filling gaps by new windows

[steveb]

Hi all

Considered wisdom please. 1900s victorian terrace, soaking wet front wall so we removed the inner layer of dry lining to reveal a rather lovely stone wall which now it has it's waterproof layer removed is doing quite a nice job of slowly drying out.

Next spring's job is to remove the cement render on the front elevation and lime it, but we also need to work out what to do internally. This wall will probably have to be rendered up being a mixture of brick, stone and lath, but we are hopeful that we can reveal a stone only wall either side of the chimney in the same room, so it will probably get lime rendered - we managed to keep the original render bead - so my question is what to do with the gaps to the side of the nasty pvc windows. We have considered replacing the windows but they are less than 10 years old and it would be criminal to throw them in the skip , the problem we have is that whoever measured them decided to make them about 5 inches too narrow - hence the huge gaps either side.



Short of putting a door on and using it for a cupboard - what is the preferred solution? Fill with lime? Expandy foam? something else?

Thanks

Steve

 

[MikeG]

Plant a piece of timber over it and plaster up to that.

 

[plasticpigeon]

It would be criminal not to throw them in a skip!

 

[steveb]

It would be criminal not to throw them in a skip!

that is also undoubtably true, but for a different reason...

 

[88v8]

In the meantime you can get a head start on how your wood windows will look, by painting the orrible PVC.
Clean off with white spirit.
Sand lightly
Oil gloss, no primer.
Deep red & cream might look good externally.
Internally, to choice.

Ivor

 

[Abi Cott]

They don't look particularly undersized to me. They seem to sit correctly against the outer skin, but it's hard to tell from a photo.

Whatever you do make them easy to take out. If they are 10 years old now they've probably only got another 10 to go before they will need replacing.

 

[MikeG]

Plant a piece of timber over it and plaster up to that.

.......and stuff mineral wool ("fibreglass") in the voids. Don't use expanding foam.

 

[steveb]

In the meantime you can get a head start on how your wood windows will look, by painting the orrible PVC.
Clean off with shite spirit.
Sand lightly
Oil gloss, no primer.
Deep read & cream might look good externally.
Internally, to choice.

Ivor

I would imagine they would look something like this:

 

[Westholme]

... my question is what to do with the gaps to the side of the nasty pvc windows. We have considered replacing the windows but they are less than 10 years old and it would be criminal to throw them in the skip , the problem we have is that whoever measured them decided to make them about 5 inches too narrow - hence the huge gaps either side.

Aren't the gaps on the inside of the window the spaces for the sash weights?

Or most of the gaps anyway. I've removed the plaster from my front bedroom front wall and there are 1½" gaps between the outside of the sashes boxes and the brickwork, with some very ropey bits of wood inserted to try and fill the spaces, partially covered by the architraves.

 

[steveb]

yes, house originally would have had sashes and the gaps were the pockets for the weights. I was just surprised that even with my low opinion of modern double glazing industry that they made the window frame the same size as the external opening, so rather than sit behind the external reveal they kind of sat next to it. they didn't even bother filling the sash pockets with expandy foam, just a clear silicone between the front of the window and the back of the reveal, and then covered up internally with enormous plastic cover strips, leaving those huge pockets of nothing. Someone paid all that money for double glazed windows but outside them and then all that was separating the inside from the outside was 1 layer of clear silicone and 1 3mm PVC cover strip...

Anyhow, that's not revelant now as

It would be criminal not to throw them in a skip!

they have been and nice new sashes installed, at least at the front. I did go for spring balances instead of weights but the sashes are made wide enough so that the frame fills the pockets and my builder is happy that he can render up to / round them

 

[plasticpigeon]

Hooray! I didn't get the gist of your previous post, but now I understand. Your new windows look excellent. What is covering the wall?

 

[88v8]

Hooray !
And you've knocked off the cement render.
Jolly good.

Ivor

 

[steveb]

Hooray! I didn't get the gist of your previous post, but now I understand. Your new windows look excellent. What is covering the wall?

Ah yes, what is covering the wall. You may be referring to the white scat coat for the render, but more likely you are querying the brick dust where they had to angle grind 30mm off the reveals on each side as they made the windows too big :roll:

They did offer to re-make the window but that would have taken weeks and caused untold aggravation, so trimming back the reveals was a compromise. On the plus side, our builder says that even taking that into account, they have done a good job and he'd rather have a job done like that than most of the others that he sees. It's all going to get re-rendered in lime so the sins will be hidden... will post some chimney before/after pics shortly

 

[plasticpigeon]

Yes the brown stains, I'm glad it isn't the shite spirit that Ivor mentioned above but something far more innocuous.

 

[steveb]

Yes, I tried to get some but no-one seemed to stock it. I guess we don't live in an effluent enough area

 

[Zebra]

Yes, I tried to get some but no-one seemed to stock it. I guess we don't live in an effluent enough area

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[88v8]

Oops.
Yes, the keyboard problem has been going on a while

I'm currently fitting a couple of windows we had made. They're behind wood cladding and when we measured up - many months ago - rather than start pulling off cladding to check the sizes, we deduced on the basis that this is this so that must be that. And guess what, they're too high and too wide. The building is modernish wood framed, so the situation is retrievable. But grrr.

Ivor

 

[steveb]

Current view of room in first pic, taken from the right side looking towards the chimney:



You can see we had to lime render the front wall as it was too much of a mess to leave on show, but the reveals to the chimney were lovely looking stone. Clearly not designed to be put on show, but they are now

the floor had had it - you could see how wet the corner was by the windows and chimney in that first picture. Hoping that removal of cement and wall covering will let the walls breathe enough to not mean we have to rip up the concrete floor (which in itself wasn't damp, the moisture in the floorboards was wicking from the walls)

 

[malcolm]

I get nervous about my concrete floors too. I've managed to keep all my concrete floors so far (1920 maybe, and only about 1 inch thick on earth so they wouldn't be too difficult to replace). The carpet in the main room smells a bit damp sometimes (the ground level project is not quite complete), but I imagine limecrete would make that worse. Walls and skirting are OK and the floors don't seem to cause much bother once ground levels are lower outside and the external walls are breathable. I'm quite pleased with how dry the walls have become - I reckon the U value of a dry wall is half that of the official value which will be a modern wet wall.

 

[steveb]

ok, so some nearly final pics, inside and outside





Now trying to work out what colour silicate paint the outside should be.

It has to contrast with the white on the left and the yellow on the right. I quite like the idea of "Barney purple" but for some reason it is not on the approved list...