In Which Storm Windows are Planned
The plan was to slowly work my way around the house, repairing windows one at a time based on severity of disrepair. After re-reading my window repair books and brushing up on my techniques, I started getting cold feet. This is going to be a huge project I'm not super keen on starting.
I hope you forgive this little digression, but last summer we had the windows, especially in the master bedroom and red room, open pretty much all night because the house got so warm. unfortunately, none of the old windows have screens. As you can imagine, flies and moths and assorted beetle species turned our bedroom into a second home and we were constantly banishing the buzzing blighters from our bedroom.
This winter, i was cleaning out the rafters in the garage and realized that there were some old wood window screens stuffed up there. It took some kerjiggering, but I got them down, along with a decade or more of dust and dead insects. To my disappointment, there were only three, and all were in really rough shape. Nevertheless, it gave me an idea: why don't I make some new screen/storm windows so that while I have the windows out of their frames, I still have something over the giant hole in the wall.
Historically, well built houses would have one set of screens and another set of storm windows for each double hung window. These would be changed out as the seasons changed, just a normal part of house maintenance. Fast forward to today, and the quasi-maintenance free materials used on modern houses put a huge damper on the appeal of spending an afternoon climbing up a ladder to change out storm windows and screens twice a year. Not to mention the storage space required for these things. Remember, each screen or storm window is effectively the same size as the entire window frame. On this house, we're talking about nine double hung windows, each representing a screen or storm window of 9+ square feet of steel mesh or actual glass that had to be carefully stored until next year.
Still, these classic wood screens are the best way of screening old double hung windows, and the stormies can really help cut down on weathering on these fairly delicate and hard to replace windows.
Side note again, there is a company, Brosco, that makes double hung, wood sash, putty glazed single pane windows for "barns." This guy found them through his local hardware store and apart from their couter-balance system, they look like dead ringers for vintage wood windows. Sweet! If I really really screw up, we have a good and inexpensive backup option.
Anyway, I had an idea: what if I made combination screen/stormies, where the "glass" could be removed in half panes, instead of the full height, leaving the screen permanently attached to the wood screen/stormie frame. That would help a lot during the storage aspect, since the size of the "glass" is a much more manageable 2.5'x2.5' that could be stacked in a corner or in a padded box. I say "glass" since I will be using acrylic for weight, machinability, and durability.
This is what my combo stormies will look like:
Wood Species
I don't have enough of a single type of wood on hand to make all the storm windows I need. So I had a thought: everyone has opinions on what type of modern woods are best for exterior trim and window framing. Why not actually do a test! Take some of the recommended species (and some hare-brained choices) and make one each? If one or more fail prematurely, it'll suck, but I can always make another screen.Current lineup:
- Sapele (ribbon/quarter sawn)
- Construction grade pine
- Construction red cedar
- aromatic red cedar (knotty heartwood)
- Exterior plywood (yeah, this is a sketchy choice)
Comments
Post a Comment