Basement Window Replacement #1: Complete

It only took me a year, but the first full basement window replacement is complete.

To be fair, if the project had been limited to just replacing the windows, I probably could have gotten the job done in a month. But the project wound up being -- as I assumed it would be -- much, much more than just swapping out some the old window sashes for a couple new ones. 

The project started here:

The limestone was covered in paint and the mortar was visibly cracked. I figured if I was going to freshen up the window, I might as well address the limestone first. That turned into a full blown repointing effort, including about a foot of stone below grade.

The mortar around the window opening was garbage due to years and years and years of water infiltration, so that required a pretty intense rebuilding/repointing effort.

I had to do a similar amount of work on the interior side of the wall as well. Once the limestone had been buttoned up, I replaced 3/4 of the original jamb. I probably could have replaced the top piece as well, but it was in decent shape and the curved pieces are easily the most time-consuming to mill. If what was there wasn't broke, I wasn't gonna fix it.

From there it was on to making new sashes, which replaced rotten reproductions. The sashes were complicated builds because they overlap in the middle, which adds a little wrinkle to the math and milling process. Ultimately, the fit of the sashes, brick mould, and storm window sash all boils down to getting the radius of the original jamb piece calculated on the nose. 

There's a place down the street, an architectural millwork shop, that sells the straight runs of brick mould (exterior window trim) off the shelf. I considered just buying it from them, and having them mill the curved piece, but the sales guy is a pain in the ass to deal with. He said they wouldn't work from dimensions, they wanted a template instead. I figured if I was gonna have to go to the trouble of making a template, I may as well pony up a few bucks for a custom router bit and make the stuff myself. 

​So I did. The dimensions and profile match the original stuff about as close as I could have hoped for, given that the original brick mould -- had to get dimensions from it for the custom router bit -- was caked with about 17 layers of paint.

When I dry fit the brick mould, I realized that some of the gaps between it and the stone were way, way too large to caulk. I ended up cutting little strips out of 3/4" thick stock to match the limestone profile and carefully, painstakingly attached them to the brick mould. Knowing how tough those things would be to paint, I made sure to get a couple coats on in the shop before installation.

Caulking was still tricky in some of the hard to reach spaces, but a set of little artist brushes came in real handy when it was time for final paint. 

The last thing I had to make was a storm window sash. 

That went pretty well, and I was able to get the thing to fit just like I wanted it to; there's about a 1/8" gap all the way around except for the bottom, which has a couple plastic furniture feet things recessed into the rail and keeps the sash off the stone sill. This allows for air circulation between the sash and the sill, which should help prevent the thing from rotting.  

I put some thin, adhesive weather stripping around the inside face of the storm window sash, which does a pretty good job of sealing it up from the outside. And, it's not visible from the exterior side, or the interior side.

The sash is held in place with 4 hook and eyelets. There might be a better method but this seemed to work once I got everything adjusted to provide a gently snug fit between the sash and the jamb.  

That's it. That's the window. 1 year of work, but everything turned out pretty well. It helps to imagine the brick repainted and some landscaping at the base of the wall, but this is definitely a large step in the right direction. 

The next window is right behind this one -- another day or two for glazing on the storm sash to cure enough for paint and a dry weekend for installation, and I may be able to say that TWO of the basement window replacement projects are wrapped up.