Wrong, no wonder you worked for "2", probably got fired from them both. Doesn't sound like you have much experience.
Make up your mind. First you say you make the window to fit the hole, then you say you don't. Sorry I said you sound like you didn't have "much experience", you now sound like you don't have _ANY_ experience. Fact is, I was speaking of new construction windows with wooden sashes. Most vinyl windows custom to fit the hole, but you can buy stock size vinyl windows. Think this one was over your head also.
You still gotta make them weather tight, but sounds like you are one of those caulk crazies, instead of custom brake work.
Not fired from either, and I wasn't an installer - but I DID install all of my own - total frame out. All the "quality" window replacement companies here highly recommend the full frame out. The "we can do it cheaper" guys do the inserts. May be different in other areas - but here, where brick veneer houses are common there is no siding issue - and on the upper story of my house with aluminum siding I didn't touch the siding. The secret is proper measurement and getting the windows made to fit PRECISELY into the opening.
In some cases the brick molding option allows you to install into a less than perfect opening, with the brick-mold covering the edge.
When you see my house, and the houses the two companies I worked for did the install on, you don't even think "windows replaced". You think the windows have stood up exceptionally well.
The only opening in my house that was done with an "insert" was the back patio door, replaced about 25 or more years ago, about 5 years after I bought the house. There was a bad leak. the door HAD to be replaced and nobody stocked the proper size for a frame-out - and I wasn't willing to wait for a custom order. If I was doing it again I'd have put in plywood untill the custom fit door was delivered.
I used cut pieces of vinyl glued on to fill gaps. That's after proper adding insulation and sealing cracks. I usually spend about 4 hours or more on each window in a brick home. I like inside window sills. Most companies will bring the window inward to make it easier to install. I have to add side plates insulated with foam to do my thing. I have had some trouble, including installation companies, by not making sure sliders have not sagged down in the middle, making it difficult to take out the windows.
Sounds like you're trying to set your house on fire.
Aluminum storm widows suck. Wood core, vinyl-clad, frames with double-pane windows (add low-E options as the budget allows) are far better. Forget storm windows altogether.
Mine didn't need ANY cut pieces, or break work. The windows were mounted with spray foam (low expanding - the proper stuff for the job) to make them air tight, and the gap to be sealed on the outside with caulk was less than 1/2 inch. Significantly less. The inside jams were custom cut onsite by myself to EXACTLY fill the gap between the vinyl window and the original interior window trim. A very small amount of wood filler and a coat of paint and they look like they have been there since the house was built - both inside and out.
Mine are all ( the ones I replaced myself) double side sliders. Swing in for cleaning. Rehau product - about the best you could buy 13 years ago.
I did not do the 2 windows in the brick at the back of the house - bathroom and kitchen - the kitchen replaced with a fixed pane instead of a slider. The company I hired to do the job wanted to do inserts, and I said no way - do them the way I want them done - the kitchen window was a tricky job due to the way the cabinets had been fitted around the window. I went over the measurements and product specs with them - when they popped the old windows out and saw what I knew from removing the other windows, they were glad they DID do them that way. They said afterwards it was half the work it would have been to do them as inserts, and again, they just look like they have been there from the very beginning.
I also did all the upstairs windows in the neighbour's house - same construction as mine - same crappy original contract windows. Exactly the same windows put in my house - even the same size - exactly. The crew from the company I worked for at the time installed the patio door and the 3 windows in the brick downstairs. I was in charge of a total renovation of the house at that time while the neighbour - a university prof, was on sabatical in Sweden. We designed the kitchen by e-mail - removed all the carpet and wallpaper, put in hardwood floors and repainted the complete interior (dust alergies) - and they were totally ipressed when the came home about a week after we finished the job. When they put an addition on back in 2003 I acted as project manager and spec'd the window to use at the front to match the others. They put in a totally different window - which looked TOTALLY out of place - I told them to tear it out and install the spec window to match the other 3. You would now be hard pressed to realize, visually, that there is an addition on the house. The spacing between the extra window and the originals is off by a couple of inches - Everthing looks like it was built at the same time - and the windows look like they have been there all along. If you look real close, the window in the addition is about 3/8 inch farther out than the rest, but you really need to KNOW it to see it.
Without tearing off the wooden moulding on the outside, I could not order custom sized ones. I had no idea what was under that. I could then see what was behind the bricks.
You misunderstood, unless I'm misunderstanding you. I said if you use a stock sized window and make it fit the hole instead of having proper sized windows made TO fit the hole, it will usually mean extra work both inside and outside.
If you make a stock window fit a non-standard opening, you will need to re-trim inside and out.
Exactly the same procedure for installing "total replacement" windows except you remove the entire jam instead of just the sash and stops.
ALL of my original interior trim went right back on, with no trim work on the outside either.
If you make a window fit the hole, instead of making a window the correct size to fit the hole, you are modifying something to make it fit.
years, mint condition. They're so efficient all they did was turn my house into a chimney! All the heat was rising up through the attic.
1/3 as long as it used to.
insulate that attic, the floor only, unless it will be lived in. Repair cracked plaster ceilings or replace with sheetrock. This will eliminate drafts creating the illusion of worn out windows & doors.
Better off repairing/retrofitting doors - a lot more "drafts" can be eliminated that way. :)
Unless you house has those crappy sashless windows that were so common in the sixties and seventies - or the crappy aluminum framed loose-fit sliders form the same era, or the wood frames (jams) have ratted - which is a common occurence - in which case installing "inserts" is a loosing battle and totally foolhardy.
Installing "inserts" in the windows of this house would have been a real exercise in futility. Putting in custom built "new construction" windows was a cinch, in comparison
Don't know if any other responders mentioned this but others are right... vinyl replacements can look cheap and terrible or pretty darn normal and original. My guess is that it is based on cost.
At my own home I wanted the original 8 over 8 double hung so I used a system called "Bi-Glass" that I saw on This Old House. They use the original frames and sash but route them out and install double paned glass along with new side rails. They look like original (cause most of them are original) and still do a very respectable job of insulating.
years, mint condition. They're so efficient all they did was turn my house into a chimney! All the heat was rising up through the attic.
1/3 as long as it used to.
insulate that attic, the floor only, unless it will be lived in. Repair cracked plaster ceilings or replace with sheetrock. This will eliminate drafts creating the illusion of worn out windows & doors.
Better off repairing/retrofitting doors - a lot more "drafts" can be eliminated that way. :)
My brick house had standard wood double-hungs. And aluminum triple track storms. Had all that removed, and vinyl thermal-glass crank-out inserts put in. It was all simple and clean. They pulled the storms, outside blind stops, and removed the window sashes from the outside. They filled all voids in the existing and sound frame with fiberglass. (The old windows had side springs, not sash weights.) They braked and nailed in aluminum flashing on the old frame. The inserts fit in flush against the inner stops, which were never even disturbed. 2 screws per side on the inside fastened the insert to the frame. They shot foam in, but not much because there was hardly any gap. Then a thin bead of caulk all around the inserts, and the outside of the flashing. I just inspected the windows. After 7 years it all looks good. Might have to dress up the caulk in 5 years or so. I love it not having window painting/maintenance to think about. Unless you get up close, they look no different than wood windows. You lose about an inch of opening with an insert. In my case I gained many inches of glass and light, because I eliminated the double-hung middle horizontal sashes. All the windows were plenty wide to begin with. I can see how you have to give some thought to the cosmetics of windows, and I did, and I'm happy with the look. Exterior trim - which I don't have - has to be considered. But the mechanics of it are simple if you have sound frames and can find inserts to fit. That was no problem for me.
I didn't catch that you meant make a "stock window fit a non-standard opening". That certainly would be more work, which is why I mentioned that any window order from Simonton through Norandex is custom made based on the RO the installer supplies when ordering. As far as I know, they don't sell any "stock" window sizes. You supply an exact RO measurment and they downsize it a bit to allow for shimming.
Had I removed the sashes on my double hungs, I would have had to do (or have done) a lot of outside trim work since removing the sashes would have screwed up the aluminum wrap. As it was, I removed the aluminum wrap to get the aluminum screen frames out but then reinstalled the aluminum up against the VRW.
For the casement over the sink, the entire window, frame and all, had to be removed, so that took a bit more work to trim out the slider that I replaced it with. I used various styles of vinyl trim and built out a good looking profile on the exterior.
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