000 for the project. If we were to use regular glass (not the impact glass), the cost of the windows and doors would be about half the price of the impact glass windows and doors. We're getting too old to put up plywood, drag it around, etc. We figure we could just get impact glass on the windows that don't have bermuda shutters, but that would still leave us with all these big door openings. Each respective 8-foot door opening costs about $5000 per the Andersen estimate. That would be about $3000 apiece for regular glass instead of impact. Then we would be back with the plywood... This place is sandy, sunny and salty, with a harsh environment that eats pits into alumininum and totally eats nails or screws that aren't stainless steel. The estimates are for using copper flashing, stainless steel nails, window-wrap membrane in the installation, etc. These aren't custom sizes, just replacement. So, is this reasonable? Should I be asking about lesser-quality windows? We don't plan to sell our house, and this property has gotten very valuable since we bought it. Still, I wonder if Andersen is an unnecessary elite brand, and whether I could do as well to get another brand. (If so, I don't know what that would be, whether another manufacturer would stand behind the product, etc.) Today I asked the contractor about MW windows, and he said he could get an estimate. Does anyone know about that company or another? I understand that Oberon's analysis says the impact glass is really worth it, but I'm concerned that the whole housing of the window or door better stand up, too. Still, this is horribly expensive. Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Greetings! I need some advise I lived in South Florida, and I am planning to install high impact sliding door (patio) that is on my master bedroom (HOT room). My master room is my HOT room in the house and receive DIRECT sun light all DAY (10 am to sunset) ! My main goal is to FIGHT the heat. I planning to buy a high impact sliding door with LOW-e 366 or 70XL. Measurements are: 108 by 81 I have couple of quotes but I am confused. Some companies are advising for PGT Windguard 770 series and other CGI Sentinel . Some companies are telling to NOT buy insulated glass (filled with argon) due to possibility of outside glass could break. My questions are: 1. Vinyl vs Aluminum frame. And really worth it 2. If I add tint to an low e-366 or 70XL glass would increase my SHGC factor 3. Insulation with argon gas, will leak? and How common this could happen 4. How easy the exterior glass (thin) of an insulation door fill with argon could break? Does PGT and CGI used stainless screws? 6. How I know that the door I bought has the low-e 336 or 70 glass I bought and not other lower version. Thank you in advance Thank you.

"Squirrel moment-- I have noticed that Marvin's Multi-slide SGD is 9/16" thick using a SGP interlayer. I've also noticed CGI's Estate Series SGD is 1/2" thick using a PVB interlayer." Within the glass industry and lesser extent the window industry, glass is measured and referenced in mm rather than in fractions of an inch for precision, although even people within the industry will refer to fractions at times usually when not being technical. For example, common, everyday, thicknesses of glass from a float might be 1.6mm, 2.0mm, 2.2mm, 2.5mm, 2.7mm, 3.0mm, 3.1mm, 3.9mm, 4.7mm, 4.9mm, 5.7mm, 5.9mm, 6.0mm....and so on. Imagine converting those into fractions and trying to keep track. If a window company wanted 1/8" tempered glass for use in an IGU, for example, then they would likely be getting 3.1mm, but if they wanted ordinary annealed glass, then they would probably receive 3.0mm. I could write pages about why thickness differences but suffice to say it can be simple in some cases and complicated in others. And some of those glass thicknesses directly relate to use with laminated glass. "Marvin's glass is a teensy bit thicker with an SGP interlayer (allegedly bomb resistant, I've read). I'm guessing Marvin uses the SGP interlayer to make the glass stronger." Here's a little secret for you, although glass is referenced in mm, interlayers in North America are usually referenced in decimal. Don't ask me why, that's just how it's done, but referencing interlayers in mm is becoming more common. This is why you can have a lami make up that's listed as 3.0mm/.090"/3.0mm. Weird but how it's done, but there's more. PVB comes in thicknesses of .015", .030", .045", .060", .090", with .090 generally used for impact products, but not always. PVB can also be stacked, for example adding two .060" for a total of .120". SGP comes in thicknesses of .030". .035", .038", .063", .095" and .100". So the reason why two laminated glass lites one with PVB and one with SGP aren't the same thickness is because SGP is slightly thicker than PVB. I do need to mention that there is an update to SGP since I retired and I don't know what thicknesses it comes in. Per bomb resistance, much of what I know in that area is very proprietary and not something I would post in public, but yes that is an option, but far from the only one, and I know some of them would surprise you. SGP has 5 times the tear resistance and is 100 times stiffer than PVB, but that isn't the whole story about how it functions as an impact resistant interlayer. Depending in the window size, aspect ratio, frame and sash materials, so on, sometimes SGP is the better choice and sometimes PVB is the better choice. They both have their place. 1-doesn't that make Marvin's door more qualified against hurricanes? Not necessarily, but I love SGP tear resistance in high wind situations. 2-Will the less-than-stellar ability of SGP to reduce outside noise to the degree that PVB can reduce noise be noticable? Is it a game changer? That's your call, but SGP does virtually nothing for sound resistance while PVB is used in sound and recording studio glass. 3-Seeing that both CGI and Marvin use the same Cardinal glass, the Marvin frame is allegedly on par or stronger than CGI's, do these facts make Marvin a superior product? Again not necessarily. Wood, vinyl, fiberglass, aluminum, have all been certified to hurricane codes, both Miami Dade and ASTM E1886 and E1996. Some sash/frames are stifff as heck and never move, others flex like crazy but stay in place. As long as they meet code that would not be my concern. Do I like Marvin better? Yes I do, but that has to do with a lot of other reasons, not just the material they use for their sash and frames.

I have seen a posting on the web (not sure which site) where a woman freaked out because her windows arrived with an ugly color. I believe is was violet or red. Nothing like what she ordered. Before I drop $12K on impact windows I want to be sure to order something I will like. And in south Florida even in my neighborhood I have seen many windows with the lowE green hue and didn't like it. They were probably clear glass/lowE. So I'm thinking the addition of a gray tint should hide most of the green hue. I ordered some gray samples but am still hoping my sales rep. can point me to an actual finished home/building containing gray and lowE which I can view both inside and out.