Retrofit insert or full frame replacement for an older Riverside house

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A soft thud under a screwdriver at the bottom of a wood sill, and a faint smell of damp wood, is the symptom that ends most arguments for an insert. Every teardown window installers riverside museum house on bloor has logged shows the same thing, that the frame decides the method for window replacement in Riverside, CA and the glass does not.

Testing the old frame

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The installer presses a screwdriver into the sill, the lower jambs and the corners of a wood window. Wood that accepts the tip more than a sixteenth of an inch is rotted and cannot hold a new unit. The frame is also checked for square, for a sill that slopes the wrong way, and for paint so thick that the sash tracks are narrowed.

Aluminum frames from the mid century tracts

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Many Riverside homes from the postwar tracts carry an aluminum window with a thin frame and a single pane. These frames do not rot, so they are often sound enough for an insert. Corrosion at the corners and bent legs are what rule them out. The thin metal also means little room for a thick vinyl insert, so the glass area drops.

When an insert is sound

An insert works when the old frame is straight, dry and fastened solidly to the wall. The new unit sits in the opening, is shimmed and screwed through the old jambs, and the gap is sealed on the outside. It is faster, it leaves the stucco and the interior trim alone, and it keeps the wall intact. It also stacks a new frame inside an old one, which costs glass area and adds a seam that has to be sealed well.

When the frame must come out

A full replacement is the answer when the sill is rotted, when the frame has pulled away from the wall, when there is no flashing at all behind it, or when the opening has to change size. The stucco is cut back, the old frame is removed down to the studs, and the opening is flashed and pan-flashed from scratch. It is more work, but it is the only way to correct a hidden water path.

What the choice does to the glass

Either way the new unit can carry double pane insulated glass with a low e coating and argon fill, and a warm edge spacer reduces cold along the glass edge. The insert is the one that gives up some of that glass to a second frame.