Exterior Storm Window OptionsI need some exterior storm window options. Right now, I have some older triple track aluminum storm windows from the 1960s. They are not the greatest, many of the sashes were missing when I bought the house, there is no "center bar", and they are just the pitted mill finish. I got a quote on some new triple tracks from the guy who put in our new huge storm doors. Most of our windows on the front of the house are about 80 inches high and 34 inches wide. Needless to say, the quote we got for just one of these triple track windows in a standard white finish was over 200 bucks! I asked about the storm windows that Lowe's sells, but the problem is they only go up to 73 inches high. The only good thing about them was they were a LOT cheaper. I wanted to see if anyone else has run into this problem. I don't want to put up wood storms that I have to take down after winter, replace my orig windows, or anything like that. I am ok with a triple track storm. I just think 260 bucks for a triple track storm window without installation is very very expensive, even though the window is kind of big.

Any suggestions would be great! shower door repair sarasotaAllied storm window isn't too far away but they look kind of expensive as well. indoor outdoor rugs jacksonville flI just wanted to get some storms up a room or so at a time so I can work on the exterior parts of the windows/tighten up the orig windows as I go. lambo door kits for toyota camry I have a lot of aluminum storm windows too, including a lot of 1950s single track models.  garage door service ashevilleI put up a few new ones in the 1990s when I was more cost focused, and those have been quite disappointing in that they are so thin and flimsy that they move and fit poorly.  cheapest oak doors uk

I put some Lowes ones in my daughters room a few years later and they were better.   garage door company lexington kyHowever, last year I decided to storm up some more windows on one of my landings and ended up using Gorell storm windows.  genie garage door opener fixThey are the highest quality ones that I have used.  I think that were less than $200 each, maybe quite a bit less, but they were also shorter than 80" too.  I would see if there is a local dealer near you.  By the way, when looking for those windows, I found that lots of retailers have dropped selling storm windows all together.  Others do not know a single thing about them, some telling me that they had not taken a single order for them in the last year.  Everyone throws away their windows and gets new vinyl ones.  With that sort of a market, I expect further reduction in dealers and manufacturers.

That is exactly what the guy at Lowes told me as well. Most people just put in the replacement windows and don't mess with the storms anymore. Sometimes I wish my house had smaller windows lol! They would be half the price of the quote I got from my storm door guy. I really REALLY do not want to put in replacement windows. I wanted to redo all of my storms since they look kind of crappy from being pitted and without the main window sashes in, the storms don't really hold out the wind. I will have to check out the Gorell storm windows. Since I am only replacing a few storms at a time, I hope the same manufacturer is still around by the time I have to order more. Thanks for the info Phil! Many people snoot at aluminum triple tracks, and frankly I understand and respect that opinion. For me, though, I don't mind the look that much and when I paint, I paint them to match the exterior window moulding and they largely disappear.  Stormed windows protect the original wooden sashes and they double the life of those paint jobs!

Thats what I figure too. I can see why people like the older style wood storms that you put up and take down all the time. But  the triple tracks don't bug me either. I was just going to get them in white (bec they are usually cheaper) and either leave them that way or paint them later depending on my exterior paint job I end up doing. I need to do something here soon since most of the storms have been missing for  a long time, allowing the sills to get a little rotten. I am kind of tired of still doing damage control after 3 years lol. Martin, I replaced most of my old metal storm windows with triple track new metal ones.  Mine are forest green in color, baked on finish.  Each storm was custom made due to the size.  Most of my windows were 78 inches tall.  Some were wide and some were narrow.  They all cost about $176 each because of the length and I picked them up at the factory and installed them myself.  Some of my older storms were still in pretty good condition so I removed them cleaned them up and spray painted them to match the new ones. 

I don't know what part of the country you are in,but I bought my storms at Western Window in Berea, Ohio.  About a 45 minute drive from my house.  I ordered the new storms, several at a time. I wanted the wooden original kind, but could not afford them and could not find a manufacturer in my area of Ohio.  Storm windows do protect all my original window sashes. I am in Middletown Ohio so I can look into that option as well. Most of the windows on the front half of the house are the same size, give or take a bit. The back half are shorter, but all the windows on the back part of the house are about the same side. I was thinking of doing the install myself anyway. It doesn't look tooo hard to do and you just use some silcone caulking (I believe) behind the new storms to seal them in. Thanks for that info too! I will have to get out all the options that I can! Installing them is easy.  caulk the left, right and top but never the bottom.  Otherwise moisture that gets in can't get out, leading to mildew and rot. 

Be sure to measure each window very carefully.  To get a decent fit, your measurements have to be within 1/4" of accurate, and many of my windows that appear to be the same vary by 3/8" or more.  I have some wooden ones too.  They look great, and I never take them off between seasons.  On the downside, they are very expensive, and if I had all of them, then I would probably have to swap at least 15 or 20 out in the summer for reasonable fresh air. Also, when painting the house, you have to paint the window and both sides of the wooden storm.  Trust me, that slows you down a lot, since a primer plus two topcoat job means the equivalent of 9 window paintings per window. I think some of the weep holes in my existing storms have been painted over in the past.I know not to seal the lower parts up. I know a lot of the lower sills on the storms have been squashed over the years by window ac units (many were not pitched right and rotted some of the sils out) so they don't seal up right.

Hopefully, whatever I do will work out better than what exists right now. Bad news: new storms won't cover up your sills.  Those still stick out into the weather. Maybe I don't mean the acutal sills.. There is a wood part of my sill... and then there is a stone part of the sill (my house is brick)..I guess you can say it is a bottom lentil?? I am not worried about that part..just the wood part. Since I am working on some woodwork upstairs I can snap a picture to show you guys what I mean. The old storms cover the wood part up that I am concerned about... I was hoping that someone had a "new" product !! We are also in need of some , Im planning on painting some and replacing the screens but its just so time consuming . And like the others my windows are odd sizes by todays standards. On the flip side they have saved the old double hung windows which are over 100 yrs now ! Sounds like our house. But, as you said, they have saved our old wood windows too!! Our house use to have old style shutters when it was new, but were taken off when the storm windows were put up in the 50s.