in an Old Wall

Upgrade with minimal mess. A new windowimproved the look and let in light. Workingfrom the outside controlled the mess.

Five steps, four hours,one window, zero mess

New Window

APRIL/MAY 2003 59

friend of mine recently had his ap-pendix removed. Three tiny inci-sions, the right tools and the right

procedures, and he was back on his feet justhours after an operation that used to send apatient into weeks of recovery. Home-remodeling projects can be similar. Carefulplanning can keep cutting and demolition toa minimum with little disruption to the liv-ing environment and the lives of the clients.And the job takes less time.

One such project is putting a new windowinto an existing home (photo facing page). Itry to perform most of the work from the out-side, leaving the wallboard intact as an inte-rior barrier against the mess, right up untilthe window goes in.

Peel back the skinThe first step is to remove the siding in thearea where the window is going to be locat-ed (photos right). If another window is on thesame wall, I use it to gauge the head heightfor the new window. I also check around thecorner to make sure that the new windowwill be at the same elevation as any existingwindow that’s in the same room (because younever know).

I remove the siding, starting with the courseabove the window location and movingdown to a course or two below the window.Because this particular house had vinyl sid-ing, I knew I’d be removing full lengths ofsiding and exposing a large horizontal area,so I didn’t have to be to fussy about the hori-zontal location at this point. If I had beenworking with sidewall shingles or with clap-boards, I would have needed to be more pre-cise about locating the window and removingjust a small area of siding around the spot ofthe new window.

To unlock the top row of vinyl, I use a toolcalled a zipper, basically a flat hook that is in-serted behind the interlocking edges of twoadjacent pieces. The tool grabs the lip of thetop piece of vinyl and bends it out, unlockingit from the lower piece. Once the work hasstarted, pulling the tool along the length of

A

Siding in the window area comes off first.With the tool below, vinyl siding is one ofthe easiest types to remove and replace.

After lifting the upper panel,a flat bar pops the nails of thesiding panel below.

With all the siding removed, the housewrap is peeled back to reveal the wall sheathing underneath.

Available at most hardwarestores, a zipper slips

between siding panels toseparate them.

BY RICK ARNOLD

1 STRIP OFF THE SIDINGYou’ll be happy if the house hasvinyl siding: It comes off easily.

60 FINE HOMEBUILDING

the siding separates the two pieces, openingthem up like a zipper.

With the top piece of vinyl lifted up, I pullout the nails from the lower one. When all thenails are removed, I grasp the length of sid-ing and push down, unsnapping it from thenext course. The remainder of the siding isremoved easily in the same fashion. Next, Icarefully cut the housewrap and tack it out ofthe way until the opening is framed.

Mark the opening on the sheathingWith the wall sheathing exposed, I now canlocate and mark the rough opening precisely(photos above). The existing stud locations areeasy to determine by the nail patterns, and onthis job the rough opening fell about 2 in.away from the edge of a stud.

To make life a little easier, I try to use ex-isting studs for the sides of the rough open-ing, as long as the studs are close to plumb. (Ifthey are way out of plumb, I adjust the open-ing to miss them completely and insert newplumb studs for both sides.) To land the open-ing on a stud, I had permission from the own-er to move the window one way or the other,up to 6 in. In this case, I moved the openingabout 2 in. until it fell along the edge of a stud.

Using that edge as a starting point, I drew therest of the rough opening on the sheathing.

Cut the sheathing first, then the studsBecause this wall happened to be a gable end,I didn’t have to install a load-bearing headerand jack studs, which meant that I didn’thave to take out a large section of sheathing.Using a circular saw with the blade set slight-ly deeper than the thickness of the sheathing,I cut and remove the sheathing from theopening. I set the blade shallow to avoid hit-ting anything that may be buried in the wall.

With the sheathing removed, I cut the ex-posed insulation just below the sill height andremove it from the bays, except the bay whereI’m going to add a full-height stud. For thatbay, I remove the full batt of insulation, cut itto be about an inch shy of the vertical edge ofthe sheathing and replace it in the wall cavity.

If the header and sill are just 2x4s on flat, Imark the sheathing 11⁄2 in. up from the top ofthe opening and 11⁄2 in. down from the bottomat each stud location (photos right, facingpage). With a reciprocating saw, I plunge-cutthrough the sheathing and then through thefull depth of the studs at my marks. I don’t

The top of the openingmatches a window onthe same wall.

With the sheathing exposed, the sides ofthe rough opening are laid out first. Inthis case, an existing stud forms the leftside of the opening, and the author mea-sures over for the right side.

A reciprocating saw plungedthrough the sheathing 11⁄2 in. belowthe opening cuts the stud at theright height for the sill.

11⁄2 in.

2 LAY OUT THE NEW WINDOW OPENINGUse existing framing if possible forpart of the rough opening.

3 PREP THE OPENING FROM THE OUTSIDELeave room for the sills when youremove the studs.

APRIL/MAY 2003 61

With the old studs re-moved, screws attachthe new framing to mini-mize wall damage inside.

New header and sill piecesgo into the recess left bythe reciprocating saw.

The bottomis measureddown fromthe top point.

SAFETY T IPIf your work is anywhere nearelectrical wires, your local utilitycompany will install a protectivecovering to keep you safe.

A circular sawwith the blade setat a shallowdepth cuts thesheathing.

worry if the blade pokes through the drywalla little. The interior treatment should coveranyplace the blade might pierce through.Once the studs are cut, I knock the pieces outof the opening carefully with a hammer.

New framing slips behind the sheathingBecause I used an existing stud for the leftside of the opening, I had to insert a new studonly for the right side. For this stud I cut alength of 2x4 to go from the sole plate to thetop plate.

I slide the new stud into the wall cavity, andthen, starting at the bottom, I tap the studgently into position. I fasten the studs in placeby driving deck screws through the sheath-ing, as well as through the stud and into theplates if I can reach. Driving screws causesless vibration than nailing and minimizes thechance for drywall cracks inside. With thestud fastened securely, I replace any piecesof sheathing that had been removed for slid-ing the stud into the wall.

The next step is cutting and replacing theinsulation in the newly formed stud baysabove the 2x4 header and below the sill. Af-ter that, I measure, cut and install the head-er and sill. As with the new stud, I screw theheader and sill to the sheathing and toe-screwthem into the support studs.

With the framing complete, I can take outthe wallboard that has been protecting the in-side of the house (photos left). To mark thewallboard for cutting, I drive a nail througheach corner of the framed opening from theoutside. Inside the house, I draw lines con-necting the nail holes to outline the opening.

To keep the gypsum dust to a minimum, Iuse my cordless trim saw with an old carbideblade to cut right through the wallboard withlittle effort. Its relatively slow blade speed creates no more gypsum dust than cutting byhand. After I cut and remove the wallboard,I screw the perimeter of the opening to thenew framing.

Installing the window and buttoning upWith the rough opening complete inside andout, my attention turns to the window itself.The installation and flashing are the same aswith a normal window (“Installing Vinyl-Clad Windows,” FHB #129, pp. 64-69). Forthis window, I cut and bent aluminum flash-ing for the sill and used flashing membraneto seal the corners.

Nails driven into thecorners from the out-side transfer theopening to the inside.

Inside, the cornersare connected andthe opening is drawn.

A trim saw with a car-bide blade cuts thewallboard with mini-mal mess.

The wallboard comesout, making way forthe new window.

62 FINE HOMEBUILDING

The slowblade speedof the Makita9.6v circular saw (800-462-5482) lets it cutdrywall withoutmaking a lot of dust.

4 WALLBOARD COMES OUTDrywall on the inside protects againstconstruction mess on the outside.

APRIL/MAY 2003 63

Making sure the head of the window linesup with its neighbor down the wall is easierwith a helper (photo above). The crew mem-ber inside simply shims the window to theright height, while the outside crew membermeasures down from the siding course above.

After the window is nailed in place, onecrew member tackles the inside finish aroundthe window. The crew member outside com-pletes the flashing around the window andthen reinstalls the siding (“Installing VinylSiding,” FHB #149, pp. 82-88). When the lastrow of siding has been nailed on, the zippertool is used in reverse to mate together therows of siding, and after four hours’ work, thewindow looks as if it has always been there. �

Fine Homebuilding contributing editorRick Arnold is a contractor and residen-tial consultant in Wickford, RI. Photos byRoe A. Osborn.

Installing the window is an anticlimax after all the carefulprep work. The window heightagain is measured down fromthe siding course to match theneighboring window.

Flashing and housewrap arewoven back around the win-dow and under the siding.

The siding is reinstalledand zipped back in place.

Find two related arti-cles—”Installing Vinyl

Windows” and “In-stalling Vinyl Siding”—

on our Web site at www.finehomebuilding.com.

ONLINE CONNECTION

5 INSTALL THE WINDOWAND WRAP UPIf you’ve done your work carefully,putting in the window is the easiest part.