Replacement Windows

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Press loose fill insulation in the gap between the edge of the window frame and the rough opening. Don't jam-pack the insulation in—it's the airspace between the fibers that adds insulation value.

The front face of the frame may not meet your interior wall surface squarely. Plane off any jamb that extends beyond the plane of the wall. Use wood-strip jamb extensions if needed to bring a toonarrow frame out flush with the surface of the wall. Both top and side jambs or jamb extensions can be planed to mate with a leaning wall surface.

Jamb-extension board comes in any length and up to 3 inches wide. It is best attached by screwing at a slight angle to the 1-inch-thick jamb in countersunk holes. Use a straightedge to extend the plane of the interior wall to determine the width extension needed.

You may have to compensate for as much as an inch of wall lean from top to bottom, or worse, must contend with an abrupt bulge in the wall. If so, you need to perform a little magic with your hand plane. And, even after you have labored long and hard to get it right, a level window in a very unplumb room is likely to look crooked no matter how good your trim artistry.

Your replacement window came with exterior trim installed. But you have to cut and install the interior trim. It is easiest if you use the original stool cap and trim boards. Especially if the new window is smaller than the originals, you can just trim off an inch here and there and reinstall them. Don't worry that nails will scar painted trim. Just chip paint out of the scars to reveal bare wood, patch with wood filler, sand, and refinish.

If you are making up new inside trim, it is easiest to cut new boards that replicate the originals—even if you adopt different window-trim boards, ornate with different edge or corner moldings. After trim is cut, sand and prime it before final fastening.

The top inner-trim board is usually thicker than the long side boards. It is a nice touch to notch out the underside of top trim to hide the ends of the side boards. Then, seams won't open up when the trim boards inevitably shrink.

Start trimming by cutting and nailing on the stool cap. (Use small-headed finish nails to attach, all trim. Sink heads with a nail set and plug the holes.) Stock sizes of stool cap molding as well as jamb caps that fit inside a deep casing are available at building-supply centers, or you can make your own. The stool is cut in a "Fat-T" shape and attached flat. The central stem of the "T" extends back into the casing so its edge almost, but not quite, meets the bottom rail of the lower sash. Notched-out ends of the top of the "T" meet the wall surface as thin wings that extend beyond each side of sash opening by the width of your side-trim boards plus a 1/2 inch or so on each side.

Cut side-trim boards (the long boards that lie flat on the wall and run up and down beside the window) to extend from the upper surface of the stool cap wings to a little beyond the bottom edge of the upper jamb. Nail them to jambs, leaving a 1/4" reveal of jamb edge inside of each long edge. Or, in shallow windows where tension/balance strips cover the entire side jamb, arrange side trim so its inner edge covers the strip—so only the sash is revealed.

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