The windows were scheduled to be delivered soon and and there was lots of preparation before they can be installed. The first thing is to get the rough window openings wrapped with a WRB (weather/water resistive barrier). Keeping the framing free from rot for a very long time is important to me so I chose a hearty product called VaproShield to wrap the window openings with. It’s a peel and stick product, which can be challenging to install cleanly but once you’re done it’s very satisfying. It gets “shingled” on as if you are installing a roof. The bottom sill gets installed first, then the sides and eventually the top. This allows the top piece to lap over the piece below it, just like a roof. A layer of very thick silicon is applied over the membrane on the inside of the jamb overlapping 1″ on the outside. A plastic trowel is used to smooth it out. It’s a bit of a process but it seems well worth it to have long lasting weather protection.
I started getting quotes early on to have my windows installed. Much to my surprise I was getting numbers back that were more than 50% of the total cost of the windows. I hadn’t budgeted anywhere near that for installation so I was freaking out! We have 45 windows and exterior doors, which is quite a lot, but the quotes seemed excessive. Some of the widows weigh in excess of 500 pounds so there was no way I could hire one or two more people and install them myself. Lucky for me my framer called and said his job was delayed by a week and he could help install the windows. The crew started the next day and helped me finish up wrapping the window openings.
A few days later Goldfinch Brothers delivered the Marvin windows and we went to work getting them installed. The framing crew has some “wall jacks” that allow a couple of people to stand on a plank on the outside of the window while the window gets handed out the opening to them. Marvin has a nifty folding nailing flange so the window can be handed strait out and then the flange gets folded out and nailed off. This allowed us to get the windows installed very rapidly.
The windows were delivered on a Friday morning and by that afternoon we had 80% of them installed. It was nothing short of a miracle. A couple of the guys came back the next day and we got almost everything else installed. There are large sliding doors for the two decks and they come broken down so they needed to be assembled and installed in the opening. I spent a couple more days taking care of that.
