Choosing Windows For Your Home

Here are 5 tips for choosing windows for your new home.

1. Design a window to floor area ratio of 20% or less, below 15% is best. I have modeled some gorge view homes with a higher ratio, including one at 45%!, and it significantly affects home energy performance and in turn customer comfort. Definitely a balancing act between views and efficiency in that application.

2. Choose picture windows for the majority of the home, then awnings and casements for egress and natural ventilation options. Avoid sliders, single and double hung as they do not seal as tight. Hint: this helps lower your blower door numbers! Of course, install is also a key component.

3. Choose U-Values of 0.25 or less. This helps reduce winter heat loss. I have seen double pane windows compete with triple pane windows thanks to technologies like 4th surface coatings.

4. Choose solar heat gain coefficient aka SHGC of around 0.25. This helps reduce summer heat gain.

5. Choose fiberglass or composite frames. These are more durable and more stable over time compared to vinyl. Aluminum frames could be a good option for more remote areas where wildfire is a concern but still have more unwanted frame conductivity than other types.

Zero Energy Homes - Windows

Check out this video to learn about best practices for window selection for zero energy homes!

Healthy Homes & Home Performance - Windows

Check out this video to learn what to look for when selecting new windows for your home.

For the PNW climate, we recommend a U-Value of 0.25 or less and SHGC of around 0.25. Fiberglass frames are our favorite as they are the most stable over time and won’t warp like vinyl. Plus, they are paintable if you ever want to change the color without replacing!

A Little Bit of Everything

This post is going to be a bit of a catch up on what I have been working on lately. In my last post I talked about siding sourcing having finally found a place to buy reclaimed corrugated metal siding. I met with Lewis from Taylor Metal on site yesterday to figure out ordering my roof as well as some install questions. In addition to being very helpful to a novice metal worker, Lewis also asked if I needed more corrugated since he had some he wanted to get rid of. If only I had met him a couple of weeks earlier! Perhaps I will take him up on his offer anyway since I could store it under my house until I build my porch roof or for the next tiny house I build...

I made a couple of trips to pick up some reclaimed cedar siding from a friend. It was interesting to see how much my Subaru's roof racks could handle as well as the looks on the faces of the people I drove past on my way to site. I will probably have enough for the tall long wall, maybe even enough for the short long wall. If not, I'll likely head over to Shur-Way for the rest since they are located close to my house, have good prices on cedar siding and are really nice people to work with.

I picked up some 2x4 cedar from Shur-Way to build out my window frames. I had originally planned to install flat trim boards on top of the furring strips but due to the depth of my windows, it would have looked weird so I came up with a new solution. I had to cut back the Roxul insulation around the windows first so that the 2x4s on edge could frame the window. Then I ripped the sills with a table saw to have a 10 degree slope. I made the headers the same way since it was a little beyond the point where I could have installed header flashing as well as for aesthetics of not seeing flashing but still providing a way for water runoff. I cut the ends of the vertical pieces to 10 degrees with the chop saw. Then I lightly sanded, stained with Sikkens Cetol SRD, and screwed each frame together.

Ideally, I would have face screwed the frames into the studs but that would have required me to also screw through the window flanges which I did not want to do. I thought about finding a way to glue them to the house but learned that was not really possible due to the stain. So I finally decided to screw furring strips to the sides of the frames since I would need them there eventually anyway. Once screwed to the frames the furring strip/frame combo could be screwed into the wall studs. This worked quite well with the help of shims ensuring that the gap between the window and frame was even all around. I was a little concerned about installing the upper two windows, but they actually went in quite easily. I think they look quite beautiful!

I had previously primed and painted the windows after install with spray paint since Lina has been a strong advocate of doing so. I could have painted them before we installed them but then I would likely had to touch them up which would have been somewhat difficult. Despite the wind's repeated attempts (and successes) at blowing off my window masking, I eventually applied two coats of flat red primer and two coats of heritage red paint. I am happy with the results and glad I did not choose the expense of having them factory painted though I may disagree with that decision for the interior.

My door arrived on site this week so I am excited to get that installed and painted soon as well!

We hosted this month's tiny house mixer on site last evening and it was fun to talk to people about their visions, tell them about my house, and play the guessing game as to whose house is larger, Lina's or mine. Mine is only 5 sq.ft. larger if you don't count the loft!

For more photos, check out my flickr!

My Trailer, Windows & Rafting

I finally ordered my tiny house trailer from Iron Eagle a couple of weeks ago! You can read my blog post on TinyHomes.com for more details about that process. In short, I decided on a 16' tandem axle, 7,000 lb. GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating), with 3" angle iron extensions and black wheels. It should be all built in a couple more weeks so look for another blog post here soon!

My windows are the next on my list to order. There are so many options to choose from and I am finding it difficult to choose. Fiberglass, wood, aluminum, vinyl, interior and exterior cladding options, colors, coatings, hardware details, etc. I really like the look of wood windows but they require much more maintenance over time. Some manufacturers have options with wood frames and an exterior fiberglass or aluminum cladding which is attractive to me since I could have both the quality of wood and the durability of an exterior cladding material. One manufacturer offers a fiberglass window with interior wood cladding which I like as well, although with my architecture background, it is less acceptable in principle since it hides the true material underneath. I have more research to do but will likely be going with a Milgard window product since they make some of the highest quality windows on the market and offer a lifetime warranty, even on glass breakage! I need to question a representative more about the warranty as it would pertain to a mobile structure since the windows would be more liable to damage.

Finally, the reason for the delayed post is that I was on whitewater raft guide and river rescue training on the Deschutes for a week and then on the White Salmon for a half day. It was an awesome, intense learning experience and I will be continuing training for 4 more weekends with Orion before I can become a guide. My friend went through the training last year and really enjoys rafting so I thought, why not? Learn something new, be outside, earn some money and have fun in the sun! It looks like this summer will be full of tiny house building and whitewater rafting :)