5 easy questions for acrylic lanai owners
 

(1) How many years old are your acrylic sliders?
(2) Have any issues of warping, yellowing, scratching, water leaks or other caused you to consider replacing them or be unhappy with them? (Please
describe)
(3) What tinting did you get and were you happy with it?
(4) When sliders are open do you still get the open screened porch feel?
(5) If you were to do it all over again would you get acrylic or glass?
Thank-you for your time

acrylic sliders
 

We love the sliders. have had them about 1 year. When open still provides that open to the outsude feeling. We got the amber tint. Provides privacy during the day. The only deteriation i see is some light horizontal scratches due to sliding across each other. If I were to do it again I would go the same way.

Mine are VINYL
1 - 4+ yrs old
2 - the vinyl itself is fine. they don't slide as easily as when new. they seem to get dirty 'quickly' and they're more difficult to clean than glass
3 - lightest possible 'smoke' and it's fine
4 - yes, plenty of air
5 - at the time I was very happy with the vinyl. I did not get acrylic because of cost AT THE TIME.
And........the rest of the story....... I had White Alum do my screen and vinyl. They did an excellent job. In the last few months I had them estimate the replacement of house windows. The same salesman did it and he mentioned that if we were doing the lanai today we could get glass windows there for about the same cost as the vinyl. Today I would go with glass.

When we had an estimate from White Aluminum the difference between acrylic and glass was small so we went with the glass. We have glass from the ground up to roof and can move sliders to open up the lanai for that outdoor feeling we love. During the recent cold spell I could sit on my lanai (faces East) each morning in the Sun wearing shorts and t shirt and be comfortable. We think that adding glass to the lanai was the best decision we made in upgrading our home.

acrylic experience
 

12 yr old acrylic sliders in the lanai
No problems with the sliders or acrylic. We love them.

I'd probably prefer glass as acrylic requires some care in cleaning as some chemical cleaning can cause problems. The grass sprinklers left a residue that I could get off glass but I don't know how to get off the acrylic. The residue was caused by years of neglect by prior owners.

Also, need to be careful barbecue grill doesn't get too close to acyrlic or it'll warp/melt.

Neighbors put in glass and they're very happy with the glass. We were told that the quality and cost goes in the order of vinyl, acrylic and then glass. We were also told that glass used to cause increase in property tax while vinyl and acylic did not.

We also went for glass .. Hardly any price difference.

You said that you were told glass used to cause increase in property tax... is that still true now?

I too understand that used to be the case with glass, but we did glass several months ago and was assured that is no longer the case. Go glass, and while you are at it get the low-E glass.

Minimal increase in tax.

What is "low-E glass"? Is there a price difference than with standard glass?

Can't speak to what the price difference would be, but here's some info that helps explain low-E glass:

http://www.efficientwindows.org/lowe.cfm

Hope that helps!

Bill

Also lets remember that we do live in Florida and we can and do get a fair number of BIG storms.....ie Hurricanes, tornados etc. Granted no window will withstand a direct hit but at least we can prepare the best we can.

Glass windows "must" be rated to withstand up to 110 MPH winds in central Florida (which is different than costal florida) while arcylic windows are rated for approx 70 mph. In fact you will see caution notes recommending that acrylic windows be removed if high winds greater than 70 MPH are expected.

If you have a western facing lanai, you definitely need LOW E insulated windows....which you cannot get with acrylics. LOW E provides an immediate reduction in heat gain to our lanai which results in more comfort. In addition to providing more comfort, low e windows also protect fabrics from discoloring etc.

Also remember that the strength of a window is only as good as its "framing" so I would not go cheap in having the windows installed...ie it may cost a couple of bucks more to have the windows installed with 2X4 lumber framing but that will withstand more wind pressure than 1X3 aluminum framing...and if you are getting glass..just remember that glass windows are MUCH heavier and need the added support.

In the first 5 years probably you will not see a major difference in acrylic vs glass windows but over time the acrylic windows will become streaky, discolored and start to look like your golf cart windshield. IN 10 years you will need to replace the acrylics where glass is more permanent.....at roughly the same cost.

A Porch or lanai is rated differently if they are 1) open, 2) screened, or 3) enclosed. If your lanai is enclosed with windows AND you have heat/ac added to the area, you are actualy making it part of your home square footage and rated at 100%. This is a personal point of view but i believe the tax impact of whatever level of improvement is so minimal, it will be far outweighed by the comfort and enjoyment you will gain from your improvement.

Our contractor was very through in explaining all of these differences and actually encouarged us to visit his window supplier to see for ourselves the differences in types and quality of windows.

Good information. Who was your contractor?
Looking in to enclose our lanai. Need all the help I can get!

B&J Builders...a small company (think little overhead) run by a former Village Construction Supervisor who does all his own estimating and finishing work and uses all Villages Construction workers (ie T&D Concrete, Munns, Nickels tile etc) as his subs for the heavy jobs such as concrete. rebar, framing, roofing, heat/ac, etc .

I sent you a PM with the info requested.