I am planning on building some wood storms for the double hungs in my old house having succesfully built new screen windows this spring. All my windows are old, drafty and in need of repair, something I will be tackling next spring.
My question is – Is it worth the $$ to use insulated glass when making my storms?
This house west of downtown Austin, Texas, has floor-to-ceiling glass with no window treatments but uses the topography as a privacy screen.
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If you're planning to use insulated glass in the permanent windows, I wouldn't bother putting it in the storms. Also, there's no point putting insulated glass in the storms unless the weather stripping is top notch. Otherwise the incremental thermal performance you get from the insulated glass is just swamped by the heat lost to air leaks. Also heavier, but that might be a trivial difference compared to the wood.
The existing windows are true divided lite and therefore can't be re-done with insulated glass. Considering the age and condition of these windows, there would be some heat loss due to air leaks.
These storms are a temporary fix until new windows are installed. Sounds like insulated glass storms would not be cost efficient. Thanks.
Insulated glass costs an arm, weighs to much, and won't provide that much improvement.
Keep in mind that, with storms, the seal on the storm should be no better than the seal on the inner window, to avoid excessive condensation. At least in the snow belt.
Thanks for the advice. Weight is definitely a consideration as is cost, so single glazing is the route I'll take.
I am definitely in the snow belt and the interior seal is, well its non-existent. I made a few small storms last year to go over small leaded glass casements and just used a small width of foam insulation adhered with double face tape. That seemed to reduce drafts considerably without leading to excessive moisture build up.
I had thought about routing into the new storms a more substantial compression seal, but your point is well taken. I think I take the previous route.
I'd suggest that you consider timing the mounting those storms when all of the surfaces are as dry as possible (no rain or window washing,etc for some time and after any paint you've applied has had time to fully dry). Mount the storms and then immediately go back inside and seal all seams of your prime windows with a product like Seal 'N Peel or Zip Away to prevent moisture migration into that space. (temporary removable clear caulk made just for these purposes.....comes in caulk tube) This should prevent the vast majority of the terrarium effect that can develop with a tight fitting storm and loose fitting prime windows. Don't forget any pulley openings if you have those.
Or if you can find it, I've heard that Copperlastic is another caulk whose adhesive qualities are just less than it's cohesive qualities....so it too will remove like a rubberband. And Copperlastic comes in colors. Can't say about how safe your paint would be under the Copperlastic though. It might take the paint with it at removal, whereas the clear caulks that are dedicated for these temporary sealing purposes won't.......if that paint is sound to begin with.
Don't try to place a really tiny bead of the stuff so that it shows less, cause this will only make removal more frustrating. Done right, removal is a snap. The stuff removes like a rubberband. Don't leave in place for more than two years without replacing with new or you'll have a bit of trouble with removal.
Taking this approach should both keep your heat where you want it and leave you with no time consuming problems when the time comes to work on those prime windows or open them again for screens come summer.
Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
thank you. I'll look into both products to see if they are available locally.
Also, be sure to provide weep holes/notches on the bottoms of the storms.
Excessive condensation where? On the inside of the new storm or the inside of the old window?
Just curious why you would not want a better air seal. Seems pointless to put up a storm window and not reduce the draft.
Can you explain?
Dave
On the inside of the storm. Moist air gets into that space from the house, then cools and condenses.
I installed hundreds of storm windows in the 70s and 80s on old house with loose double hung windows. The purpose of the storm windows was to reduce the heat loss through exfiltration of conditioned air through those old loose windows. Some of the better storms I installed were pretty decent at doing that, others were not as good as 6 mil plastic covering the inside of the windows. On all of them, I would bed them in a bead of caulk to created a better seal.
Yes, sometimes they did frost up, but that was at least some indication that they were slowing down the amount of conditioned air escaping the house. In most cases the HOs said thier home were noticably less drafty.
From pinos post, I take it he is trying to reduce his heat loos and the amount of drafting he feels around his windows.
That is why I was asking, why would you put up something that was no better than what you already have?
It is better, even if it's a bit leaky. Even if the outside window is as leaky as the inside, in normal cases the reduction in heat loss will be on the order of 2-4x. More tightly sealing the outside will improve things only slightly.