uPVC or aluminium? Here you get an answer, not a draw

For a house lived in all year round, with normal-sized windows, uPVC: it insulates more for the money and asks for no maintenance. For wide glazing, heavy sliding doors or frames that have to stay slim, aluminium: it is load-bearing in itself and steals less glass.

If the house has both situations, you fit both materials. Nobody says you have to choose one for the whole property.

Near the coast uPVC has a practical advantage: it is not a metal, so salt air does not attack it and leaves no marks. Anodised, powder-coated aluminium holds up well, but it has to be washed regularly, the frames and above all the hardware.

A few hundred metres from the beach, as happens in Martinsicuro, Villa Rosa or Porto d'Ascoli, uPVC is the choice that gives fewest worries. If you go for aluminium anyway, factor in a rinse with fresh water now and then.

The thermal break interrupts the metal's thermal bridge with an insulating strip between the inner and outer parts of the profile. A good thermal-break aluminium gets close to uPVC performance, but it has to be a serious series, not the cheapest in the catalogue.

So: for the same budget, on pure insulation uPVC gives more. Thermal-break aluminium is chosen when you also need its other qualities, that is, slim profiles, large sashes and particular colours.

For the same performance, thermal-break aluminium costs more than uPVC, which is why uPVC is the best-selling material for homes. The gap is not fixed, though: two quotes can flip over just by changing the glass, the hardware or the number of sashes.

You will not find figures on this page because giving them without having seen your openings means correcting them later. At the site visit we measure and leave you a written quote item by item, and from there the price does not change.

Because metal conducts. If the profile has no thermal break, in winter the inner face of the frame gets as cold as the air outside: the vapour in the house meets it and settles on it as droplets. It is the same reason a cold glass sweats.

It happens almost always on old aluminium windows, the ones without a thermal break and with single glazing. With a thermal-break profile and good double glazing the problem disappears, provided you air the rooms: the vapour produced in a house has to get out somewhere.

An aluminium frame, anodised and powder coated, works for decades without giving: it is the more stable of the two materials. What wears out first are the gaskets and the hardware, and they are replaced without touching the frame.

Good-quality uPVC is in the same order of durability, over thirty years. The real difference is not made by the material, it is made by the fitting: a window put in crooked works badly from day one.

In favour: slim profiles, so more glass and more light; excellent behaviour on large sashes and sliding doors; powder coating in any RAL shade; a stable material, endlessly recyclable.

Against: without a thermal break it insulates badly; with a good thermal break it costs more than uPVC for the same performance; near the sea it wants more regular cleaning of frames and hardware.

Not much. A thermal break cannot be added afterwards: either the profile has one, or it stays a thermal bridge. What can be done is replacing the gaskets and sealing the perimeter between frame and wall, where more air often passes than you would think.

Changing the glazing is sometimes possible, but on an old frame the rebate rarely takes a double-glazed unit, and the frame stays cold anyway. If the window is one of those without a thermal break, the money goes further spent on replacement.

Wood insulates well and is beautiful, but it is alive: it takes up moisture, it moves and the finish has to be redone every few years, all the more if the window catches sun and sea wind. uPVC has similar performance and asks for nothing but a wipe with mild soap.

If you need wood for a planning restriction or for taste, the least demanding route is wood-aluminium, which keeps the wood inside and puts metal outside as a shield. We work with REHAU uPVC and PONZIO aluminium, and it is on those two that we can give you an honest comparison.

On replacing windows in an existing home the Italian VAT rate is 10%, because it counts as extraordinary maintenance. 22% applies to new builds.

There is one more rule: windows count as significant goods. The reduced rate covers the labour in full and covers the value of the window only up to the value of the rest of the service, while the excess goes at 22%. On the invoice the two parts have to be shown separately, the law requires it.