Professional Builder magazine reported that Weather Shield Manufacturing Inc.'s line of PVC windows and doors, called Visions 2000, is being used by 17.7 percent of builders. The strongest penetration is in luxury homes.
Weather Shield, a wood window maker in Medford, Wis., began extruding and fabricating its PVC windows in 1992. The company reported the survey results at the Builders' Show.
The magazine breaks down usage by the home price. Forty percent of builders of homes priced at $101 or more per square foot use Visions 2000 windows. For homes priced from $81-$100 per square foot, the usage rate was 21.2 percent. In homes priced from $66-$80 per square foot, 14.4 percent used Visions 2000. Builders of homes priced at $65 per square foot or below reported a 12.3 percent usage rate.
The survey of 25,000 U.S. builders also showed that 21.4 percent of remodeling contractors use Visions 2000 windows.