Male: Right next door to Monterey is a small coastal town of Pacific Road, and the home of Allan, and Marla Martin. Now, the Martin’s are no stranger to home improvement, in fact they’re remodeling their kitchen right now. But when it comes to replacing windows, Allan has had a few false starts and could use a bit of help and guidance. And that after all is what my house calls are all about. Turns out I’m in time for the annual butterfly parade, which celebrates the return of the monarchs to their breeding ground here in Pacific Road. And little Rilley Martin is all set to march in to the parade. So, I guess we do this one, you and I do this together, we’ll run through the process here and you’ll be all set.
Allan: And I can go ahead and do the other three. I feel much more comfortable doing it.
Male: While Marla takes the kids in town, Allan and I begin by removing the trim from around the old window using a hammer and a pry bar. Okay, Allan, the next I want to do is pull this panes out over here, okay. Probably that’s going to be best done from the inside.
Allan: Okay, I’ll tell you what though, can we take a little break? Coz the butterfly parade is going to start. I can’t miss my son in the parade.
Male: Can I join you?
Allan: Yeah, you want to come.
Male: Yeah.
Allan: Okay, let’s go.
Male: The butterfly parade seems to turn out the entire town, so what are these right here?
Allan: Those are moon jellies.
Male: Hi, moon jellies. Riley displays his wings with pride. But now, Allan and I have to get back to the window. I ask Allan to remove as much of the glass as he can safely; this reduces the risk of pane breaking when we take the window out later on. Like most windows, this one has a flange surrounding it. This flange or fins, is a metal strip usually an inch and a half wide, which is nailed into the framing of the house. In order to access the flange, we need to cut away some of the exterior siding that covers it. Using a compass Allan draws a cutline about two inches from the edges of the window frame.
Allan: So, usually, there a saw I liked to use. This is a little three and a half circular saw; you just want to hold the guard backs like this, press the front of the foot right down the siding.
Male: We’ve adjusted our saw so that the blade will cut completely through the siding, but not into the framing below. With the cutting complete, we begin removing the pieces of siding. Okay, so these are loose right now, I think we could use this curve pry bar, Allan, to deal with the…
Allan: There we go.
Male: Now, take the one above it. Now, it’s time to remove the nails that had been driven through the flange. These are the only things now holding the window frame to the house.
Allan: Okay, that’s it.
Male: Out with the old. Next, we remove the 2x4 that the old window is resting on. Now here’s the new one, this is a double hung, double glaze window, it’s going to give you a lot more insulation. Our new window is 45 inches wide by 47 inches high. The width of our rough opening is 2 inches wider than the new window, but the height is a bit too tight. You know what, I think we should do is we have to take out this piece of wallboard right here. I break out the wallboard with a pry bar, revealing the corner beam, and a metal strip that reinforces the corner. We need to remove this strip without damaging the interior wall. First, I tap against it with a pry bar. The tapping produces a crack along the edge of the corner beam, which Allan deepens with a utility knife. A few more taps on the corner beam, pushes the nail head slightly out. Allan removes them with a nail puller.
Allan: Hey, hey, that should come out now. Hey, looks who’s back.
Male: Hey Riley, riley returns from the parade, and helps us measure. Our rough opening is considerably wider than our window, so we’ll layer up pieces of lumber on the sides and nail them in place. This is a nailing flange, right here. Okay, we just going to bend this out. The nailing flange is what allows us to attach our new window to the framing of the house it also provides a seal. Allan lays a bead of cork down the center of the flange, our first of several moisture and air seals. Now, we are ready to set the window in place. All right, so, we set the bottom of the window right under the sill there now let’s tip it up. We slide the window in, until the flange is in contact with the frame. Then I send Allan inside, to make sure the window is centered in the opening. Okay, you want a little bit low on these corner right here, so, I’ll lift it up, now just slip a shim under there. Right on, perfect, next, we drive rust resistant galvanized roofing nails, through the flange, and into the framing.
For places too tight for a hammerhead, Allan uses a drift pin. We have a good seal all away around with these funnel flange right here. Except right, here in this corner. To cover these gaps, we’ll use this self-adhesive rubber corner seals. As an additional barrier against air and moisture, we lay in strips of roofing tape, and tucked the edges behind the siding using a putty knife. Next, we apply a bead of cork, where the roofing paper meets the edge of the siding. Our second barrier, important since even a small water leak over time can cause a significant damage. Now, let’s fill up these gaps here, Allan, with these pieces of wood, just drop it right in there. Okay, this is the last one. We nail in the strips, and now we are ready to attach the trim. We start with the top piece, and use a sidepiece to align the end. Okay, that’s good. We used rust resistant finish nail for the job. Allan adds a final bead of cork around the trim; I smooth it out using my finger to press the cork down in to the grooves of the siding. Then we head inside, these are called jamb extension, what they do is they extend, the jamb, this part of the frame out so it’s flash with the wall, aptly named actually.
Allan: Okay.
Male: So they go in up here, we attached the jamb extensions with a pneumatic pin-nailer. Our final step is nailing up the molding. Isn’t that cool, you will stay nice and cozy in here now, double panes of glass, but daddy’s got three more to do…
Allan: I got three more to do.
Male: So I thought I leave some of my tools here with you guys to finish up the job. I left Pacific Road, knowing the Martin’s would do just fine with the rest of the windows. And that with any luck, they will be installed long before than next years butterfly parade.
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