Valerie from Charlottetown, PEI writes: "We are building a new home and would like to use clay coloured vinyl windows, thinking that the clay colour would show on the exterior and also on the interior of the home. Today we were told that the colour is only on the outside and the interior of the window is always white! Is this the case and if not can we get solid coloured vinyl windows that will show the colour both inside and out?"
Ooh did I mess up on this one. One of the problems with windows is that there are so many local manufacturers all across the country that in fact just about anything is available, if you can find it. Here is what I told Valerie:
"Sorry Valerie, but we called around to the basic manufacturers and the window association only to find out that the inside is always white, because it goes best with most interiors. If you want the maintenance free clay coloured vinyl on the outside and brown on the inside, without simply painting the white vinyl on the inside, you will need to buy wooden windows with vinyl exterior capping. Then you can stain the inside wood as you like and have your colour on both sides." S
o Valerie bought white windows.
Then one of our viewers wrote in a week too late for Valerie:
"The Sherwood DO-IT Centre in P.E.I. represents a quality line of vinyl windows made by Atlantis Windows. They are the oldest vinyl window manufactured in Canada. They make a solid vinyl Clay coloured windows which they call sandalwood. Most people who see it call it clay. The colour is inside and out and they are beautiful."
And I must also report with clay coloured egg on my face: that we have also heard about a real hybrid window that is aluminium on the outside, wood in the middle and vinyl on the inside. I'm not quite sure why, but it just goes to say -- never claim that something isn't made in the competitive window industry.