New Windows (Part Two)

Today the next three windows were fitted: dining room, kitchen and our bedroom. The two rooms downstairs also have steel shutters so we had to remove the old ones and see how the new ones would fit.

The first idea was to cut into the brick for a snugger fit. While this would have worked in the kitchen, it would also have filled the ground floor with dust. Luckily, this wasn’t possible in the dining room due to a slightly different construction and the potential risk of affecting the stability.

(If you look closely, you might see there are actually pebbles in the middle mortar)

As a result, the windows were fitted slightly further forward into the room. We still need to work out how to fill and insulate the resulting spaces above and behind the shutter units so that the thermal insulation is the same around the window as the window itself. This is important to avoid cold spots, which would attract humidity and, eventually, mould.

All the new windows have the expanding tape last week, but today the outside was taped over and, downstairs, at least, felt was added to improve the insulation so that the tape should expand faster. Important, because the next few days our due to be just above freezing. Initial indications are that this is working.

The Bedroom

The bedroom windows are slightly tinted. We hope this will be sufficient to mitigate the morning sun in the summer. When the sun does shine, there’s notably more sunshine upstairs than downstairs and we have no shutters. If it’s not, we could fit external sunblinds, like we have in the roof.

The Kitchen

As with the upstairs bathroom, the window is split. The lower part is fixed so that we can put things on the window sill and still open the windows. The windows can also be opened in three ways: normally, tilt, and parallel. Parallel opening moves the whole frame 8mm forward. While virtually invisible, this provides better ventilation than tilt, and is also secure.

The Dining Room

The Shutters

I managed to wire up the shutters. Again this should help keep the windows warm at night. Unfortunately, something isn’t quite right with the wiring in the dining room so directions are currently reversed, though I don’t think this was my fault!