Dealing with white vinyl windows

[ellbaker]

I am getting ready to order windows for my 20x34 cabin. I would like to go with pre stained fiber board siding in a cedar color. It will look like the 20x34 in Michigan on this site. Ideally I would order a wood clad window in a color that goes with the cedar.  Wood on the interior is great with pine board walls.  Problem is that clad windows are not cheap. I haven't found any less than $400 per window for the size I need (~32x68). I found some vinyl windows with low E for $89 a window.

I think white clashes bad with the cedar color. I am looking for ideas on how to trim the window on the exterior to soften the bright white vinyl. I saw interior pictures of Dave and Kim's cabin with vinyl trimmed out with pine on the interior and it didn't look too bad. Pictures and/or ideas would be appreciated. 

Am I the only one who hates the look of white vinyl because almost every house around town has white vinyl windows. I put Marvin integrity fiberglass windows in my personnel home and painted the exterior to match the siding (a beige color). White does not go with the earthy tones in my brick. If money was not a concern, I would use Marvin Integrity in the cabin because they are an excellent window! 

[PEG688]

You can order vinyl windows that are NOT white , they shouldn't cost  any more,  or not much more,  than a white window that they have in stock.

  Have you checked into this option?

[MountainDon]

We ordered a light tan color vinyl through Lowe's; MW I think they were.

[ellbaker]

You can order vinyl windows that are NOT white , they shouldn't cost  any more,  or not much more,  than a white window that they have in stock.

  Have you checked into this option?

Yes but I am trying to use these $89 windows. They are only available in white as overstocks. Ordering windows bumps the price up to around $220 per window.

[MountainDon]

Paint?  But not dark or heat may build up and warp the vinyl.

[PEG688]

If you're going to look for the cheapest bargain possible you'll need to reduce your expectations of looks.

Paint won't stick worth a crap , it will peel off.

  By the time you get done buying pain,  or other building materials,  to "cover up" the white part of the windows , and the other issues that stacking that material over the exterior of the windows creating places water can be trapped in you'll have spent more time , and "real" dollars than ponying up the extra 120.00 per unit.

Or like I said,  except the white windows as is , and reap the reward of  dollars saved by bargain shopping. 

       

[Erin]

Personally, I'd stick with the white and do your trim in white, too.  I don't think it clashes.  I think it'd look pretty sharp, actually (but I'll confess to frequently being clueless about these things). 
And trimming out in white would look like it's what you wanted.  The whole thing would look complete.

[Redoverfarm]

I was in the same position as you when deciding on the windows for my cabin.  Yes I would have rather went with a colored frame but considering the cost difference and where the money could be spent elsewhere I opted for the white vinyle.  There has to be a cut off cost wise in your constructon and this was one that I made.  There was some discusssion somewhere in my thread but for the life of me I can't recall where so I thought I would post some pictures of what I ended up with.  They are in the following post with some info before and after this individual post.  By the time I trimmed them out there was very little white showing.


http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=3613.msg101104#msg101104

[Kramer]

You can get dye for colouring the white.  Paint is NOT the right answer.

First google page: http://www.parasolinc.com/dyes_paints.asp

The product that would be correct for your application is 'Varibond'.

Other manufacturers make similar products, shop around, there is better deals to be had.  It's not an uncommon process to dye PVC.  Read the directions thoroughly, some of the products are a little finicky.

Also, you can trim over the vinyl, providing you account for drainage and caulk seams as required.  Personally, if I was to do this I'd probably time over it with something that was impervious to moisture, such as hardiplank, but that's just me.  The shack that I'm working out of right now, they trimmed over the cheap windows with what appears to be a cheap softwood siding, and it's holding up fine after 8 years.

[OkieJohn2]

I have to admit I have a bad habit of not listening to others who know what they are talking about, but I think I might be tempted to look as something like Krylon Fusion.
http://www.krylon.com/products/fusion_for_plastic/
I also have to agree that using a dark color would absorb more heat which can be a bad thing with plastics.

[MountainDon]

OkieJohn2..... that's the paint I was thinking of. I've had good luck with it on the plastics I've tried it on.

Then again I'd probably still do what we did and buy the light tan colored ones.


In the early days of vinyl windows some company tried dark vinyl and some of them did warp.