Hi, Shannon here from house improvements calm today we’re going to shoot a video here and we’re going to show you how to remove and replace an existing window in your home with a vinyl window basically start out. We’Ve already got the windows pre-ordered, so I’ve measured the exterior size of the brick mold on the new window transfer those marks to the house. Here you can see, we’ve got a basically a pressed wood siding. So it’s going to be relatively easy to cut with a circular saw so I’ve transferred the measurements of the window to the outside. Here marked it on the siding, and that is going to form our cut line, we’ll cut around the whole perimeter and with any luck at all, the window will come out without too much hassle.
What we’re going to find underneath this siding is an aluminum nailing flange. So once we pull the siding off when it’s cut we’ll be able to expose the aluminum nailing flange, pull the nails, remove the window and go from there. Okay, so I’ve set the depth of my circular saw so that we aren’t hopefully cutting right through the plywood. It’S a little difficult because this is a lap siding, so we need to have it set a little deeper, some areas that is going to cut the plywood. So I’ve set the depth safety glasses and I’m just going to go around the window and cut it.
Just double-checking that it cut right through I’m just going to go a little deeper, just got a bit of a nail that I can see here, hoping I can pull it over there. Actually, the way this siding works out may be able to remove this strip and then just cut the one. That’S below it, probably a good idea to have your protection on. I was thinking as I was cutting a little loud, but you definitely want eye protection because you could definitely be cutting a few nails and possibly even that aluminum nailing flange, that’s around the window. In this case, I think we were cutting just outside of it.
Here’S that there’s that aluminum fin I was talking about so you can see this one’s nailed in which looks like shingle nails, so once we get it all exposed, we should be able to pull them out. So now I’m going to make another cut, but I’m going to run it along here. I’Ve got to just mark a line and cut that you can see when cutting the siding it it’s a lot of fine sawdust comes from it too. So we’ve also in this area covered up an air conditioner, that’s right below us just to keep some of that dust and dirt out of it. I’M just going to go around now and pry off all these spots, where we’ve cut and get that nailing flange exposed.
Yet again, another real good use for head flat bar. I think we’ve used this in almost every video for some job or another, there will be a bead of caulking or there should be between whatever your your finished product. In this case, the siding and the existing window, if it ends up in the way just peel it off too it’ll likely come with the siding, though you could really do this same method. If you had stucco, you just need to use the appropriate blade and your saw, but you could definitely do the same thing with stucco, so you can see in a few spots where the siding is doubled up. I didn’t quite get cut through everything with this type.
Aside and you pretty much cut that with a knife and those little pieces will come off, if you had to, you, could just make your saw a little deeper again and make another pass. But basically we can get that out of there with the knife. In this case, so I’ll just continue around the window, doing the same thing, getting it all cleaned up and expose these nails, so we can pull the nails out. Okay, so I’ve got all the strip presiding removed around the outside edge. I’Ve also pre removed a bunch of the nails, but I will show you across the top.
Getting the nails out, something I didn’t mention at the beginning of the video is the casing or the trim work inside the house is already removed off the window. Make sure you do that so that you can pull it out properly. So basically, you may have this drip cap on the top. You may not just depending on your case, basically we’re going to be replacing this, so I’m just pulling it out of there. We pretty much had cut through most of it, except this one spot so that that now exposes the top row nails across there.
So I will go around and pull those out and then the windows are ready to come out. There’S no right or wrong way of doing this. It’S just a matter of finding the way that works. The best in the situation. You’Ve got I’m kind of prying this flange out enough to loosen the nails off so that then they’re protruded enough that I can get behind them to pull them.
So I’m just going to work my way along there and keep doing that till they’re all loose. At least trying not to damage the siding, we’re obviously leaving that in place. Okay, so I’ve got those all loosened off now I can just go back and remove all of them. Okay, so I believe we have all the nails out around the perimeter and the window should be coming free, I’m just going to try to coax it out of the hole a little bit to the point where I can get a hold of it depending on the Size of the window, obviously you may need help to lift it in or out so I’m just kind of going around the existing insulation. That’S in there causes it to bind a little bit, so it that’s, usually mostly what’s kind of holding it in at this point.
Starting to come now, once you kind of wiggle it out, I try to leave the bottom sitting on there. I’M working by myself pry the top away, get rid of this NCH II insulation, I’m just going to flop it down onto the work surface and that’s one window out. So we’ll get this down off the scaffold man watch out for acoustical sealant, we’ll get this down off out of our way and inspect the opening for any rot or anything and prepare it for the new window. All right, so we’ve brought the window up up top here. It’S obviously standing on its and right now, but it’s just to get it out of the way we did.
A couple Drive fits on the opening to be sure that our siding was big enough and we found we had to adjust the siding. What we were looking at is once the window was up in there one it needs to fit against the plywood or sheathing. That’S behind the siding, so it’s got to fit in the hole, but also you need to look inside to make sure you’ve got space all the way around in order to insulate afterwards. So we found we had to kind of re cut the siding to that right-hand end just to shift the window down too in order to make it adequate for insulation, so we’ve dry fit a couple times. Everything looks like it’s going to work.
Fine I’ve also gone here along the bottom sill and we’ve put some. I use cedar shingles, but anything that will create a space here to lift the window up and we’ve also put those in so that it’s level across. So we should be able to slide the window in right. On top of those should be some very minor adjustments to get everything level, so so that’s kind of prepped up there, we’ve also so we’ve also gone ahead and precut to the drip cap. We don’t have an overhang here over the window, close enough to shelter it from weather, so in our area, we’re required to put the strip cap over the window to shed the rain you’ve.
Seen earlier, we cut the old one off. So now we’ve cut a new piece. We should be able to just slip it up in behind the siding. For now. In theory, there might be a nail right there, let’s see, so I’m just sliding that up between the sheeting, the wall, sheeting and the actual siding just want to get it up in there and it’s causing this a little grief with the paper.
That’S behind just pry. It out a bit see if that’ll get us a little bit of room and there we go so we got it up in there we’ll be able to pull it down if it needs to come down afterwards, a little bit to meet the window. So we’ve got that sitting in there if, if this was new construction, we’d be dealing the next step a little bit differently. If it was new construction, we would use a membrane product that actually adheres to the sheeting and then the window. It goes all the way around the perimeter opening and then the window would go ahead and be fastened in because in a rental situation, we really don’t have a lot of edge here in order to adhere that product.
To what I do is I put a real, generous bead of silicone all the way around the perimeter of the window to the sheeting. So when we set the window in there, it does a couple things. It acts as a gasket. It actually helps hold the window in there and it also forms a seal to prevent any water from getting inside or dust wind. Any of that kind of thing so, and also you know if you have any deviances in the thickness of your plywood or joints or something it’ll it’ll, take up some of that that’s space where the window might span across.
So it looks like pretty much ready. I’M going to run my bead of silicone around the perimeter and then I’ll pull my window over here and and get it ready actually before. I do that I’ll just show you on this window we’re using a renovator type window, or at least in my area what they call a renovator, this one’s a two inch renovation, brick mold, and it comes with this strip that pulls out all the way around and In here is a channel that we can actually put our screws in to hold the window in and then that strip snaps back in covers it all up. So it looks nice and neat when it’s done. Nobody can even tell that you, you know where you’ve screwed it and these just snap out relatively easy once you get them started, I’m just going to pop those out so they’re out and we’re also going to have somebody on the inside.
Once we get the window in there just to do any adjustments that we need so okay, so I’m going to run the silicone around this silicones white there’s it really doesn’t get seen where we’re using it here. So it wouldn’t matter if it’s clear or whatever just use a good quality. Silicone like I said, I’m using a pretty generous bead silicone is relatively cheap and in this case this is what’s making the seal of your window to the to the structure. So I’m staying pretty close to the edge of the plywood, but within a quarter of an inch just so that when we put the window in it, silicone hopefully doesn’t squirt out to the outside and actually come out where it’s visible. Then we just have to clean it up.
Okay, so you can see. I went yeah. I went all the way around I’m going to move the window over into position here and get it up into the hole and fastened again. Okay, so I’ve got the window down. I’M just running my fingers around the backside here to remove any dust or as much dust as I can.
So we get a nice bond into that bead of silicone that I put there and lift the window in set it down on to the shims that we nailed on to the bottom, get it you know close and slide the top into the opening. The trick here is not getting the silicone all over yourself and with the window being a little heavier, sometimes more of a trick, so I’ve got it on the bottom sill just working it in a little closer on the bottom strip. Cap just needs a little nuvaring to get it up start over the window like so and push the window in. I want to make sure it’s making contact with the plywood. All the way around my guy inside is just checking if we’ve got space all the way.
Okay, he’s saying we got to go a little bit that way. If we can, that’s all I’ve got there, we’re okay, okay, so we’re good out there or in there I should say I’m just going to put the level on and our shims were good. So we’re sitting nice and level right there, I’m going to put one screw in just to hold it and I’m going to check the window for square corner to corner, so I’m using a truss head screw once I get this one in I’ll, bring one closer to The camera I’m going right in this track, just snugging that up so this is the screw. I’M using you got to make sure you have enough length. It’S got a nice big flat surface on the back of the head so that it’ll snug up against the vinyl and not pull through the vinyl like a normal deck screw wood.
Okay, so I’ve got that just hanging there so that it won’t fall out anytime. You want to see if something is square. If you measure diagonally corner to corner the two measurements should be the same if it’s square this one’s right on these are good quality windows, they’re, usually usually real good, but sometimes you get a lighter, cheaper window and you can rack it out of square. So this one’s good, where we are so I’m going to space my screws about every 12 to 14 inches, don’t go super nuts with tightening them, just make sure it’s snug and that it pulls the window back into the that bead of caulking or that silicone. You put in once I get a few in I’m just going to get the guy on the inside to open the window and make sure it operates properly and doesn’t capture.
You know, get snagged up on anything. So if he wants to run back in and we’ll do that in a second on this window, one side is fixed one side open. So once he’s back in there, he can open that up and make sure it’s good before we get one too far go ahead. I couldn’t see them through the reflection, so we’re just looking at a bunch of dust in there we’re just looking that when it opens and closes it’s not catching on a corner or binding in any way. So we’ll open and close it a couple times looks like it’s looks like it’s operating really well, the lock seems to be operating, so that should be good, so we’ll finish, screwing it in once.
We have it all screwed in all the way around the perimeter. We will then use a good in this case we’re using a real good, latex type, exterior caulking to caulk the joint between the new window and the cut we made in the siding. So we’ll go all the way around the perimeter and we can snap it our trims back in that cover these screws and we’re pretty much done then we’ll just go inside and insulate around the the the window and we’re good okay. So I got those all in. We can now just bring the strip cap down, so it sits nice and we’ll caulk the any space we have above actually maybe I’ll snap, these trims in first, so you can use a rubber mallet or I generally use the handle on my hammer and you just Get it roughly close, get it started to two in there get your height adjusted and they just snap in really nice and clean, and it you’ll see here in a minute how it totally finish this window off real nice.
So I’ve got that started, but I’m not quite right down to where it needs to be. In this case, we’ve got four pieces, so you can see already how that does a nice job of making the window? Look nice and clean no visible signs of where it’s fastened in nothing left to rot or rust strip caps and make it a little more difficult to get stopped one, this one’s being stubborn. There we go, we go around after takeoff, any scuffs or anything left from the handle on the hammer. Okay, so I’m just going to get my caulking ready and then I’ll be back to show you how to do that.
Okay, so we’ve got our exterior acrylic caulking. In this case, it’s it’s white and it could be painted if they ever painted the house or whatever, but so we’re going to seal up this. This joint that we now have around the outside I’ve pulled the strip cap rate down. So it’s sitting down nicely on the window, I’m just going to try to put a nice nice clean, bead all the way along this edge. Unless you’ve got a large opening to caulk, you don’t need to cut a real huge hole in the tube.
This is just a nice size here, so just go all the way along your edge, let your finger or lick it or whatever just tool that caulking with your finger. Just that way, it’s making sure it’s pushing back against both products and actually making a seal. Just have a look under the lip of every piece of siding that it closed up there like so, and I’m going to just going to do the same thing all the way around the window. We got a little bigger gap down here, so it’s going to take a little more caulk, but I may have to cut a bigger hole in this caulking gun. So I can go about that far with this size, a hole and the rest of these.
I’M going to have to just open this hole up a little more so, but you get the idea, basically go around seal, that all up for us to keep water and air and everything out, and then the exterior is finished. From this point we’ll go inside. I like to use spray foam to in sleep around the windows, so we’ll go inside spray, foam, the interior and that’ll, be it okay, so we moved inside now and you can see. We’Ve got a space on all four edges of the window between the window itself and the framing and drywall we’re going to use spray foam insulation to insulate that if you’re going to use spray foam, you want to be sure you get the low expanding product. That’S made for windows and doors if you use the gap, filler type foam.
What it’ll actually do is put a lot of pressure on the frames and acta can actually bulge them so just be sure, you’re getting the low expanding. You could use bad insulation as well cut it into small strips and lightly slide it back in there. The problem with that is usually people pack. It excuse me pack it in there and as soon as you start packing bad insulation, it lose our value. So I find the the spray foam is a nicer product.
It totally seals up the cavity and the nice thing with most of them. Is that once it skims over, it actually creates a vapour barrier as well, so you’re, actually stopping any draught that would come through there because in most cases, you’ve cut off the poly a third. If there even was any attached to the windows so shake a can up real good canta form duh one thing with this: just if you’ve never used it before be sure not to get it on the walls carpet your hands, it doesn’t come off so well. If you do get it on something, don’t try to clean it up, just let it be once it actually cures and sets up then peel it away and do your cleanup from there. If you clean it up, wet you’re, just going to smear it around and it’s it’s even more of a mess.
So what I do is you want to insert the straw as far back in there as you can? Hopefully you get within an inch of the outside surface and I go around the window. Fill it about. Oh 30 % go all the way around and then, after about 20 minutes, I’ll go back and I’ll fill up a boat fill it up again to about 75 percent, or you know even a little less, and what that does is so that that first bead, that You put around there does create a vapor barrier, because when you do your second run, some spots are probably going to flow out a little bit further, once they expand and you’re going to cut that off with an Olfa knife. Before you put your trim on so you’ve lost as soon as you cut it.
You’Ve lost your vapor barrier effect, so the primary layer that I put in there actually is your vapor barrier. The second one is just for our value and to finish filling the gap. So that’s why I try to do it in two run: two passes, so I’m just going to insert so I’ve inserted the tube you want to have the can upside down as much as possible. As soon as you run, it very long right side up. You lose your pressure and you’re going to waste most your foam because it’s it’s not going to come out, so you want to try to keep it upside down as much as possible, so you’re, looking back in there.
It comes out, especially when the cans new. It comes out pretty liberally, so you don’t don’t have to squeeze it full torque, because if you do you’re going to be running to try to keep ahead of it so that it’s not filling up too much, I’m going to go across the top get a little Bit more of a space here you can wear rubber gloves if you want just to prevent getting this on your on your fingers, and it has a tendency once you’ve let off that it wants to, because it’s expanding even out of the tube it’s it’s wanting to Seep out a little bit so just be aware that so you don’t drip it on the carpet, you’re, just making sure you’re actually filling break from the vinyl of the window to the framing of the wall, not leaving any gaps, small small little spaces. You know what eath of an inch should should expand and fill in, but ideally I try to make sure it’s full side to side and let it expand in more than anything, and I know that it’s going to seal up and across the bottom working around our Shims that we got there so we’ve got that we have a paper towel or something I just want to set this can down. Then I’m going to have a look around make sure that I got that completely filling up and it looks like I did. Sometimes, when you have the straw in there and they’re shadows and everything, you can’t really see 30 percent you’re getting it okay.
So I just looked or looked around the whole perimeter to make sure that it’s a the foam head filled the space. Well enough – and it looks good – hopefully we can get a close-up on what’s actually in there, so you can see a little bit of what it looks like inside that crevice there. So I think that’s all. I can really show you we’re not prepared to put the trim on at this time. I think that’ll be something for another video.
So right now, as far as removing and replacing a window in your house, I think we’ve showed you everything that you need need to know for a DIY. This complements the other videos we have on measuring your windows so that you can order new windows. So you can check that out as well on our youtube channel. We also have the form up on the website as usual, so you can go there. If you have any questions about this or any other topic that you you might think of, you can put it on there and I’ll do my best to try to answer your question so again, Shannon from house improvements – and this was removing and replacing window
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