Originally Posted by t walgamuth

If you have an older home with double hung wood windows and can find a craftsman capable of repairing the damaged ones I have found that repairing and painting the original windows, and installing high quality storms and wrapping the frames on the outside with aluminum gives an excellent result and is cost effecient.

I did this in my old home of 1866 and my old commercial building 1928.

On my new home 1991, I used Andersen windows. I have had no issues with them. Andersens in my experience are an excellent window but the frames are fairly flexible and care must be taken to install them straight. If you pull the frame out of its plane the window will not seal.

I actually wanted to replace the windows in my old office building but could not find any new windows at any price that were half the quality of the original windows so I repaired them and installed the storms.