The week of windows

This was a big week! Monday night through this afternoon was spent installing all 10 of my beautiful windows. Before saying more, I want to give a big thank you to Christian for all his help during this process. And my dad too. Thanks guys!

I started by preparing each sill by nailing down an angled piece of cedar siding, sloping outwards, to shed water away from the house if any water does get into the rough opening around the windows. Next I created the all-important sill flashing with a flexible flashing material made just for this purpose. Each window was then installed according to instructions from the manufacturer (Integrity by Marvin). This included a bead of caulk first, then inserting the window, adding a couple of nails to loosely hold in place, shimming and blocking to level, square and plumb, screwing through sides of window casing for more secure fastening and holding window plumb, then hamming in all of the rest of the outside nails, through the attached nailing flange.

Since the windows are fiberglass and the nailing flange a separate piece of attached vinyl, there were no corners to the flanges, so a separate, sticky corner piece needed to be applied with caulk to cover gap.

Then the windows were flashed with window flashing tape (same brand as house wrap for best results). I started with the sides, overlapping the flashing just a bit onto the window frame, for another layer of protection over the weak spot between the fiberglass frame and vinyl flange. Then I added aluminum drop-cap flashing to the top of the window, then more window flashing tape at the top of the window, over the drip-cap. Then the housewrap was folded back down over the flashing, and the diagonal cut seams taped.

There are many steps to getting a window installed just right. I'm by no means and expert, but I think they all turned out quite well and should be very water-tight.

On the inside, I've cut the shims and started applying spray foam to seal the gap between the window and framing rough opening. I'll be finishing the foaming in the next day or two. Feel good. Making progress. Onward!

Here are a bunch of pictures of the windows are they were being installed.