Challenges That Come With Replacing Windows

One of our building permit includes replacing windows in the house. The house has single pane windows with aluminum framing. When it comes to upgrading windows, single pane windows are probably considered obsolete nowadays, and the upgrades are mostly being dual pane windows, which are more energy efficient because it had better control and proven performance over the air around it, both hot and cold air. Dual pane windows keep the warm air in and keep the cold air out, and vise versa, which minimize the use of heating or air conditioning furnace to keep the room cool during summer or warm during winter.

By replacing windows using different sizes, part of the indoor walls, sheetrock, had to be cut off inorder to remove the old windows and place the new ones. So there could be plenty of patching of the interior walls or the sheetrock specially if you are replacing a window with a different size. Even more difficult is when the existing sheetrock have texture in them, which means that patched wall had to be textured as well to match with the existing texture. Texturing is not an easy task, you need to find the right texture that match with what is existing and price wise, they usually don't come cheap. A single spray can of texture cost around $12 to $15 that have coverage around 50 to 100 square feet, depending also if its used sparingly or economically. After the texture application, primed paint had to be applied before the colored wall paint can be applied. Paint color has to match the existing wall paint, or else the whole room wall need to be repainted so that it will not have multi-colored or patchy finished end product.

Another major challenge when replacing windows is when the new window had to be move to a new location, or move few inches away from the original location because the header above the existing window will be affected and had to be moved as well. And if the header will be move, you will have to deal with the wall studs as well, possibly add or relocate the 2x4 studs to properly support the new header location, the windows, etc.

But having new dual pane windows are definitely worth it! As simple as replacing windows have dramatic transformation in the look of your home.

Written by Jazevox