How To Install A Bow Window
How to Install a Bow Window
Updated: Jun. 25, 2019
How to frame a rough window opening, install a new window, trim out the interior and exterior around a new window, plus all of the finishing.
We'll walk through the steps needed for bay window structure, which volition give your room a lot of natural low-cal and a spacious feel. The new window will also update the expect of your house. Framing and installing the new window may seem similar a daunting job, but if you lot're an ambitious exercise-information technology-yourselfer, you can handle the job successfully by following our detailed instructions and how-to photos.
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- Time
- Complexity
- Toll
- Multiple Days
- Advanced
- $501-1000
A project that's as easy or hard as y'all want it to be
Before photo
How the room looks earlier the bow window is installed.
Replacing an aging picture window with a new bow window produces lots of benefits. It provides improve ventilation, better views and better comfort. Information technology updates the wait of your house, both inside and out. And it provides a great identify for your cat and plants to sunbathe.
Merely what I similar well-nigh is the style a bow window makes a room look and feel larger—even though the "bulge" adds just a few foursquare anxiety. They're a great addition to a living room, dining room or family unit room, and have a particular knack for making a cramped eating nook experience roomier.
The steps for installing a bay window—one that juts out farther, usually at a thirty- or 45-degree angle—are nearly identical to those for a bow window. In fact, the first role of this article provides the basic steps for installing whatever window.
How tough is this bay window construction projection? Well, to some extent, you become to choose. If the thought of bracing up and fierce into your firm to install a new header (Photos iii and 4) is daunting, purchase a window that's the same size every bit or slightly smaller than the existing one. Yous won't need to tackle the major structural work, making this a project a confident beginner can do. Creating a new opening for a taller window isn't that much more than hard; yous simply lower the sill by shortening the cripples (Photograph v).
Just if you lot widen the opening (and add cabinets and a window seat every bit we did), the project becomes more challenging. You'll be tackling both brawny rough carpentry piece of work and detailed finishing work, perchance even rerouting oestrus ducts and electrical wiring. You'll demand to exist comfortable handling ability tools and allot plenty of time to finish the projection. Our bow window was 6 in. wider and 4 in. shorter than the moving picture window it replaced, and so we took the hard road.
Either way, formulate a game plan so you can pull out your erstwhile window and go the new window installed in the opening in a single mean solar day. This means having the room cleared out, temporary back up wall (if necessary) in place, tools and materials at the ready, new window on site and helpers lined up ahead of time. You don't want to lie awake in bed at dark wondering if hail, bats or the boogeyman will be crashing through flimsy plastic stapled beyond an unfinished opening.
Remove the old window
Photograph 1: Build a back up wall under the ceiling joists.
Install a temporary support wall 2 to iii ft. from the outside wall. Position studs straight under each truss or ceiling joist. Turn off ability to any outlets or switches in the wall.
Photo 2: Cut through the finish nails to remove the window.
Cut through finish nails securing the window using a reciprocating saw. Cut back the siding with a circular saw if necessary to betrayal the nailing fins that hold the window in place. Remove the window.
You'east going to make a dusty mess, so move the furniture out, seal up the ducts, lay downwardly a dropcloth and encompass the doorways with plastic. If you're installing a larger header for a wider opening, you'll need a building permit. Some inspectors will help you decide the correct header size; others will require calculations from a structural engineer—especially for openings exceeding 8 ft.
If yous're installing a larger header, build a temporary support wall (Photo 1) 2 ft. back from the existing wall. Advisedly pry the interior molding from around the window with a flat bar, so fix information technology aside. You lot may need to reuse information technology, since some older moldings are hard to friction match. Employ a reciprocating saw to cut through whatsoever finish nails that secure the window jamb to the window opening (Photo two).
Use a pry bar to remove the trim or brick mold that surrounds the window outside and helps hold it in place. Be careful; sometimes your window will come up out forth with it. If your window is metal or vinyl clad, congenital-in nailing flanges may exist securing information technology to the exterior capsule and framing. If removing the exterior trim doesn't give you access to these nails, use a round saw (Photo 2) to cut back the siding 2 in., then remove the nails with a apartment bar. With the help of your spouse, neighbors and kids, remove the window.
Brick, stucco and other types of siding nowadays their own unique challenges. Cut back or remove merely every bit much of these materials every bit necessary to become the old window out and the new window in. Yous can try to patch gaps betwixt the edges of the window and the remaining siding, brick and stucco with similar materials, but getting an verbal match tin be hard. Filling gaps with broad trim boards is often lots easier.
If you're installing a larger header, close off power to all electrical outlets and switches in the wall, then remove the drywall or plaster. Nosotros removed everything "down to the studs" along the unabridged wall; it's easier to fit and tape all new drywall or plaster, corner to corner, than to match the thickness and textures of the quondam and the new. It also allowed united states of america to upgrade the insulation and install cable and a new phone line.
Tip:
Your temporary support wall can practice double-duty; staple plastic to it to help contain the droppings and grit.
Framing a new rough opening
Photo three: Remove the studs next to the window.
Remove the drywall or plaster, then the framing that formed the quondam window opening. Employ a reciprocating saw to cut through nails securing the exterior capsule to the framing. Apply a BIG sledgehammer to bash the studs and trimmers away from the header, then use a Large pry bar-a 3-ft. i gives you lot lots of leverage-to pry the old header down and abroad from the pinnacle nailing plates.
Photo four: Set the new header in place.
Nail the new cripples to the lesser plate using 16d nails, then cut and nail the new sill in identify. We "sistered" longer cripples alongside existing ones to create the correct opening height. If your new window is taller, you'll need to cut the cripples shorter.
Employ a sledgehammer to knock the king studs and trimmers away from the ends of the existing header (Photo 3). If sheathing and siding nails are fastened, cut through them with a reciprocating saw or yank them out with a "true cat's manus" smash puller. Remove the sill, too. Decide the window rough opening width. Manufacturers list the rough opening height and width with each window. Ours was 100-three/viii in., so nosotros cut our headers 106-3/eight in. long—half dozen in. longer to accommodate the two pairs of 2×4 trimmers (Photo 6).
Toenail the new king studs and one trimmer to the top and bottom nailing plates using 16d nails and install the two header members (Photograph four). Toenail the top of the header into the summit nailing plates, and so add the second trimmers.
Determine the rough opening height, then "sister" new cripples alongside the existing ones to raise the sill elevation (Photo 5) or cut them shorter with a reciprocating saw to lower it. Smash the sill to each cripple and to the trimmers on each side. We installed two sills to solidify the large opening and support the window.
Rally your neighbors to hoist in the new window
Photo half-dozen: Set the new window in identify.
Elevator and position the new window into place
Photo 7: Use scraps of wood to back up the window.
Use sawhorses, blocks and shims to temporarily support the window.
Photo 8: Shim the window to make information technology level.
Level the windowsill with shims every 16 in. Move the window in or out until the extension jamb is even with a bit of textile the aforementioned thickness every bit the finished wall. Use your 4-ft. level to make certain the sides are plumb and the window square, then install shims every 16 in. Bulldoze 10d end nails through all the shims to secure the window in the rough opening.
Photograph 9: Concord the window in place with support cables.
Employ cable clamps to tighten the support cables around eye hooks screwed firmly into the header. If space over the window is limited (our manufacturer wanted a minimum thirty-degree cable angle), secure the cables to centre hooks screwed into the overhanging rafter tails or blocking nailed between the tails.
Photo 10: Level the footboard by turning the aligning nut.
Tighten the adjustment nut on the bottom until the footboard is level or slants slightly upward (about 1/viii in.), to compensate for cable stretch. Do it right; in one case the lesser of the window is insulated and sheathed, the basics will be inaccessible.
Rustle upward your neighbors over again and elevator the new window into the rough opening (Photo half dozen). Temporarily support the window (Photo 7), so on the inside, utilise a apartment bar to centre the window in the opening from side to side. Shim and level the footboard (Photo 8). Next, use the level and shims to plumb and straighten the side jambs.
Shim the superlative directly and level likewise. When all four sides are level, plumb, square and straight, drive 10d finish nails through the extension jambs and shims into the framing. Take your time. Since bow windows extend beyond the exterior wall, they demand added support (Photos 9 and 10). Our Pella window came with two preinstalled cables running from the bottom of the footboard upwardly through the headboard. If space is limited above the window, secure the cables to the rafter tails or to blocking that's deeply nailed betwixt the rafter tails.
Tip for bay window construction:
Remove the operable window sashes to lighten the weight, especially if you're working off ladders.
Trim the exterior carefully—so the window doesn't look "stuck on"
Photograph 11: Trim the window bottom.
Enclose the window bottom. Use big-caput, plastic cap nails to secure 2-in. rigid insulation to the footboard, then secure the 3/4-in. plywood by driving iii-one/2 in. drywall screws through the insulation and into (but not through!) the footboard. Apply 4d galvanized nails to secure the soffit plywood to the 3/4-in. plywood. Keep the edges of all three layers even with the edges of the window.
Photo 12: Mark the window profile on the soffit.
Apply a level to transfer the profile of the window up to the soffit, then make marks 1/2 in. dorsum and secure 1×two cleats to those marks. Add together fiberglass insulation to the cavity. If the distance from window top to soffit is less than 6 in., you can enclose the top with the same metallic flashing shown in Photo xv.
Photo 13: Trim out above the window.
Screw one/ii-in. plywood to the cleats. Since nosotros enclosed one of the existing soffit vents, we added another one to the left of the bow window.
Photograph fourteen: Caulk and install the flashing.
Employ caulk to the back of the side flashing, then tap the tongue of the flashing into the groove of the window. Prevent damage to flashings by hammering against a wood fleck.
Photograph 15: Set up the bottom flashing in place.
Install the lesser flashing. First hold the flashing in place, mark the corners and lightly pre-bend the flashing to accommodate the profile of the window. Secure it into the bottom groove of the window using a tapping block. Caulk the seam betwixt the lesser and side flashings.
Photograph 16: Boom the trim and siding in identify.
Install the exterior trim and siding. In a higher place the window nosotros nailed corner blocks over the seams and filled between them with lap siding. Nosotros cut cedar lengthwise for trim aslope the window. Rather than filling in the wide space on the left side with short pieces of siding, nosotros removed the siding dorsum to the corner of the house and installed full length pieces.
Bay window structure:
The closer you lot lucifer the exterior details to those of the existing business firm, the more natural the window volition await. Since every house is a piddling different, your exterior trim details volition almost certainly vary from ours, peculiarly if you lot accept brick, stucco or vinyl siding. But the aforementioned general steps still utilize.
Begin past insulating and enclosing the bottom (Photo11). Concur your iii/8-in. plywood soffit textile to the underside of the window, trace the profile onto it, then use a circular saw to cut it to shape. Use this as a pattern to cut the 2-in. rigid insulation and the 3/four-in. plywood nailer. Make sure the edges of all three layers are even with the edges of the bow window as y'all install them. After enclosing the top (Photos 12 and 13), install the side and lesser flashings (Photos 14 and 15). If the top of your window is within six in. of the soffit, you lot tin insulate it, then enclose it using the same flashing fabric and technique shown in Photo 15. Larger spaces crave yous to install sheathing (Photo xiii), and so siding (Photo sixteen).
Install matching siding materials or trim boards to fill the gap at the sides of the window if necessary. Rather than boom in a row of little 6-in. siding pieces along the left side of the window (tacky, tacky), we removed the siding dorsum to the corner and installed full-length siding pieces that butt to the trim board (Photo 16).
Tip:
Level the footboard, and then heighten information technology an extra 1/8 in. using the cable nuts. That way, when the cables stretch and the rafters or header they're fastened to 'gives' a niggling (and that's inevitable), the window will current of air upward level.
The interior details
Photograph 17: Trim the interior
Cut the interior trim and boom it in place, using a blast ready to sink nailheads beneath the surface of the woods. Apply ane coat of cease, fill up the nail holes with putty that matches the woods color, then employ a 2d coat of finish. Our trim and cabinets are Douglas fir, finished with a lightly tinted polyurethane.
Use a wood shim to loosely stuff fiberglass insulation into the thin space betwixt the extension jamb and rough opening. Hang, tape and sand the drywall, then paint it. Recut and reinstall the old interior moldings. If they're not long plenty or you're completely redoing the room equally nosotros did, install new moldings (Photograph 17).
Nosotros added a window seat with a hinged top for storage, besides as built-in cabinets to consummate the projection. This meant adding a xc-degree elbow to the existing floor heat duct and extending it through the face up of the window seat. We left the old electrical outlets in the backs of cabinets to power the audio equipment inside.
You lot're done. Take a bow.
Window Shopping and Planning
We installed an eight-ft. 5-in. x 4-ft. 8-in. Pella Designer Serial iv-console bow window. The approximate $iii,000 cost tag included grilles, extension jambs and flashings. Most major window manufacturers offering bow windows, available with iii to seven panels, ranging in width from 6 to 14 ft., and in a multifariousness of heights. Prices start at nigh $800. Before placing your social club, determine whether y'all tin can tuck the window under your eaves, similar we did.
Our eighteen-in. eaves hands accommodated and sheltered the 12-in. projection of our window. Only if your firm has narrow eaves or yous're installing the window on an unprotected section of wall, you'll need a roof. Some manufacturers can put you in touch with a prefab roof supplier or provide design guidelines for experienced practise-it-yourselfers to build their own. It's a challenging job we don't cover hither.
Measure the combined thickness of your wall studs, outside sheathing and drywall or other interior wall surface to make up one's mind the proper depth of your window'south extension jamb (Photograph 8). A mutual thickness is four-9/16 in.: i/2-in. capsule + 3-1/two in. stud depth + 1/two-in. drywall + 1/16 in. of "play" = 4-nine/16 in. Include this information when you society your window so the edge of the jamb will exist fifty-fifty with the drywall, and your interior moldings will fit flat when installed.
Required Tools for this Projection
Have the necessary tools for this DIY project lined up before you start—you lot'll save time and frustration.
Required Materials for this Project
Avoid last-minute shopping trips past having all your materials ready ahead of time. Here'south a list.
Originally Published: June 25, 2019
Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-install-a-bow-window/
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