Should A DIYer Fit Windows?

hahaha we've got these two hardwood windows that we want to replace they've not been maintained properly they have loads of bugs living inside them and they don't open and close properly and the bottom just literally fell off this one as I was recording this intro which was completely unplanned so we've bought two new upvc windows I'll go into the costs and details of what we ordered later in the video but for now let's get into the project I thought I should talk quickly about how I measured up for a replacement window because it's a common question so basically this one is easy the other one is not so easy and I'll come on to that shortly so here for example I've got one two three nine I take the same measurement there there and there whatever is the lowest measurement I would then deduct 10 to 12 millimeters off that just to make sure that I've got enough clearance in the opening and that would be the width of my window for the height I can see the bottom of the Brick is here and if I look under the sill I can see that the sill is sitting on the top of this course of bricks here so I can simply hook my tape measure over the bottom bottom of the sail which gives me one five eight one and again I'll do that on the right hand side in the middle and on the left hand side whichever Dimension is smallest I'll then deduct 10 to 12 millimeters and that gives me the height of the opening including the seal now the reason that this one is more tricky is because the walls are rendered so the inside of the window frame is kind of Beyond this render around the outside instead internally I measured from plaster to plaster the internal Dimension is 1181 millimeters again I would measure top middle and bottom but this time I added on 12 millimeters for each side of the window to account for the thickness of the plaster that should ensure that my window fits the opening externally and butts up against the edge of the plaster internally we'll find out later in the video if my windows fit but obviously every building is different so do your own research yada yada first I need to get the old window removed loosening as many screws as possible the openable windows pop right out for the windows that don't open I need to remove the beads around the window and as you can see these windows are externally beaded most modern Windows tend to be internally beaded for security reasons I then need to run a knife around the inside and outside of the glazed unit to cut all of the putty or mastic or whatever it is that's holding it in and then I can run the reciprocating saw through the frame just making cuts that will enable me to get this thing removed quickly unfortunately every screw that I tried to remove that was holding the frame to the walls was so Rusty that they immediately broke so I had to rely a bit more on Force oh plenty of reusable timber here and what doesn't get used will be great for firewood unfortunately I did damage a brick though so I'll need to repair that later these are my new window sills and they are a bit of a small fit but they'll be okay I marked up the center of the seal and then I'll do the same on the bottom of the window with it placed upside down I can then add some silicon along the back Edge only where the sill will be secured to the bottom of the window just to make sure that no water that might make its way into the window can ever come into contact with the walls it's important not to seal the front edge where the weep vents are I'll show those a little bit later on and I get my Center markings lined up before securing it in place with a couple of screws I seal up the ends too for the same reason as before and then use some super glue to fit the sill end caps I placed some five millimeter Packers on the brick and then it's the daunting moment to see if the window will fit but it slotted into the opening nicely I can then pack out the rest of the frame and I'm basically putting the Packers wherever there will be a fixing later so that the frame doesn't distort when the fixings get added with everything held in place with the Packers I check for level and the first reading was great the second reading was great too but the third one was way off this meant I needed to remove the window again which didn't go too smoothly fortunately nothing was damaged so the problem we had was the back edge of the internal sill was stopping the window seating properly it needed a good 10 mil taking off it a perfect job for the multi-tool this time I decided to Silicon my bottom Packers in place to stop them moving around and I can then get the window in again and this time it was Bob on I'll need to open up the window to get access to fix the frame to the wall but before I do that I'm going to rip off all the stickers for fixings the recommendation is to have a fixing 150 millimeters in from each corner and then 600 millimeter centers between so for a window of this size I just need three fixings in each side and at the top and the bottom rather than come in 150 millimeters instead I'm just going to do one fixing in the center and I'm going to use these concrete screws which require no wall plug when fitting to Brick which makes things really easy as I can just drill a six millimeter pilot hole with a long SDS bit straight through the frame and into the wall and then when I drive in the screw I just need to be careful not to distort the frame and here you can see that the Packers are supporting that fixing point it's also important to secure the fixing to Brick rather than the mortar joint between the two bricks in order to get a solid fixing for the fixing at the bottom I added some silicon just to seal up the head of the screw again just in case water Finds Its way into the frame I can then remove the excess Packers with an old chisel so now it's on to glazing and this for me was the most intimidating part I first need to remove the beads and I'm going to write on the back where I took each one out from so that they all go back in the right place as they are all cut specifically to fit this window any windows that open and close need toe and healing which is a similar concept to adding a diagonal brace to a gate in carpentry where the brace helps transfer the weight of the gate to the hinges and prevents the gate from sagging over time but with Windows there is no brace so instead Packers are placed between the glazed unit and the frame most modern Windows have these things called bridging Packers which do two things they create space for any water that might enter the window frame to flow through these weep holes in the frame and onto the sill and away from the building they also help support the glazed units in the same way as Packers do but more Packers will need to be added on top of these in order to tow and heal the glass by the required amount I invested in some of these suction cups they were only cheap ones I'll link to them below there are stickers on the glazed unit showing which side of the glass should be facing the exterior so I get the suction cups onto the internal side and do a couple of test pickups just to make sure that they work okay and I'm going to lay out something soft on the windowsill just in case I have any problems right so now it's the toe and healing process and this didn't go smoothly for reasons I'll explain shortly so you'll see I'm trying to squeeze in some Packers on top of the pre-installed bridging Packers I couldn't move the camera here so I'll show this better when it comes to fitting the second window right apologies for the poor filming there but I'm getting the glass in was my main priority and I started to panic because of what happened I was meant to use this paddle thing to lift the glazed unit so that I could install the Packers but as soon as I used it it broke so anyway this side is the hinge side of the window which means I need to toe and heal here and here once I got those Packers in I was able to check that the window opened and closes okay so this is a Twist and Turn window I think they call it I was wrong it's actually called a tilt and turn window so on the first mode the window tips forward and I'm just going to hold on to this because obviously the glazing is only held in by the Packers at the moment and I don't want it to drop and then twist the handle again and it opens fully like this to check that I've got enough Packers added I just basically need to be able to shut the window and as you can see it shuts perfectly so I think I've got enough Packers in there now in order to fit the beading I sprayed on some window cleaner just to help lubricate where the rubber meets the glass and this was quite tricky it took me a few attempts how can this be the hardest part what seemed to help was pushing forward on the glass and also knocking with the Mallet in the direction of the frame rather than diagonally but also I found that this Mallet was a little bit too large so that's the first window in there's still work to do to insulate around the window and seal it all up before that I'm going to tackle the second window and this is where it's all going to get very dusty I'm using my cut off saw to cut away the render this sword does have an inlet for water to help with dust suppression but unfortunately I didn't have a hose that would reach around to this side of the house so I thought I'd invest in a new set of tools to do this second window mainly because the ice scraper that I was using to try and glaze the first window didn't go well so in this set I've got a glazing paddle and this is really thick and chunky this small Mallet which has a rubber head on one side and a plastic head on the other this will be really handy for adding the window beading Trims and I think just in general around the workshop it's going to be a handy tool to have around as well and this scraper which has a beveled sharpened Edge on it and I think this is going to come in useful for removing the old beading trims so it's a set of three tools let's see how I get on with them ah so much easier check out her rotten this windowsill is the wood has turned to powder and I can just pull out big chunks of it unfortunately though the damage was not limited to the sill itself as it had let water pass through it and into and behind the render below the sill and I'll have to repair this later I was a bit worried about these bricks being unsupported with no sign of a lintel and its occasions like these when it's useful to know someone like Robin klevitt and it turns out there was no need to panic unfortunately the trickle vent on this second window was broken so you'll see here that I've removed it and I ordered one online so I'll have to refit that when it arrives and I'm happy to report that the window fitted just as nicely as the first which was a big relief in goes the second glazed unit and this time I'll be able to show the process of toe and healing so here's the paddle which I can use to manipulate the shape of the frame so that I can slide the Packers in on top of the bridging Packers and because this one is hinged on the right I'm adding them either side of the bottom right hand corner and either side of the top left hand corner I'm going to be using expanding foam to help both insulate and further secure the window frames in place and first I'm spraying on some water as it helps the phone to activate and I'm going to be using masking tape because this foam can be a bit messy so this will help with the cleanup I like to keep an eye on it for a bit just to make sure that it doesn't drop down onto the windowsill or the floor and then once it's all dry you'll see here it's so easy to remove with the masking tape right so time to repair some render and brick so I'm mixing up a four parts building sand to one part cement adding water and just a drop of integral waterproof and plasticizer to give me a nice mortar mix I doused all the existing render and brick in water so that it doesn't suck all of the moisture out of my mortar too quickly I probably should have used an SBR bonding product here but I didn't have any and I just wanted to get this job done by this point unfortunately I didn't have any issues some of the deeper areas I'm going to do in two layers so this is a scratch coat which will help the next coat to adhere better and then a wet sponge helps to clean it up and kind of feather it all in and to add texture to the render I just used my fingers which will help it all blend in I thought about adding some Pebbles here and I've done that before in a previous job but I don't think there'll be much of a difference and the Broken Bricks get the same mortar mix now for the top of this window I don't want to use mortar up here because I think it's going to be too awkward working upside down and this is too big a gap to fill with silicon so I think I'm going to have a look in my shed to see if I've got any plastic that I can use to make a trim so I think up on this shelf I've got some bits and pieces that I pulled out of a skip so on this piece I've got a nice finished edge here and I think if I make a cut around here somewhere then I should have the perfect piece this piece gets trimmed to fit and then I'm using a builder's silicon to fit it this is specially designed for upvc here's that deeper area and I used a weaker five to one mix for the top coat which is why it's a bit more of a Sandy color that should just help ensure that there's no cracking and I can get it all painted in and then build the Silicon again to seal everything up the inside is going to need tidying up too I sanded back the window sills ready for a couple of coats of fresh paint and decorators caulk to fill any gaps which will also later get painted in and this is how they ended up looking I'll show some of the final shots of the exterior shortly so should you fit your own windows in the UK there's one thing that's really important to note when the time comes to sell your home the solicitors are going to ask for a fenza or a building control certificate and there are three options here that I'm aware of one is to have the windows installed by a fencer registered installer who should fit the windows in compliance with building regulations but it's going to be expensive two you can fit the windows yourself and engage a building control officer to sign off the work that you've done or three you can get either a fenza or a building control Indemnity policy I got a lot of this information from my good friend Aiden at the Aiden project one of my favorite channels on YouTube and criminally undersubscribed in my opinion I'll leave links in the description box below if you're reasonably competent at DIY I'd definitely say have a go it's not a difficult job I actually quite enjoyed fitting them these are the first Windows I've ever fitted on my own but prior to this I learned from my uncle who's a professional window fitter by helping him fit the two small windows that we put into my workshop a couple of years back we bought our new windows from a local tray glazing company I'll put the spec that I asked for on screen now one thing to mention is that toughened glass is a requirement if the windows are within 800 millimeters of ground level and by the way if you're struggling with knowing exactly what to order and understanding what options are available I'd recommend checking out a website called modern upvcwindows.co.uk not a sponsor by the way and we didn't order our Windows via them but I found their website really helpful because it shows all of the various options that are available and also it points out some of the regulations and things that you might not necessarily be aware of so I'll leave a link to that in the description box below the price we paid for both windows is 766 pounds so about 383 pounds per window and I think that's a pretty good deal and we are really happy with 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Channel: Rag 'n' Bone Brown

Views: 81,436

Keywords: uk, british, youtuber, keith, salvaged, reclaimed, make, making, how, to, ragnbonebrown, diy, rag n bone brown, rag & bone brown, fitting windows, diy window fitting, should a diyer fit windows, window installation, upvc window, upvc window installation, replacing windows, how to measure for new windows, how to measure for replacement windows, how to install windows, how to fit windows, how to fit upvc windows

Id: WCRNWU06m3I

Length: 17min 11sec (1031 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2023