Monday, December 08, 2008

Aluminum Windows

The window guys arrived today, about 11 am. Of course the blowing snow started around 10 am, and it just keeps getting worse. You really can't tell from these pictures, how nasty the weather is. Swirling snow that's really wet and heavy. I guess it's raining in town, but I'm not going to brave the roads to find out. Besides, the bank inspector is supposed to show up this afternoon. I'm hoping my feet thaw out before I need to go back to the house and meet her.

This window system for the front of the house is a Kawneer system. It's a commercial, thermally broken, curtain wall system. It's not used in residential construction very often here in AK. But it will really open up the view, 2 1/4 inches of aluminum between each pane of glass, instead of 8 inches of wood or trimmed sheet rock.

So, I hung around this morning as the guys unloaded their equipment and got the first window frame installed. They want to get all the frames in today, and then come back tomorrow and install the glass.



Here is the delivery truck. Even though the driveway was sanded this morning, the truck was too heavy, so the guys parked up at the road and hauled the window frames down the driveway. At least they're really light weight.



















Here are a couple of the frames.























The flashing needed to be dried and warmed up a bit. And since the snow kept piling up, a temp piece of wood was screwed up outside, to provide a bit of a wind break.


















Then some really thick grey caulking was applied. Sorry that this photo is so blurry, but it's the only one I have of the caulking.












The sill is installed over the caulking. It gets shimmed up and made level.



















The black stuff in between the 2 pieces of aluminum is the thermal break, so that cold won't transfer from the outside to the inside. Once it's level, it's screwed in place and the screw holes are covered with more caulk.

And then a line of caulk is put just inside the upper lip of the sill. This is where the window frame will sit.

















And here is what the frame looks like sitting on the sill. It is shimmed too and screwed into place. Before the siding is put on, expanding foam will be used to seal any spaces between the aluminum and the wood.



















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