New windows in a brick home

[Brian B.]

I may be purchasing a brick tudor style home which was built in 1932. Apparently there is no wood framing in the lower half of the home, just brick, then cement, then plaster. The man who built the house was paranoid of fire and built it out of as much concrete as possible. The windows are steel casements and need replaced. Does anyone know how hard it is to replace windows in a brick home? What would you anchor them to since there is no wood frame? Besides Pella and Anderson, who are some other manufactures of good windows? I've never installed windows before, so if anyone has some tips, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

Brian

[Joseph Meehan]

Are you planning to do this yourself or have a contractor do it for you?

[raven]

Our house is similar, and the windows are anchored into a rough opening of wood that is attached to the brickwork.

Dunno about good windows, the previous owners had the existing ones replaced with pretty basic vibvl windows which work about like you'd expect.

John

[Edwin Pawlowski]

You may have to make a wood frame. There are a couple of things to look for. Is there a lintel above the window supporting the brick? There should be. You don't want to disturb that. What is holding the present windows in? They may well have a flange between the bricks making removal a PITA. That is what the Sawzall is made for.

Can't say for sure without seeing what you have, but you can make a wood frame and anchor it to the brick, then mount the windows into the frame. The window manufacturer can help with what you need for the opening for a given window size. Ed

[Philip Halverson]

I watched an episode of TOH recently where Tom & Norm installed rebuilt windows -- big ones -- back into brick frames using nothing other than low expanding foam. I kid you not. They shimmed all plumb and level then shot a few dabs of foam into the corners. After that foam expanded, they checked plumb and level then filled the gaps with more foam. Silva claimed they'd never come out on their own and the seal would be weather tight.

It was an old commercial building rehabbed in Boston into residential.

Good luck.

Phil

[EJ]

I would do that and drop a couple of lead anchors in the brick. That is what I did in my granite basement.