Window Installation – The Process

So, I have 2 new windows in place, but neither of them really finished. Here’s how that went. (I did one per day so I’m consolidating a bit.)

First off came the cheapie plastic blinds and the sheets of 1/8″ Eucaboard that I used to cheaply cover up just how much of a mess the old windows were.

Then out came the window sashes – except the drafty one that I caulked into the jamb. One window jamb came free with just a few screws. The other, thanks to said caulked-in-place jamb, wasn’t accessible so I just ripped at it. The original window jamb behind it was in poor shape and fell apart. The one where the window came free? That one looked so clean I could have just reinstalled the sashes, so tearing it apart made me a little sad. (Of course I don’t have the original sashes to restore)

The original window frames were pocketed into the brick. When the house was built, the windows were placed into the wall and then the bricks were laid up around them. So I had to Sawzall a bit of wood in half.

Then with all that out I could finally remove the cursed hot dog truck capping from the original sills, which are staying. Then came tons of cleaning, stripping the sills, and cleaning again. These little cavities inside the brick wall that should have been completely sealed shut somehow filled with black dust. I wanted the bits of loose mortar out and the brick, not spotless but clean enough for spray foam to adhere. That left us like this.

Then it was time to build the new rough framing. My new rough openings are about the size of the face brick, which stepped in over the original jambs. This makes room for the new, narrower window jambs and gives us a window that’s close in size to the original. I nailed the sides in top and bottom, but all along the sides I just filled the gap with spray foam. After filling this in we took a good LONG break because this stuff keeps expanding for a bit and I wanted to leave it plenty of time to keep oozing out.

Now, a couple of hours later, it’s time to get the window in place! We set it into the jamb and to my amazement, it was spot on level with no shimming! That’s ONE thing in this house that’s square. Mind you, the wall is out of plumb and out of plane with itself and I had to do some figuring to decide what to square the windows to. But that one thing was easy.

After that you shim the sides. Marvin is very strict that the shims need to be just snug; you don’t want to over or under shim. And because I used structural masonry nailing fins, we bent these out and screwed them into the rough opening.

Then on went the original brick mold! I’m really, really excited about this part.

Just look at these shadow lines.

Inside, it’s less finished, but I’m relieved that the molding will cover the holes I made in the drywall, but what a close call!

Now, I don’t want you to think that everything is perfect. We’ll talk about a few issues next time.