Tuesday, January 09, 2007

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

Well, the title has nothing to do with this post but it was the only song I could think of that mentioned a window and it's one of my favorites. Anyway, these are MW windows, made in Virginia I think. I liked them because they are just plain wood windows, no frills or grilles or cladding. You can get that with this brand but they have good solid wood too. I don't care for vinyl or aluminum windows. They are fine if that is what you like and want but I just like the feel and look of wood. Now, these do have composite sills but everything is paintable and the wood is treated with a sealer. As I mentioned before, I'm not much impressed with Pella and some of those either and here's why. Lots of the expensive window makers use white or sugar pine for the frames because its pretty wood (it really is), fine grain etc. But it rots like crazy. There is no sap in it. But they charge alot because it looks so nice and it does look pretty on the inside where you might stain it. Now, these windows use good, ol' hard yellow pine. Lots of sap means harder wood and less rotting. Now if installed properly, they should not be getting water under them anyway but things happen. But the interiors are still nice and would look just fine stained. Also, last year I replaced about 6 sills in some big Pella windows. They had only been there about 7 or 8 years and were completely rotted out, so the owner calls the Pella rep and complains. So the rep says, "I'll come out on Friday to look at them 'cause that's my day to check out complaints". He has one whole day devoted to complaints?? Anyway, the guy comes out and looks at the windows and says, " Yeah, they're rotted. Too bad." So I don't care much for them. We put down this rubber flashing under each window. It's a peel and stick deal and you have to make sure and not let it touch its self. Some peope say you only need this if you are going to have brick or stone on your house but we use it regardless. Let it roll up the sides about 2 inches and stick it down good. Then set the window.
After the window is securely set, I stuff a little insulation under it and then you kind of roll this flashing up on itself to make like a little dam at the back or inside of the window. This photo is a little misleading 'cause I rolled it a little different that what I show here. It will secure itself if you roll the sticky side in.
So it looks like this. This is in case any water gets under your window somehow, it will not fall back into the wall. It will either flow out and behind the siding, where it will evaporate, or just evaporate on the sill. Now, if you get lots of water, that's another story! So that's my window lesson for the day. The metal roofing is suppossed to be here Friday morning!!! I'm excited again! It cost way more that I thought! I'm running out of money! Need to work more side jobs. We added alot of trim to it so that's what ran the price up because that stuff has to be custom made.

4 comments:

Omelay said...

nice lesson, i can always use a good bit of instruction.

Anonymous said...

The windows look great,but if there is a flood they are going to rot like hell. NORMAN

MamaHen said...

Hey Karl! Thanks, sometimes I'm not sure that I explain things well.

Hey Norman! If it floods that high I think I'm going to have worse things to worry about. :)

Jenn said...

Any time you can add flashing it is good to do so. Looks like a good product.