Den windows

Finally the windows for the large first floor room are installed! I guess we saved the best for last.

These windows are really large, about 6 ft x 3 ft.

I returned once again to Marvin for these windows since I've really been impressed with the french door we bought from them. Plus, they deliver to the house for free!

All of the trim had been removed on the inside of the house a long time ago when we replaced the drywall. So there wasn't really any work to do on the inside. On the outside we had to remove the brick molding and then use a sawzall to cut the nails or whatever was holding the window in.

So I go the brick molding off of the windows and started trying to determine where the fasteners were with a skinny piece of stick. I went all the way around the window and didn't feel anything. I couldn't see anything either. The reason was because there was nothing holding the windows into the frame! They were sitting on the sill. For the last forty years they've sat in the hole not a single screw or nail holding them in place!

Of all the things that I've seen in remodeling this house nothing surprises me anymore, but I couldn't believe this one. I guess the only thing holding the windows in place all that time was the trim on the inside and the brick molding on the outside. No wonder these windows wouldn't raise.

The new windows came with a nailing fin that is suppose to be really for new construction. But I had enough room around the window, since they weren't quite as big as the old ones, to utilize the fin. I have to say it is very convenient. I had the fin on the kitchen window but I didn't use it. It would have made that job much simpler. The french door might have had one too, I can't remember now.

The windows are very nice. The exterior is already the color that you select, I went with bronze. The inside is unfinished pine that is stainable. Screens are integral and are easy to remove. No grids.

Specs:

U Factor = 0.28
SHGC = 0.32
Visible Transmittance = 0.54


$586 x 2 = $1172

Bye bye window!

Today our door from Marvin arrived. It will be an outswing french door that will replace the two double hung windows that are there now.

Before the deck was built this window was about six feet up. There was a small amount of demolition to do with the brick beneath the window.

An entry door will be an improvement from having to walk into the garage to access the deck. It will also be a thermal improvement over the two heinous single pane windows that leak air terribly and won't open and close anymore because someone painted them shut. Lovely!

Hole in the wall

I can always count on finding an example of shoddy workmanship every time I remove something and this time was no exception. When the hvac register was installed they cut all the way through the exterior gyp board as you can see on the left. They also hacked up the rim joist and sill.

So for the last 30 yrs hot and cold air has basically been venting to the exterior. Not that the gyp board provides much R value, but it's at least an air barrier. This probably means the registers on the other side of the room could be the same way. I demo'd this register and it's duct back to the y fitting and capped it off.

Cutting the brick turned out to be easier than I expected. I bought a 6" masonry cutting disc and installed it on my angle grinder. It made a lot of dust but wasn't real hard to grind thru the bricks at all. No water necessary. It only took about an hour to demo the entire section.

Six degrees of cold...

This is what happens when it gets down to six degrees. This is ice on the inside of a window in the house. This window does not have storm windows on it and the condensation froze. I had to get a hair dryer to thaw it out.

This is an original window and it will be replaced by a door. Extreme cold is uncomfortable but it reveals the thermal weaknesses of a structure better than anything else. I knew this window was a weak point but I didn't realize the extent.

Storm windows work because they keep the exterior cold or heat away from the single pane glass. Condensation will always form where hot meets cold. Where condensation occurs that is below freezing ice will form. There should be an entire chapter in the book on inefficiency devoted to this.

I found several other places throughout the house that had ice on the glass that morning. Mainly where the storm window had been left in an open position.

I left the hose bibbs dripping the night before and icicles had formed on the spigots.

When I rode around the next day there was sign of burst pipes everywhere around town. Home Depot's watering system in the garden center burst. A major metropolitan hospital that my wife works at had a pipe burst which flooded a recovery room.

This is an infrared reading on the window pane. It's around 63 degrees inside the house.

The neighbors reported that one of the houses nearby had water running out of it and icicles were seen emanating from the front door. I tried working outside and only lasted about 15 minutes. At noon it had risen to 12 degrees. If it never gets that cold again it will be too soon!

Today I was wearing a t-shirt...

This window's gotta go!

 40 year old window. Double hung, leaky, ugly, it's got to go.
Interior view of the newly installed window.
















Performance specs of the new Pella Window.

Low E
U Factor 0.29
SHGC .33
Visible Transmittance 0.62
Argon Gas filled double pane fixed
Energy Star Rated

$365

It took about 4 hrs to install the window. We weren't trying to break any speed records. The old window was basically held in by 2 nails. There are about 20 screws in the new one. The gap between the framing and the window is filled with expanding foam. We taped the entire framing with a non permeable adhesive sealing tape.






Newly installed, high efficiency Pella. Very happy with this window!


http://www.nfrc.org/WindowRatings/The-NFRC-Label.html