How To Install A Window (New Construction)

I shat in here from house improvements calm. Today we're, going to shoot a video, and we're, going to explain to you how to install a new PVC window in a new construction scenario. We've got a series of windows along the wall.
Here we left one out just to do this. Video in and basically we'll. Just take a few minutes to get set up and we'll be ready to go okay. So we're working at a new garage construction site that I've been working on, so the gradual has been Tyvek and we're all ready to cut the window opening out.
So I'm just going to simply the window open right here. I'm just going to simply take my knife. I'm, going to find the edge of the opening and I'm, going to cut about an inch and a half back or not so wider than the opening goes.
All the way down the side and bolt the same across the bottom. Now you could put a mark pencil mark there, whatever, if you dont trust yourself, but long as it's close in that range and then at the top.
I'm going to do the same thing, so we're, basically going cutting that out an inch and a half around the hole opening to expose the plywood or OSB whatever you're using and then up here at The top I'm, going to make a couple.
Angled cuts and I usually need one down here to just create a couple flaps. So what we're going to do. Are we're, going to create a sill pan and make the install so everything's watertight we.
Ve got the room to do this here on the plywood. So the first thing I've got to do. I've got to actually use a special primer for this. This is what I'm using. I'm, creating a sill pan out of this product here and it'll all stick on around the hole and cover the whole Sylla, but I do need to use a primer.
Some products do some going this particular one requires a primer, so I'm, going to go ahead and just spray that all the way around and just take a few minutes to tack up, and then we can apply our product okay.
So we've gone around the perimeter out on this older face, and I've tried to spray about an inch and a half wide. You know we're just trying to cover the plywood, not necessarily the wrap, and I also want to do up about three inches up the sides here and here and this whole sill bottom getting a few strings of glue going everywhere.
Okay, and that just takes a couple minutes to set up - hopefully, I don't have glue on the lens of the camera and this product here resists. Oh, I guess this brand is called there's, lots of different brands out there.
I'm, not specifically telling you. This is the one you need to use or not use this brand here, like I said, we need the primer on the wood surfaces and we just got to let that sit for a couple minutes.
So what I'm going to do is just prep the length of these a little bit. So what you want to do is measure your opening and add about three inches, so I believe these are 33. I think 30 inches. So I'm, going to cut this at about 36 inches long, just cut the strip off that'll be the bottom piece that we're going to put on there before we put that in there there's, some plastic corners that we're, going to place right down in here, just because that bottom corner is a hard spot to seal up properly.
So they've, come out with these here, so to install that we've also got the glue there, but basically, just put a good bead of silicone in the corner and press that right down in it the same thing.
On this side press these rate down into the corner like so I'm just going to give them a little staple a couple staples just to hold them in place. So, okay, so we've got that in place. Now I can put in this first piece of this membrane and it just has a sticky back on it, so you peel off the back portion and the one thing you want to remember when doing this is we want to layer every subsequent layer so that, as Water, if water does get behind your siding or anything, and it's coming down the wall, each layer is the upper layers, are overlapping the bottom layers so that you're shedding the water property.
So this first one just lines it up with the bottom of the opening, like that, I'm sticking. It passed that two or three inches extra that we added on to it, press it in really good make sure it's stuck like so then we're, going to cut another one to go in the bottom of the actual opening To start creating the sill or the pan, I should say, and this one I want it the same length as what we just did so in this case it's, 36 inches again, and this one.
What's going to happen? Is it's going to sit in here, but it's going to we're, going to stick it out about an inch and a half and then fold that edge around the corner? So again I go to peel the back off, so I'm sticking out about an inch and a half down onto the one we already did again.
You can see how I'm overlapping, the bottom one, so we got at the right direction. Stick these sides on, and I'm, going to make a little cut right against the side of the opening break down to the bottom of the sill same thing.
On this side, break down to that plastic corner, we put in there stretching it back and sealing it right to the bottom of the window. Sill there, okay, and then we're, going to go up the side.
So I've got a narrower one for that. You wouldn't necessarily have to change sizes, but so this one's, going to go right from about three inches up top to overlapping this one by a couple inches again the same brand product, just a little narrower roll.
I believe this outer face is UV resistant, for I think it's 20 days or something like that, but it's not made to be to sit out and not ever be covered up. I don't know. I guess the Sun must break it down over time.
Okay, again, I'm peeling. The back of. I'm, just putting it flush to the edge of our opening so, and I want to make sure I have this flap up out of the way push it on real good and flat a little bit of a wrinkle in there.
But okay and the same thing on this side: okay, so we've got our two sides on. I'm, going to go back down to the pan, but it's, not maybe necessarily necessary that you do it. But I like to cover the whole bottom of the wood sill, and what this is is that if any water ever gets through its protecting your framing from rotting, oh it is really what it is and then you'll see once we Put the window in we're, going to create a couple of wee poles in the seal on the window, so that, if moisture does get in there, it runs out.
We've. Also, I don't know. If you can really tell from here, we've, also slightly sloped these sills, so there. The back inside edge is just a quarter of an inch higher, not even about an eighth of an inch just again create a bit of a slope, so the water will drain out and it's, not saying you're, going to get water in there, but it can definitely happen.
So we're, trying to do everything possible to prevent it from happening, but if it does get in there, we want to have some prevention there as well. Okay. So this one I'm just going to cover the bottom of the sill with it and again I primed that whole area, so we get a good bond run right inside.
Stick that beam down, and I'm, going to stick just a little strip up here, just to help hold those back. But if you're cutting up here, just be sure you aren't, cutting remembering that you just installed peel the back off.
We've got that protective corner in there. That's, sealing the actual bottom corner up. I just want to protect a little more wood there. Okay, so we've got the sides. At the bottom, we've got the sill panel made.
We've got the side protected. We're, going to put a strip across the top, and then we're ready to just let the peel in doing so this one. Here again, it really should be about the same length as what we put on the bottom when you're, doing a renovation window where you're, replacing the existing window and they're, still siding and everything in the Way this stuff, it's, a little tougher to put on a lot of times.
I just make sure I use extra silicone to install the window instead of this. But when you're doing now, you've got all the room in the world to apply this, so why not? So we just want to make sure that that flap of house wrap up there isn't behind this product.
We want this behind the house, wrap just slipping it up behind press it in really good. Okay, we've got still got that freedom to go once we have the wind wall in this is going to get taped to there and up the corners and everything and again that's, just creating this flow so that the water, if it gets through here, Comes down onto this, if this was underneath, it could get in the water could flow down and get in behind all this, so we've got everything lap properly.
I'm, going to check the level of my window sill from side to side this one's, nice and level. Yo, you don't want to just set your window in there, though right on the sill. You want to create a bit of space, so I'm using these pieces of 3/8 plywood.
I'm just setting them in there and I'm just going to tack them in place, so they don't move and the window will sit down on here and that will create a space inside. This will create an air space between the window in here so that you can get that insulated properly.
Okay, so we've got that sitting there. Something important to remember when you're, doing a series of windows like what we're doing here, we've got four actually in a row all the same elevation is you know you want to try to stay consistent.
So they are straight and level and equal to each other. So we've got this all prepped up, we drop a wheel, drive fit the window, which is just a matter of before we get any silicone around. The opening lift the window end drive fit, it makes sure everything works in this case.
I know what's going to work all these last three did okay. So if you've watched our other window installation for a renovation type window. This part will be a bit of the same repetition, but what we've got here that there isn't a nailing flange.
Here I like to use a renovate. They call it a renovation, brick mold, and, as you can see it, isn't. It isn't, just a thin flange that you put the nails through and cover it with the siding. This is the finished product that you see once the sidings on, but what it does have is these strips that pull out and behind them as a channel where you can screw the window into place through and then the strips go back in and it covers everything Up nice and neat, so I'm just going to pull those off, so those are out of the way.
You also want to go around the back edge and just you know, wipe any dust. You know. Sometimes the windows sat around and shipping or something for a while, and they're dusty on the back here, because we will be putting a bead of silicone around the opening.
We want it to bond nicely to the back of the vinyl window. This wind, this particular window, doesn't open it's, just a fixed, /, fixed type window, very basic, very simple. Some somewhat different brands of windows are a little more floppy than others.
This is just Rockin on the ground, but some you can actually rack from side to side or make them untrue. So always when you're, putting that type of window in just make sure to measure corner to corner diagonally on the outside before you get it all screwed in.
So if you've got a rack. It a little bit to get it plumb and straight and square that you can. These ones are really good and solid and never had a problem with those, but so what I'm going to do.
I'm, going to hop back up top. I'm, going to put a nice generous bead of silicone around the perimeter of the opening. Then I'm going to grab the window. Stick it in and we'll start fastening into place.
Okay, so I've gone around the top and the two sides, with the really nice big, generous bead of silicone all the way around when it comes to the bottom, I've, come down to the corner and I've, come in, I'll, come in about three-four inches still with a nice, generous bead, and I'm, going to stop and leave it about a two-inch gap, and then I can continue on and do about the same thing Over here, on the other side leave a couple inches.
What that does any moisture that does ever get in here through condensation or anything, and because we have a slope on the sill. This gives it somewhere that it can actually escape if it needs to. Now being that it's on the bottom, there's, a lot real low likelihood that any rain or anything is going to drive up from the bottom up into there.
So so we've got that all in place. Something I forgot to do was I want to get a mark on the outside here on the on an edge, so I know side to side where the windows centered up. If you have two people doing this, you could have somebody inside telling you so I've got thirty-two and a quarter thirty and a quarter, so I've got two inches of overlap, so basically, I just need a mark here. At about should about an inch and then when I slide over to that, I know that my window is pretty close to being centered okay, so I'm going to lift the window into place.
We've got our block sitting here. It should be level, but once I have it in place, I'll, just double check that it is true and slide it over the side to side, and we should be all right kind of start by setting your bottom sill on those blocks that we Attach there and then just slide the window into place slide over till I can see my pencil mark on the side, so we've got it sitting in there.
I'm just going to grab the level again set it on the bottom, just to double-check level levels. Good, the windows were square, but we'll just check the plumb as well, and it's. Fine, too, so that window is good right where it's sitting we've got it embedded back into the silicon.
I'm, going to mount it with screws. Basically, I'll, put a screw on each top corner to start with, and then I'll, explain the screwing after that. Okay, so the screws that you should use for this type is not just a deck screw, because they have a tendency to pull right through the plastic.
You want to use a truss head screw, which is got a really big flathead with a flat back on it, so it once it tightens up to that vinyl surface it's, got lots of surface area to suck back and not actually pull The screw through the vinyl so use a truss headed screw, make sure it's.
Equivalently long enough to you know, grab into a good inch of wood back in there and we want to place our screws about every 16 inches apart on a window like this to properly fasten it in. So I'm just going to finish screwing.
It off and getting it secured okay, so I've got all my screws put into place. I'm, just taking a scrap block and I'm, going to go around the outside and squeegee off any excess silicone that came out just so that we don't have that in the way, and we're trying to do the siding, creating any little lumps and bumps there.
I'm just going all the way around, not squeegee off as good as I can, and as well on. The bottom just got to watch when you're. Doing the bottom that you don't reseal up spots that you tried to leave empty or without silicone okay, so we've got that I'm, going to come back up top here and tape.
My house wrap to the membrane and obviously I'm just using the tuck tape that you normally would use on your house wrap. I can find the end of the roll, so just be sure that that flap up top is cut up high enough.
That you're taping on to the membrane not really onto the window. Okay, so just press that on really good, we need a couple little spots up on those handle cut. To me a couple. Little strips, I mean seal it up, really nice, okay, so we got that in there.
Just look down here make sure none of our cuts are exposed. No everything's covered up there. Okay, that's. That now I can put on the screw covers the caps that go on the channel there. If you have a rubber, mallet or a rubber handle hammer that just goes snaps right in there pretty nice, and it gives a very attractive finish when you're all done.
I think I like this type of window. The renovation brick mold is down the road. If I mean obviously at some point, somebody's going to have to change these windows in 30 years, or whenever you know you don't have to take the siding off to do it pop these caps out.
Remove the screws pry the window out and you don't have to disturb everything else around it. We're with the nailing fin it's under whatever your exterior finishes, so you've got to either cut it wider and finish refinish it with some type of finish or you know, restock or reside your whole house.
So so this is nice for down the road and it's. I think it's pretty attractive to me. A little wider trim work around the windows. Okay, so I'll, finish popping on that last one, and then we'll. Maybe have a quick look inside and wrap things up.
The last thing I just want to show you now we're inside the garage. You can see we've got nice equal space on each son, really on all the sides, and that'll make it easier for us to spray home.
You want to have a good quarter-inch or in this case we've got a good half an inch all the way around. It gives you lots of room to get in there and insulate properly, so that's. Our video on installing a window and new construction, it demonstrates how to make a proper sill pan.
There are a few different variations of the sill pan, but the basic idea is to get it all covered up and sealed up as best you can with a membrane, and again, the main thing to remember on the membrane is lapping.
It working your way from the bottom up so that all your upper pieces overlap the one below it so that's, that's about it. We will. We do have another video on YouTube here on our Channel. That explains an insulating window, both using spray foam and the bad insulation.
So you can check that out. We do have the form on our website at house improvements comm! You can go to the forum. Ask any questions about this video or any other video or anything. You want related to building construction and I'll do my best to answer it.
If I don't, maybe there's, somebody else there. That does have the answer for you. So I guess that's it for now we've I'll, see you next time.