Tuesday 19 October 2010

A New Window on the World

On Friday the new lintel was installed above the office window. Yesterday we installed the new window, which annoyingly and typically, is about 1cm bigger all round than the old.

This was achieved with a lot of dust (when isn't there dust, I ask myself) by cutting back the bricks around the frame and removing another course of brick at the bottom of the opening.

Next thing to do was line the opening with some wood we just happened to have lying around the place, which was screwed into place.

Once that was done and squared to Stéphane's satisfaction the new window was slid into place, and the frame screwed to the wood lining the hole and the lintel.

All that was then left to do was make a new sill in concrete to bring the wall up to the bottom of the window.

The new window opens easier than the old window, closes a lot easier than the old window, and forms a barrier against wind and rain - something the old window had ceased to do aeons ago.

Simon

11 comments:

Ken Broadhurst said...

Simon, does the new window open into the room, or does it open outward? Can you find outward-opening windows in France? We have a so-called "English-style" door on our gardens shed. It opens outward. I wonder if English-style windows are available.

Susan said...

Ken. Probably if we were to have a window custom made - but then we wouldn't be able to have volets. I haven't seen any outward opening windows in the shops though.

Simon

Ken Broadhurst said...

That's what I was afraid of. Oh well. I don't like the windows that open into the room. You can't set anything like plants in front of them.

Leon Sims said...

Inward opening windows - yes I remember now. Our house built in 1929 (well we think its old) has sash windows which don't open inward or outward but up and down.
Must put some flower boxes on the sills!!!!
Love your work.

Ken Broadhurst said...

Leon, those sash windows (we have a lot of them in at least parts of America) are called "guillotine" windows in France. There aren't any here though.

chm said...

We had "guillotine" windows in northern France when I was a kid. Even though they opened up and down, you were able to open them inward so you could clean them easily. I don't know if that is the case in the U.S.

Ken Broadhurst said...

CHM, I don't think you could clean them easily except from outside, on a stepladder. At least that's how it was in N.C.

Ken Broadhurst said...

So now I'm wondering: why are they called "sash" windows, anyway?

Ken Broadhurst said...

I looked it up and "sash" comes from the French "châssis" -- the sash is the frame. In America, we call them double-hung windows, because there are two sashes, each of which can slide upwards or downwards.

chm said...

In the early 30's, as I recall, each sash, on one vertical side, was mounted on hinges so it made it possible, after they were unlocked, to open each one inward to clean it from inside the room and then push it back into the groove, or whatever you call that, where it slid up and down.

Simon said...

chm

we could have really done with that arrangement in our house in London - we had dormer (sash) windows that were impossible to clean

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