The installation of windows in a wooden house is very different from the same process for houses made of stone or brick. For example, job openings from timber or logs most often have a quarter from the outside, and not from the inside.
What is worth knowing about shrinkage?
The main difference between wooden houses is that they shrink after the material dries. This point is significant during the installation of a window in an old wooden house. If you need to put it, you need to do this in a bare opening, which will certainly be crushed and deformed by shrinkage.
Shrinkage of a wooden house depends on the factors presented:
- type of material;
- when the materials were prepared (in summer or winter);
- time of day (afternoon, morning or evening);
- the environment where the forest sprouted, from which the wood was obtained (field, swamp);
- level of density and gum;
- material dimensions;
- moisture indicators;
- building parameters.
Maximum shrinkage is found in log cabins made of ordinary wood; smaller parameters are found for logs, profiled logs, glued beams.
Wooden house - living house
Such a house is a constantly moving structure, unlike stone or concrete structures. In this regard, the installation of PVC windows in a wooden house is carried out not in a completed opening, but in a pre-prepared box, which acts as a link between the wall and the window. Such a box can be called casing, pig, linden and so on.
What is a piglet?
This is a simple box that is made of four, and sometimes of three thick boards, which ultimately fits inside the opening.
The purpose of this design is that it is not affected by vertical wall movements, it easily fits in the window opening due to the fact that it is not attached to the beam with the help of self-tapping screws, nails or other fasteners. It is installed using grooves in the side racks, which are mounted on the spikes at the end of the logs. To seal the pigs, you do not even need to use foam, it will be enough to take tow, jute or other soft heaters.
Shrink clearance
It is worth paying attention, it is necessary to leave a significant free space above the pigtail, which is calculated according to the maximum possible size of shrinkage of the material. After the first few years after the construction of the building, such a gap will be slightly reduced to a minimum, however, the top log in the opening will not press and deform the pigtail if you calculated everything correctly. Thanks to this, shrinkage will not affect the condition of the structure and will not be able to harm the window that you put in it.
What clearance is needed?
If you want to make the installation of plastic windows in an old wooden house, which had a long shrinking process, then during the analysis of the window block you will certainly notice one detail: they were made on the same principle as the casing design described here. They were not nailed to the logs, but were fixed using spikes on the sides.
Several methods can be distinguished for mounting the box:
- T-shaped: inside the end of the log a hole is created for the groove where the profile is placed;
- U-shaped: the spike needs to be cut at the end of the log, and the groove is created in the side of the casing.
Opening preparation before installation
Before you start cutting out the window opening, you must first mark it out using the level. The window should be installed in strict accordance with the levels on all planes, so that the box should also fit as precisely as possible with respect to a given level.
During the installation of windows in a wooden house, you need to be careful about all calculations, so as not to redo the work twice. The lower crown in the opening must be sawed so that a horizontal surface emerges as a result.
The size of the opening must be determined based on the parameters of the plastic window, the thickness of the casing, as well as the size of the gaps. Calculations are performed visually.
Installation of pigtails
This process begins with the windowsill. After it comes the tip, under which you need to substitute the side posts, stringing them with grooves on the spikes. The pigtails can be fastened together using self-tapping screws and, if you wish, process the joints using sealant. Casing clearances can be repaired with a simple tow, but do not overdo it too much to prevent your parts from bending.
The gap at the top must be plugged using some kind of soft insulation, like holofiber. This is best done after the outer platbands and window are installed.
Features of installing windows in a wooden house
We place the window in the opening, carefully monitor it to align it with the front edge of the pigtail. The window does not have to be opened inward by a third of the wall thickness, as is required in panel or brick buildings, because wood has a lower thermal conductivity.
It is worth noting that with a small wall thickness in wooden houses, placing the window deep in the opening, we will have to reduce the narrow window sill as a result. The step, which will turn out from the outside, will need to be additionally closed and treated with sealant. According to measurements taken from the thermal imager, the main conductor of cold in the room is the profile itself.
Draft box for trim
Installing the window frame on the jamb is best done using self-tapping screws. Their size should be such that they completely pass into the body of the structure, but do not begin to go inside the wall. Using a drill of 5-6 mm, make holes inside the frame. Samroise, whose length will be greater than the width of the pigtail, should not be used, because they will screw into the log as a result, which is unacceptable.
If all the preparatory work was carried out using a level, our frame should be placed perfectly straight along the braces. That is, the leading edge will be located parallel to the window plane, no significant distortions will be visible.
Waterproofing treatment
When installing windows in a wooden house, before you begin to fill the gap between the window and the door, you need to decide what kind of waterproofing will be used to process the installation joint from the outside. Many people know that the two main spouts of foam are sunlight and moisture. If the seam can be covered from sunlight with the help of platbands, then with waterproofing everything is somewhat more complicated. It must meet two established criteria: do not let water into the room, and also do not interfere with moisture vapor to go outside. Moreover, proper waterproofing should not be susceptible to the effects of prolonged atmospheric exposure.
All described requirements correspond to such materials as PSUL (waterproofing vapor-permeable tape), as well as STIZ-A sealant. This is a one-component acrylic sealant with a white tint that is used to process the outer layers. Its main advantage is excellent adhesion to the main building materials, such as concrete, plaster, foam concrete, brick, concrete, wood.
It is resistant to ultraviolet radiation, atmospheric precipitation, deformations due to temperature and can be used even at low temperatures, like -20 ° C. The main disadvantage of the presented material can be called the fact that it is very difficult to find in small containers, and buying a large bucket at once does not always make sense. Unless you are installing several windows at once.
The working procedure is as follows: we foam the window as soon as the foam dries completely, remove what sticks out from the outside, only after that we treat the sections with a sealant using a spatula.
PSUL is a self-adhesive tape made from butyl rubber. It consists of a pre-diffusion membrane and a sealant that is located on one side or immediately on both. You can find it on sale in the form of rolls of various widths. To install plastic windows in a wooden house with your hands, it will be enough to choose a tape whose width is 70 millimeters. When using a tape to create a waterproofing, it is necessary to properly orient it during placement.
To determine this, you can just blow it on one side and the other, the main thing is to remove the paper first. Due to the fact that there is a membrane inside the tape, air can only be accessed from one side. The part with which the tape "blow out" does not work is the street.
It doesn't matter what exactly you start with: you will place the tape first, and then the foam, or vice versa. It is important to consider the fact that the foam will expand during drying, which means it will stretch the tape like a bubble. This can significantly place after, when the platbands will be put. Moreover, she can even rip it off the window and pigtails.
If you first place the tape, then you must immediately fix the platbands on it and only after that process the foam. Another plan: to process everything with foam, wait until it finally dries, cut off all the excess parts and immediately place the tape on top so that the foam sections are not exposed to prolonged atmospheric exposure.
This tape is very similar to foam rubber and is impregnated with a special composition, which has vapor-permeable and waterproofing qualities. On sale, it is found in a compressed form, twisted into a roll.
It is also worth choosing a tape that expands by only 30 millimeters. It is necessary to place it not outside the profile, but to its end near the front edge. This must be done after the frame is fixed inside the opening, however, before the foaming process. It will be much more convenient to process the frame with tape before installation, when it is still on the floor, but in this case, the installation of windows in a wooden house will need to be done at a fast pace, because in just a few minutes the tape will expand and interfere with normal operation.
Foam the assembly joints is worth it after the tape expands and overlaps the gaps. Nevertheless, the same problem can occur as with waterproofing: when dried, the foam can squeeze the tape. Use platbands to prevent this. The price of installing windows in a wooden house depends on what type of sealant and waterproofing you will use in your work.
Vapor barrier windows
Inside the foam also should not be open, otherwise it may get moisture or air from the room. To create an internal vapor barrier, you can use special tapes or acrylic sealants.
The tape must be used before the process of foaming to the ends of the frame with a thin strip. As soon as you process the areas with foam, remove the protective paper and stick the tape on the pigtail. Until the foam under the tape has time to harden, it is recommended to immediately place the window sill and fix the start profile along the edges of the frame. Otherwise, the tape that is inflated from the foam may interfere with this.
Interior finish
Now you can proceed to the installation of window slopes in a wooden house. This process is practically no different from the same work in panel or brick houses. In our case, everything is somewhat simpler: you do not need to make holes for the slope, but simply fix everything with self-tapping screws immediately into the pigtail.
Moreover, it is not necessary to additionally insulate the slopes inside using foam or similar materials. For reinsurance, it will be enough to foam the inner surface of the casing with a small strip, and then put the slope. Wood does not freeze as hard as brick and concrete, so no more is needed.
Pig as slopes and window sill
The peculiarity of installing a plastic window in a wooden house in this way is that you can significantly save on the windowsill, win more time, and also get a more attractive final result. In order to accomplish this, a high-quality wood processing machine will be needed so that the elements of the casing are cut out as evenly as possible. The cost of installing windows in a wooden house is not always affordable for everyone, so such a solution would be a good choice.
It is important to perform an accurate calculation of the size of the window and the bars, carefully assemble and put the pig in the opening exactly according to the level. The lumen inside will be in the form of a rectangle, and each side of the outer edge will be in a single plane without any distortions. To be correct in size, it is best to first create and put a pigtail, only after that take measurements and place an order for a plastic window.
What is the price of installing windows in a wooden house?
Over the past few years, plastic windows have substantially displaced metal or wood structures from the market. This is due not only to their cost, but also to the quality of production, as well as reliability during use. In this regard, more and more people do not think long when choosing the type of window into their home. Moreover, at the moment you can find a wide variety of profiles that have various accessories, designs and more.
Of course, a wooden window will look beautiful in a wooden house. However, you can always pick up such a design for the future PVC window that few people will notice the difference. In addition, the cost of installing plastic windows in a wooden house is much lower and does not require such a large amount of work than for a wooden congener.
Price list for installing windows:
- design of a window opening from 170 rubles per metro
- okosyachka - 540 rubles per metro
- window installation - 1500 rubles per square meter;
- window sill installation from 320 rubles per meter
- registration of a slope from 430 rubles per metro
- installation of ebb from 165 rubles per meter
- platbands from 220 rubles per sq. m.
- varnishing of window construction elements from 120 rubles per meter
Design Tips
When processing the inner surface of the casing, you can use a large number of different options, such as color, texture and more. After the installation of plastic windows in a wooden house has been completed, you can simply sand all surfaces and varnish them. Moreover, you can use a stain of a suitable color, so that the casing looks more harmoniously against the background of a window or walls. However, there is another interesting option that will be more costly. You can brush the surface, make it look antique. This method is very popular in our time.
The process is that all soft fibers are removed from the surface of the tree using a metal brush. As a result, the surface loses its smoothness, becoming more prominent. Next, you need to clean it from fibers and pile and give the final gloss.