How to install windows in a new house

The proper way to install a window;

If you standing near a window in your home and you can feel a breeze blowing across your cheek and the window isn’t open, well it might be because the window was never installed properly. Here is the way that Village Builder’s installs a window so that you never feel a draft.

Just to be clear there are as many different kinds of windows as there is houses in Canada. There are different companies, different shapes, styles and different ways of making windows. I will try to explain the way to install windows in a new home using the most common windows.

Installing a window in a new home;

First you need to frame the opening correctly. This might sound like an easy thing, but a lot of window manufacturers will tell you to frame the opening leaving a ¼ all the way around or less. Keeping the window opening tight might sound like the right thing to do, but actually it is the worst. You need to leave ½ an inch all the way around the window at a minimum!  That means if the window is 40 inches by 30 inches then your framing size should be 41 inches by 31 inches.

Once you have it framed and sheeted then you need to install your house wrap. Pull the house wrap in and around the framed opening stapling it as you go. This helps keep the house wrap tight on the sheeting and also will help keep the air penetration down around the window.

Then you install a strip of waterproofing that is about 9 inches wide on the bottom of the window framing. It should go from one side of the window opening to the other and run up the side of the opening about 12 inches. This will ensure that if and when the window fails the framing will not be rotten when you replace the window.

You then install the window. Depending on the type of window you are installing this could mean a bunch different installations.

·         If installing a window with nailing fins on the outside, you level the window horizontally and move it in or out so that the outside of the window is where you want it to sit. You adjust the window level with shim shingles, placing them 8 inches from the top and bottom on all sides of the window. Depending on how big the window is you might require more shim points. Then you use roofing nails to nail the nailing fins on the outside of the window.

·         If installing a window without nailing fins, then you do everything the same except that you either screw or use finishing nails at the points where you installed the shims to hold the window in place. Remember to countersink them so that they can be filled when finishing later.

Now that the window is where you want it, you then use low expansion spray foam and fill the void between the window and the framing. You must not fill the whole cavity right away, spray in the foam around the whole window moving constantly never stopping in any one place and let it dry. Once it has dried then you may proceed to fill more of the cavity around the window, you will have to do this several times before the cavity is completely full. The dangers of putting too much spray foam around the windows all at once are pretty serious! You can actually break the window if the foam expands too much. Or if the window is an operator you can jamb the window so tight that it will never open.

Some key things to understanding the insulation around the window;

·         Only use spray foam around the window, do not use fibreglass insulation, or roxall. The reason is that fibreglass insulation and roxall are designed to allow air to pass through them; they just slow it down to allow the furnace in the house to warm it up. Spray foam allows no air penetration.

·         Only use low expansion spray foam. I am repeating myself for a good reason. The high expansion spray foam will break the window you are foaming; also low expansion spray foam is denser and is able to restrict the flow of air easier.

·         Make sure the window is in properly because once you spray foam the window it will never move. Spray foam holds so well that you could take out all the screws and nails that are holding the window in place and the window wouldn’t move. Trying to remove the spray foam to move the window later will be a nightmare.

·         Make sure the window is set at the proper depth on the outside of the building not the inside. It’s more important to get the window in the proper place relative to whatever you are placing on the outside of the house. It doesn’t matter if the inside build out doesn’t end up where you want it, if it’s too short then you add a jamb extension on later.

Now that the window is installed and properly secured in its final resting place you can move on to the outside of the window. If your window has nailing flanges then you simple take you’re waterproofing and start by covering the nailing flange to the edge of the window. The 6”to 9” waterproofing will then extend out and cover said distance creating a water and air barrier. You put the bottom piece of waterproofing on first covering the piece of waterproofing that you have already installed and then the sides. The last piece is always installed above the window. This will give you a perfect water and air tight seal around the window.

If your window doesn’t have a nailing flange, then you install a drip cap first on top of the window, and then put your waterproofing over it. This will help direct the water away from the window. Unfortunately you cannot install waterproofing on the sides and bottom of this window because there is nothing for the waterproofing to attach to at the window. So installing the waterproofing becomes a waste of time and money.

All windows should have a drip cap installed over them regardless of where they are installed in the house.

When you complete the siding or stone around the building, you’re going to want to go around and caulk all the windows and the trims that are touching or placed near them, especially any trims above the window. Use a good quality outdoor weather resistance caulking. Caulk all joints that you can. This will help stop all air leakage around the windows.

Before the drywall is installed, check the vapour barrier around the window, the vapour barrier should stop at the edge of the framing for the window. That edge should be taped with Tuck tape as tight to the spray foam as you can manage. This will help stop air transfer from the walls beside the window even after the drywall has been installed.

Check around the edge of the window with your hand, were you installed the spray foam. You’re trying to feel any drafts or gaps in the spray foam that you may have missed. This is your last chance to insulate, so add spray foam to anywhere you think there could use some more. Be careful that you do not add too much, remember that the foam expands. Once the foam has dried and you have trimmed away any excess foam that protrudes past the window jambs you can install your trim.

Once your trim has been installed and most of the painting has been completed you are going to want to caulk the trim. Caulk all the edges with as thin a bead of caulking as you can manage. This is the last step in stopping air leakage. Any air that happened to seep through all the other measures will be stopped here by the caulking. The trim might feel cold to the touch, but you wouldn’t have any drafts around the windows. The cold air will warm up in the walls from the furnace inside the house.

So if you do everything I have listed here you should end up with a draft proof window.

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders inc.

Where to start when you want to build a house?

How much does it cost to build a house? There is one sentence that contractors here all the time, it actually makes them roll their eyes.

People that are thinking about building a house search the internet or the phone book find a builder and call them up and ask that eye rolling question. This will probably surprise a lot of people that this question is the number one asked and it is never responded to with a straight answer. There is a good reason for not answering the question; the reason that it can’t be answered is that it is a trick question. It’s such a trick question that the people asking the question don’t even realize that it’s an unanswerable question. Asking that question like that is the same as asking a car sales man how much a car cost without pointing to one.

Let me explain, there are so many options to houses these days that it is vertically impossible to tell someone what a house cost. A couple of times when I was young and naive I quoted the average price of the homes that we build to a customer. When we finally estimated the house it was 1/3 more then what I had told them on are first conversion. They left thinking that I had lied to them just so that I could get the job. The fact was that the house they asked us to price wasn’t just bigger then I originally thought, it had every high end feature that you could find in a house at that time. The way a contractor will quote a house is as follows;  they will take your plans and quote every piece of the house separately, so they will get a framing price for walls, the roof and the floor.  They will get prices on the plumbing, electrical, drywall, painting ect, ect.  Then they add up all the prices, put a profit on top for themselves and all appropriate taxes. Before they present the quote or budget to you they will usually break down the cost to a sqft price so that they can understand where there pricing is taking them. For example if you routinely build houses that are $500,000 and are 2000 sqft then they are charging $250 a sqft for a finished house. So if they quote a 2000 sqft house and it comes in over or under $500,000, then what they do is go back through your estimate to make sure that they didn’t miss something in the plans.  If there estimate is over the normal sqft price then they look for something making the quote more expensive and remove it if it doesn’t need to be included in the build. The big thing that changes the sqft price of a house is not just what you put outside on the house (siding, brick, and stone) it’s what is put inside the house. It’s amazing how fast the finishing’s in a build raise the price of a house. Upgrading your flooring in a house can add $10 a sqft to a house depending on what you choose.

So the best way to go about finding out the price of the house that you want built and the process that is required by you to go through to get that accurate price is as follows;

1.       Find out what you can afford, what your total final budget can be and what you can get financed.

2.       Find a contractor that you trust and hire him to help you do everything. For a small fee a good contractor will help you through the tough process of getting ready to build a house.

3.       You with help from the contractor can find a lot to build on; the reason for involving the contractor in this process is so that you purchase a lot that will suit your needs, like size of house. Depending on where the lot is, you might need to install a septic system, a well and probably a driveway. These are all extra costs that most homeowners don’t realize they need to include in there building budget.

4.       Have your contractor find out the fees for building in that area, there could be development charges, building permit charges, sewer and water charges, conservation authority charges and in some places you might have a homeowner association that will have fees to build.

5.       Get your plans drawn up by a professional. Your builder should have access to professionals that can draw up your home for you. You need to use either an architect or a drafts person; both these professionals (in Ontario) will have a government appointed design number. This number allows you to take their plans that they have drawn for you to the local building department to get a permit.

6.       Give the plans to your builder and have him give you a price on what it will cost you to build your home. There is a good reason that I recommended you pay your builder the fee for helping you with the process that leads up to you having plans drawn.  It is so that you own the plans and that you will not owe your builder anything when it comes to getting a price on the building of your home. This allows you to take the plans to another builder if when you get the price from your builder and you believe that they are too expensive. You have that right because you paid for the plans and legally you own them. Any builder will tell you that it’s a good idea to get a second quote. But one word of caution, do your research on the other builder, so that you know exactly what they will be quoting you and the quality of their work. This also should restrict you from going out and getting 3 or 4 other builders to price the job. This is a major mistake that a lot of people make, they think that the more prices then the more options you’re going to have; actually all it does is confuse you. Every builder will quote in a different way and add or omit certain things from the build depending on what they believe will get them the job. The builders that give you the large multi page estimates that show everything in detail are usually the best ones to go with because it means they are going out of their way to show you that they are not hiding anything. A lot of builders will be vague on their estimates trying to show you they have the lowest price and it’s only later that you realize that you’re not getting everything that you assumed you were getting.

7.       Sometimes you will have to get the plans redrawn or altered because of the price or because the municipality has an issue with the size or height of the building. This doesn’t cost you a lot and a good builder will help with this process.

8.       Now that you have your builder, you need to apply for your permits, a lot of times if there is a conservation authority involved which means it could take you up to 6 weeks to get your building permit approved. There could be other permits that you have to apply for as well, such as if there is an existing home on the property that you want to demolish. This requires the services to be disconnected and reconnected at a later date before they will grant you a demolition permit.

9.       The building of your house should be left entirely to your builder. That means he does all the organizing, he talks to all the sub trades and he does all the quality control. You as the homeowner should be involved to a point, you should only deal with the builder, there is nothing worse than having a homeowner show up on the building site and start questioning sub trades about what they are doing. It doesn’t just cause confusion for the trades on site, but it can be a major safety issue for you the homeowner not having the proper safety equipment. Many a homeowner or their family member has been injured by showing up on the building site unannounced and wandering around without an escort. Injuries from simply stepping on a nail, to falling down a hole, or standing in the wrong place and having something heavy fall on you can be devastating and life altering. What homeowners have to realize is that residential construction is extremely dangerous and no matter the best efforts of the builder there will always be unsafe areas in a construction site.

10.   Once the home is built and finished, you and the builder will do a walk through and list any problems minor or major that you have with the home. The builder will work through the list and then when everything is satisfied you can pay the builder the holdback that you owe them.

Don’t be afraid of paying them the final amount, you don’t have to worry about something going wrong in six months, because (in Ontario) your home carries with it a 7 year Tarion new home warranty. Which means you’re insured against anything serious that could go wrong.

So the next you are thinking about picking up the phone and calling, or emailing your local builder to see what your new home will cost you, remember the list I have left you with, it will help stop the builder from rolling their eyes at you and help you get the answers you need more quickly.

Remember that the more planning you do, the easier it will be for you to get proper and accurate quote on your building project.

If you can any question about the building process or are looking for a quote please feel free to call me at (877) 866-3202 or at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.

   

Renovating an older home VS Demolishing and Building New (Part 1)

Building new vs. Renovation/addition Part 1

Here is a question that is posed to me at least once a month. Do I renovate my existing home or do I demolish it and start from scratch with a new build.

Part 1 will focus on the benefit of renovating/additions aspect of it.

Part 2 will focus on the benefit of demolition/new building aspect of it.

Most people always think that it’s cheaper to renovate an older home then to knock it down and rebuild it. This is true to a point.

There is a fine line when you are renovating were you need to know if you’re going to start wasting money fixing a house that is not worth fixing.

If your home is structurally sound, the outer shell of the home has been properly maintained (the roof, the siding/brick and the foundation) and it was properly done at the time of the construction then there is probably no need to demolish it.

If most of the changes that you want to do are inside the house and are more cosmetic/ updating then you should renovate. Tearing down interior walls and moving plumbing and heating lines is not that big of a job and can be down in a moderate budget. With new dust stopping protection and floor protection a lot of the work can be down without causing damage to the rest of the house that isn’t being altered. Plus this allows you to leave your furniture and other possessions in the house while it is being worked on.

Depending on your financial situation this option allows you to do the work on the house over many years instead of all at once. One thing that some home owners do when they are doing multiple renovations over many years is that they do some of the work themselves to save some money. These tasks should be limited to small demolition, cleaning up and painting. If you deviate away from these three things you start to open yourself up to problems that you will have to pay a professional to fix later. Also there is safety issue; if you start playing electrician you could hurt yourself or someone else.

If you want to add square footage adding an addition or several additions can easily be done, as long as you have adequate space on your property. Additions are an easy way to make your house more enjoyable and add value. It allows you to do something completely different than the rest of the house which would allow you to leave more of the original features in the existing house. This would allow you to bring a modern touch at a lesser cost then trying to reshape the whole existing interior.

If you have heritage laws where you live you might not be allowed to demolish the house and renovating might be the only option you have. Additions can allow you to do what you want, where a heritage society might not let you change much on the outside.

Permits for a new house are more expensive usually then the permits for renovations because of ever increasing development fees for all new buildings.

There are government grant in Ontario for raising the energy efficiency of the house from insulating to new furnaces. These grants can add up to a lot of money and are usually exactly what your house requires. They are not hard to attain, you simple need a pre renovation inspection by an energy auditor and a final inspection when your renovation project is complete.

By renovating an older house it allows you to keep the character of the house and the history of it. There are unique features in older houses, like stained glass and wood that you just can’t find any more. Sometimes taking a large older house and renovating it can add superior value to the resale of the house that you just wouldn’t get out of building a new house.

If you have to build a new house, you will be required to replace the septic system (if you have one) and sometimes you will have to drill a new well (if you have one). Renovating a house does not require you to do any of these things.

There can be a strong emotional attachment to an older house; it might be very difficult for the neighbourhood that the house is in to deal with the loss of this house. You could experience delays when applying for your building permit because it would first have to go through several committees and be open to public comment. Simply renovating the house can easily speed up the process; it will also put you in good standing with your neighbours and the community at large.

If you have an older house that is already a century old and has been properly looked after then there is no reason that the house should not last another century with proper maintenance and upkeep.

Look for part 2 of renovating vs. Demolition/new build

Part 2 will deal with the benefits of a new build.

If you would like to discuss this or any other topics in the construction industry, please feel free to email me at robabbott@villagebuilders.ca.

Or visit our website villagebuilders.ca

Rob Abbott

Operations Manager

Village Builders Inc.

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR when it comes to construction

Everyone at one time or the other as been faced with the decision of how much they want to spend on an item. What is the right price, do I pay for the expensive one or do I only need the cheaper one. Now add hundreds of these choices together and turn them into one big project. Out of these hundreds of items which ones do I need to be the best, highest price and which are the ones that can be of lesser quality and of a reduced price. This is the dilemma that everyone has struggled with if they have ever had a house built for them or had a renovation done to there existing home.

In the home building and remodelling industry the old adage ``You get what you pay for`` never rings truer.

When reviewing bids for a project do not always take the lowest bidder. Especially if the price is significantly lower then other bids. A well run construction company pays it employee's well, pays its sub contractors well and pays all fees and taxes. It also follows all safety regulations and training regulations. That means that there is a certain price that the contractor has to charge to breakeven and then add a percentage on top to make a profit. A good contractor makes a profit, while not over charging or gouging the customer. So when reviewing bids the couple of contractors near the top of the price scale are probably the better ones to use. They will make sure the project gets completed on time and on budget. Also they will make sure that all the employee's and sub contractors get paid. The last thing you want is a sub contractor not getting paid for work he did and being forced to lean your property.

Also another way cheaper contractors can show you a lower price is using the cheapest materials. So cheapening out on certain items will lower the cost, but will cost money to replace down the road when they fail and need to be replaced. A good contractor who stands behind the warranties of all his products will want you to use the best products so that they do not have to come back in the future to do repairs that cost them money.

Its not just the durability of the product, certain products that are ultra cheap can be hazardous to your health. For example the difference between $4.00 a sq ft of bamboo flooring and the .55 cent sq ft bamboo flooring is that the cheaper one has formaldehyde in it. That's right formaldehyde, so it off gases. This is something that you do not want to be breathing in everyday of your life.

A good contractor will research these products for you so that you have all the information to make your discussion.

Another reason to do your research is that paying a little more for things like energy efficient furnaces or appliances can save you money in the future because they tend to use energy.

Using quality products that have a longer life in your home will help the resale value.

So the next time you are weighing the options of price versus quality remember the saying “YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!”

Rob Abbott

Village Builders Inc.

877-866-3202