How do vinyl vs wood windows match up against one another? Let’s examine these two window materials on price, warranty, energy efficiency and overall look.
Bottom Line:
Vinyl Overall Rating: 8.5 — Wood Overall Rating: 6.0
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Vinyl vs Wood Windows | Pricing
Vinyl windows are always be less expensive than wood clad windows. Wood is the most expensive material, while vinyl is the least expensive material. As a rule of thumb, vinyl windows that are fully installed might run $400 to $1400 per window, while wood windows might run $1500 to $3000 per window – that’s quite a jump.
Vinyl is simply less expensive to buy, mold and manufacture into a window than an organic material like wood.
Wood Windows Cost: $1500 to $3000
Vinyl Windows Cost: $400 to $1400
Related Topic: Vinyl windows vs fiberglass
Warranties
While wood is certainly the nicer looking between these two materials, the warranty on wood windows is typically going to be 20 to 25 years on the frame material. A vinyl window warranty will typically be lifetime (specifically that the frame be free from defects). In addition, warranty coverage for sashes, IGU, parts, and hardware will typically be shorter than with a vinyl window.
Of course, warranties are specific to the brand and series you purchase. As always, you will want to read the terms and conditions specific to the product you buy.
Vinyl vs Wood Windows : Energy Efficiency
Wood windows are made from an organic material – wood. Yes, that is an obvious statement, but it matters because wood expands and contracts more than vinyl. Over time, the material breaks down more easily than vinyl.
Of course, vinyl expands and contracts as well, but not nearly as much as wood. As well, advances in technology over the past decade have reduced the expansion contraction issue considerably.
The result is that wood windows are much less energy efficient than vinyl. This difference in energy efficiency is going to increase over time. This is one reason why the warranty time on wood windows is 25 years, while the warranty time on vinyl is lifetime.
Winner On Energy Efficiency: Toss Up
Winner On Pricing: Vinyl
Compare On Overall Look
Vinyl windows are never going to be as nice looking as wood clad windows. Vinyl is one of the plainest looking materials around, while real wood grain windows are stunning. There is one pseudo fix for this – buy a vinyl window with a faux wood interior. This provides the look of real wood grain, but without the price tag of real wood.
Related Topics: Best Wood windows
Winner On Overall Look: Fiberglass
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