Does It Pay to Splurge on Windows?

Outdoor Rug | Black Lumbar Pillow | Galvanized Metal Planter | Mattress Cover

From previous experience with building and remodeling, we quickly found out how spending a little more money on windows was well worth it. There are so many places that you can overspend on a build or remodel, but going for a higher-end window is one place you will never regret.

If you are in the planning stages, I would strongly suggest going ahead and budget for a higher-end window and cut the cost on another area.

Deciding Factors and Why You Should Spend the Extra Money

So, the question is: why spend the extra money on windows? For us, there were several deciding factors that went into us choosing a higher-end window. For the new house, we chose Windsor Aluminum Clad Casement Windows. Here is our thinking and reasons as to why we felt it was well worth the extra cost.

The first reason is the overall look. As mentioned before, we went with a casement window. A casement window does typically run a little more than a double-hung window. We chose casement because we liked the look better with our style of home. The style you are trying to achieve could make this amount go up or down.

To us, a window is so important for the overall look. It can seriously either make a house look great or even horrible. Unfortunately, we loved the look of the casement window so it was quite a bit more.

Henry and I not only feel it is important for the outside to look great, but the inside should look just as good. One thing we love is how black on the interior of a window gives them that steel frame look of the past. The interior black is like a piece of art. It adds so much and we couldn’t leave it off.

Another thing that was a must, was SDL’s or simulated divided lites. This means that the grilles are on the outside of the glass and gives the window a more authentic look. I feel like going with SDL’s is really important with black windows as the black grilles can sometimes be hard to see during the day. So having the grilles on the outside of the glass makes them more visible.

It was also very important to us that we chose a very solid, durable, long-lasting window. This will be a big factor in resale later down the road. When going to Builder’s First Source where we purchased our windows, we had a chance to play around with the different types and styles of windows in the showroom. It’s amazing how you can get a good feel for each window just in the showroom. My eyes were first drawn to Windsor above any other window in the showroom. There was just something about it that looked like a higher-quality window.

When playing around with the different windows, we also noticed how sturdy the Windsor casement window was. I will say, this was not the case with every brand in the showroom. I was pretty sold at this point.

Along with appearance, another important reason to go with a higher-end window is energy savings. We were very impressed with the reviews and ratings of Windsor Windows. They meet Energy Star Ratings, they’re NFRC certified, and ensure superior energy sufficiency. Paying more upfront on this end will lead to future savings over many years.

Ways to Cut Cost with a High-End Window

We knew we wanted the Windsor Windows, but they were a little out of our price range. However, we decided to bite the bullet and go with them, but try and save some money tweaking our window order. It was time to get creative!

Our building material sales rep suggested reducing the grille pattern. We started with a very busy colonial grille pattern because we felt like it was more of a cottage style that went better with our home. Even though it seems obvious now, we found out that more grilles equal more money. We were able to keep the same look by reducing the pattern by two. This saved us around $2,500 dollars off the overall cost. We actually ended up liking this look better. It was cleaner and less busy.

Eliminating a few windows also saved us a few thousand dollars. I’m not talking about front windows that would completely change the look of the house, only ones that we felt were unnecessary.

For example, we already had several windows in our basement and decided to eliminate a couple there. Since the basement won’t be a primary living area, we felt like this was a good place to remove a few.

There was also a huge 13ft tall window configuration in the dining room that we reduced by a third. We were still left with a 9ft tall window. We feel like with everything else (beams, shiplap, and huge pendant light) that will be going on in the dining room, we felt like the larger window might have been too much visually.

Eliminating these windows was a savings of $7,000 dollars off the total.

Another way to save money is to choose a white-only window. Going with black interior and exterior is around a 20% upcharge which I will break down for you in the next section. It can be challenging to choose if either white or black windows will work best in your home, but it definitely can save some money going with white.

Final Window Cost and Specifics

As I mentioned previously, we went with the Windsor Pinnacle Aluminum Clad Black Casement Window. They are black on both interior and exterior with matte black hardware. The total cost for a total of thirty-two windows is $36,644.31 dollars with taxes.

To break it down a little more for you. A basic 28 x 72 window was $686.96 with our largest window 64 x 72 at $1,498.57 each. Also keep in mind, to get interior black was a custom charge of around 20% more. If we were to have gone with white on the inside, this would have been a savings of around $6,677.79 before taxes.

With eliminating a few extra windows and changing our grille pattern we saved several thousand and were able to purchase Windsor Windows for our home. We feel like we made the right decision and are thrilled with the overall look and quality!