We brought some of our new windows home during the holidays. We went with a stock size so we could afford to get bigger windows. These are 36x60. Lots of light!
The trick was how to install these very heavy windows in the 2nd story
without dropping one or doing physical damage to any of us.
You have to install windows from the outside of the house so that you can seal them up tight against
the elements.
This means installation happens from a ladder. But there's no way that even a strong guy can safely carry a big window up a tall ladder, swing it around, caulk the opening and install the window. Without hurting something.
So Eric devised another plan, using two extension ladders, one in front of the other.
He set up a smaller ladder between the big ladder and the house. He'll climb up the ladder with the yellow rope, which is set at a proper, safe distance from the house.
The shorter red ladder is for holding the window. At the top of that ladder, Eric put a
Pivit Ladder Leveling tool. That gave him a place to park the window until we got the rough opening caulked and ready to go.
It worked this way:
1. The girls and I carried the window to the rough opening. Eric climbed the ladder.
2. It took all three of us girls to lift the window, tilt it and get it through the rough opening, where Eric caught it and parked it on the Pivit, leaning against the house. Claire and I held onto the window the whole time.
3. Eric caulked around the sides and top and passed the caulk gun in to me, and I caulked the bottom of the opening.
4. Eric lifted the window into the opening, centered it and Claire and I pulled it into place.
5. Eric nailed it into place.
6. We cleaned the smeared caulk off the windows with mineral spirits. Installation is messy.
We installed 6 windows over that weekend. Only 5 more to go and 3 of those are much smaller.
