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Thread: Make Wood Windows for old house - good idea?

  1. #76
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    Westchester County NY
    Posts
    90
    Cosmos,

    I live in a rivertown on the Hudson river outside NYC, the rules here regarding exterior modifications can be absurd so I feel your pain.

    However, that flyer you posted does not matter. Go and speak with the building department and the architectural review board or whatever they call it in Texas. If the wood is going to be painted/keep the pre-existing, you should argue that it doesn't matter if the window is made of modern materials or cedar or whatever

    Most of the time, as long as you can keep the same look, they should not mind if you modernize it a bit. Having someone in this day and age make weighted windows (which I have in my house) seems like a real waste of money.

    Go downtown and talk to the peeps in power and feel em out for how crazy they are before you make any decisions. And again, it don't matter what the rules are, that's why god invented variances.

  2. #77
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Ouray Colorado
    Posts
    1,392
    Finally took the time to read through this thread. Lots of interesting viewpoints. I make wooden windows and doors for a living. (Only about half time now)
    There are a lot of acceptable ways to approach this. Talking to the building Or historic department first is good advice. We do some historic window in Telluride where they are very strict. Mostly about how it looks from the street. This side of the mountain not so fussy.

    We have always been customer driven and most high dollar customers do not want the hassle of storm windows so almost all our double hung work uses IGU. Storm sash- single pane is OK though in the old buildings. Old buildings are not tight and not highly heated or cooled. The minute you put heat and better insulation with single pane will cause condensation problems. IGU from certain mfgs is getting better.

    Wood choice is important. Mahogany, white oak and VG fir are my favorites. Fir is not very rot resistant though. Ponderosa pine is the worst and as mentioned the big window companies using this is what has given wood windows a bad reputation in the US. I have used a little Accoya and like that. Hard to get here though.

    The OP may want to check out a thread on the OWWM where a woodworker made historic replacement sash using only router cutters. Like I said a lot of ways to approach this.

    Double hung is not a large part of the business. I use the UK model with double gaskets, sash set up for IG and weight and chain. These end up costing more than the tilt turn windows we build but in historic renovation will give good thermal and sound values.
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  3. #78
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Ouray Colorado
    Posts
    1,392
    Here is a interesting link from the UK
    https://windows.bwf.org.uk/

  4. #79
    Thanks for weighing in Joe. Lots of Accoya being used in Europe these days, but relatively few suppliers over here. It's expensive over there, but do you recall the raw material prices you paid where you are? I have a few feelers out in my neck of the woods.

    Thanks again,

    B

  5. #80
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Ouray Colorado
    Posts
    1,392
    Brent,
    when I bought it was about $5 per Bdf. About the same as mahogany. All the Accoya I have seen here has dark streaks running through it making it unsuitable for stain grade. By contrast all the Accoya I have seen in European shops is consistent white color. I asked a rep over there about this and he had no idea.
    National in Denver used to stock it but now only in their California branch. I need to check with some other suppliers.

  6. #81
    Quote Originally Posted by Joe Calhoon View Post
    Brent,
    when I bought it was about $5 per Bdf. About the same as mahogany. All the Accoya I have seen here has dark streaks running through it making it unsuitable for stain grade. By contrast all the Accoya I have seen in European shops is consistent white color. I asked a rep over there about this and he had no idea.
    National in Denver used to stock it but now only in their California branch. I need to check with some other suppliers.
    Thanks Joe, there's a bit of a saga regarding Accoya production in NA and I don't believe it was considered as good as the product produced in the Netherlands. Do you know the origins of the product you used? It shows promise and I'd like to try the good stuff, I just hope I don't have to buy a container load!

    https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com...a-miracle-wood

    Thanks again,

    B

  7. #82
    Quote Originally Posted by Cosmos Krejci View Post
    Hey all,
    I have an old house in a historic district, so windows have to be 100% wood. The existing windows are single pane, not square, don't seal and many are painted and caulked completely shut. We got one guy who we thought could do it, but he turned out to be a flake and never got hard numbers. We just got another quote that was 20k for 14 windows for double pane and dividers/muntins on the tops of most of them. Seemed pretty high to me. The econmy down here for remodel and construction is pretty frisky, so it's hard to get good work out of contractors because there is a ton of demand.
    Up to this point, I've wanted to pay someone to do this work, but for 20k, I'm rethinking. We actually just want to redo a room or two, which was mentioned but not quoted (entire house only)
    I've got construction experience (mostly framing) and some wood working experience, mostly on a CNC router. How hard of a project do you think this would be to take on? My tools are CNC router, bandsaw, miter saw. I would pick up a table saw.

    Thanks in advance for the advice.

    I have been building windows for old buildings 35 years.
    Copying what you have is great, but consider saving what you have first. It's easier than making new sash if you don't have a mortiser, tenoner, shaper, custom cutters, experience choosing and milling wood specifically for sash, and other people to work with. Also, sash made before 1978 have lead paint in them, which is a great wood preservative. Look up John Leeke's Historic Homeworks web site for more information on saving your sash.

    I work in historic districts regularly. In New England, we use exterior aluminum storms. Preservationists, museums, and state historic preservation organizations have learned that exterior storms preserve the historic fabric of a building, instead of forcing people to replace sash every 20 years as they rot.

    A good place to start would be with https://www.windowpreservationalliance.org/ . There are members in Texas, and they would also know who makes wooden windows near you.

    Jack

  8. #83
    A city near here has a historic district, and someone bought one of the homes hoping to use it for a business, the district would not allow anything the owner wanted to do, so the owner just let the house fall apart, it was then condemned, and torn down. Then the owner built a new building that "fits in" with the original buildings, but with modern materials. It has clad windows, hardy board siding, and smart trim, but looks like an old house.

  9. #84
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Andrew View Post
    A city near here has a historic district, and someone bought one of the homes hoping to use it for a business, the district would not allow anything the owner wanted to do, so the owner just let the house fall apart, it was then condemned, and torn down. Then the owner built a new building that "fits in" with the original buildings, but with modern materials. It has clad windows, hardy board siding, and smart trim, but looks like an old house.
    Sometimes they are their own worst enemy.

  10. #85
    You might take a look at this storm window manufacturer for historic windows:

    https://alliedwindow.com/index.html

    I had considered them as an option for my building though have so far done nothing.

    I'm very close to building 3 new windows for the front of my 1880s building, just haven't bought the shaper cutter set yet. I have spent a lot of time studying this task, and think you will be getting in to way more than you realize if you don't have a lot of woodworking experience. As has been said, it is not difficult per se, but there is more to it than appears. If you use a shaper definately get a power feeder. I do not, but am making a coping jig for this task and being especially careful in my setup to cut the thin muntins.

  11. #86

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