Right next door to Monterey is the small coastal town of Pacific Grove, home to Allen and Marla Martin. The Martins are not strangers to home improvement, in fact, at the time of Ron's visit they were in the process of remodelling their kitchen. When it came to replacing windows, however, Allen had made a few false starts in the past and really would feel better if he could get a bit of expert help and guidance. Naturally, Ron was willing to step in and help out.
Click Here For a list of what
you will need in order to complete this project.
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1. Remove old window:
- Allen and Ron began the project by removing all of the trim from around the old window using a hammer and a pry bar.
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- Next they went inside to remove the panes of glass from the frame. Ron suggested that they remove as much of the glass as they safely could to reduce the risk of a pane breaking when they removed the whole window frame later on.
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- Like most windows, this one had a flange surrounding it. This flange or fin consisted of a metal strip, usually an inch and a half wide, which was nailed into the framing of the house.
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- In order to access this flange, they needed to cut away some of the exterior siding that covered it. Using a compass, Allen drew a cut line about two inches from the edge of the window frame.
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- For this type of project, Ron preferred to use a little 3 ½ inch circular saw. Ron showed Allen how to hold the guard back and rest the front of the foot right on the siding. They had adjusted the saw so that the blade would cut completely through the siding but not into the framing below.
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- With the cutting complete, they began removing the pieces of siding using a curve pry bar.
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- Using a nail puller, they removed the nails that had been driven through the flange. This was all that was now holding the window frame to the house.
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- Once the nails were removed from the flange, they were able to easily remove the window frame from the house.
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- Using pry bars again, they removed a 2 x 4 that the old window had been resting on and they were ready to turn their attention to the new window.
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2. Install new window:
- The new window was double hung and double glazed, which should provide a lot more insulation value. The new window was 45 inches wide by 47 inches high. The width of their rough opening was two inches wider than the new window but the height was a bit too tight. Ron recommended removing the piece of wallboard to make the opening a bit larger.
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- Ron used a pry bar to break out the wallboard, which revealed the corner bead, a metal strip that is used to reinforce a corner. It was necessary to remove this strip without damaging the interior wall.
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- Ron first gently tapped against the corner bead with his pry bar, which produced a crack along the edge of the corner bead. Allen deepened this crack with a utility knife.
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- A few more taps on the corner bead pushed the nail heads slightly out so that Allen was able to remove them with a nail puller.
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- Since their rough opening was considerably wider than the window, they layered up pieces of lumber on the sides and then used a pneumatic nail gun to secure them in place.
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- They bent out the nailing flange of the new window, which would allow them to attach it to the framing of the house as well as provide a good seal.
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