Installing Windows

After endless hours of google study on "How to install Windows" and the previously fun trying to buy them at Home Depot it was finally time to get started.  Ray and I headed over to the house on Sunday afternoon.  We started on the first window which involved cutting the house wrap, folding it back around the studs.

We then started putting strips of flashing tape around the edges and across the sill frame.  We started at the bottom of the windows and worked our way up doing the top of the windows last.  The idea being that as water runs down all of the pieces overlap from top to bottom, similar to what is done with siding.  

The next step was to put a bead of calking around the edges and then put the window in place.  We would then square the window up using a level and some shims.  Once we were happy with the placement of the window it then got nailed around the edges.  No pictures of this process as we had our hands full at the time!

After taking a short break we got started on the second window.  One thing we had spent a lot of time trying to figure out was how to have two windows side by side that look OK.  What we finally came up with was to put a single stud between the two windows and then to overlap the nailing strips.  This worked out quite well.  The nailing strips are very flexible,  with three sides already nailed the overlap on the last one did not seem to create any problems.  It did require that we drill our own holes since the nailing holes didn't line up.  One of our first observations when we started the second window was that we could have saved some time by doing both at the same time.  

About the time we finished the first window I got a call from Home Depot, They were on their way with the two windows that we had problems getting the day before!  I was quite impressed that they actually delivered them for free on a Sunday.  We moved a lot faster on the second window;  Our first took almost 2 hours, the second was just under an hour.  By then it was time to head home.  Here are a few pictures of our work:

Outside view

Inside view

Two down, four to go

On Monday Ray was still in town and I was able to take the afternoon off work so we headed back over.  We did the next set in a about an hour and 10 minutes, we were getting faster!.  We then started on the last set, we were a window installing team!  Both of us working non-stop, no talking, no time spent determining what is next.  The result; the last set installing in 50 minutes. 

All we need now is a door!