Depending on what's below the window it could be used to dump waste, saving the time and trek through the house.
Lots of free drywall on Craigslist. Assorted pieces and shapes.
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Enough of COVID...what are you doing to the house?
- Thread starter mimico_polak
- Start date
Depending on what's below the window it could be used to dump waste, saving the time and trek through the house.
Lots of free drywall on Craigslist. Assorted pieces and shapes.
My buddy bought 100 sheets of drywall for $5/each. The guy selling it also threw in a LOT of tools, measuring tapes, drills, and screws and nails.Depending on what's below the window it could be used to dump waste, saving the time and trek through the house.
Lots of free drywall on Craigslist. Assorted pieces and shapes.
His dad died before the renovation started and he didn’t know how to do anything so just sold it all to be rid of it.
Relax
Well-known member
Speaking of windows, how long should quality ones last, and any recommendations on reputable brands?
Other than warm-edge spacers, for the most part, the glass pack is similar. I'm not sure if any vendor is better or worse for that component. Ime, that component is the most likely to fail (loss of seal and moisture intrusion). For frames, most manufacturers claim they have their own secret sauce and are the best. Some brands run the whole gammut from builders grade trash that is designed to last the tarion warranty period and then be replaced to ultra premium well-built units.
I would have said pollard a few years ago but I have had a few friends very unhappy with them recently (promising 90 days to delivery, taking more than 300 days, windows assembled improperly, etc) so they are out for me. Performance windows (aka vinyl window designs) tries really hard to improve their product and tests many configurations before bringing a new frame into production. I have no connection to them other than a few meetings with head office staff to discuss their products.
As a quick list of what I would look for as a first cut (mostly applicable to vinyl windows but somewhat applicable to other frame materials if budget allows that jump):
- warm edge spacer
- 1" IGU. Most are 0.75". The thicker gap improves performance and allows for more choices in glass if you want (mismatched glass thickness has some advantages). The only upside to 0.75" IGU is they can continue using their old frames without retooling. The flip side to that is normally thicker glass packs means more recent frame design (now is that better because they cared and improved seals or worse because they "optimized" more vinyl out of the product is a good question).
- Check the seal situation, some are better than others and it is pretty obvious that some are designed to minimize cost instead of maximizing sealing.
- Especially if you are going to larger openable windows and/or thicker glass, make sure the frame is happy when open. Many are barely hanging on with the lightest option (cost-optimization gone too far) and you need to remove the screen and physically lift the window to get it to close. Obviously, those stop being opened in very short order.
- Pay attention to frame thickness. I think we have reached the point where the vinyl costs less then the glass so some are putting huge frames that block a lot of your window opening. They sell it as a premium architectural design but it blows.
I think good windows should last decades , The last I bought were Northstar windows out of Kitchener I believe , previous ones were kolbe&Kolbe , but I could not justify the cost on the next house . They were very expensive in the quote .
I'm no expert on this but I'm told there are a few makers of vinyl extrusions and a few makers of thermo panes and many "manufactures" are really just assemblers.
I'm no expert on this but I'm told there are a few makers of vinyl extrusions and a few makers of thermo panes and many "manufactures" are really just assemblers.
My parents went with northstar this time. Meh.
Another thing to add to the list is Low-E coating. Which surface do they put it on, how much does it tint the view out, what does the coating look like from outside? My parents and I hate the coating on their windows.
I spent a half day with the rep from Marvin windows and he explained the very detailed and complicated way theirs go together. They use two compounds to seal their units. One or strength and the other to seal. Coatings, gases etc.
Impressive but expensive.
We have a 30 year old Marvin wood window in our dining room and it's like new.
As mentioned sight lines count. The smaller the window the greater the effect of the lost inch or two. With replacement windows the budget contractors like to install over an old frame. It's faster and cheaper with little interior trim work. Maxing out the sight line will likely mean re-hashing the interior surroundings. $$$$
I think my neighbour had a Pollard door system put in. One of the installers said the industry is so busy Pollard can't get people to do installs at the former rates due to the feeding frenzy prices from the housing boom. The warehouse is full of stuff ready to go but there's no one to do the work. That may be changing.
Marvin is top-tier no doubt. I forget about them as they are so damned expensive that most people don't proceed beyond the quote.
Windows and doors may be one area where you actually get what you pay for .
The front door dealer I did not go with told me any door that did not have a multi point locking system was an inferior door . I asked what happens when they punch the side light and just unlock the door ? He then swung to multipoint really holds the door square in the hole over time. And he has installed for Mike Holmes ….. uh ok LOL
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The front door dealer I did not go with told me any door that did not have a multi point locking system was an inferior door . I asked what happens when they punch the side light and just unlock the door ? He then swung to multipoint really holds the door square in the hole over time. And he has installed for Mike Holmes ….. uh ok LOL
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Our front door has multipoint. Meh. Probably better for a lot of reasons but added complication means people need training to lock the door. If anyone other than my wife and I tries to lock it, it is just pretend locked and opens if someone pulls the handle. You need to lift handle to set the top and bottom pins prior to turning the deadbolt. You can deploy the deadbolt part way without setting the pins but it self-retracts from that state when you use the door handle.
Changing stories=cut. Associated with MH=cut.
As for getting what you pay for, that's still a crapshoot ime. I put fancy Emtek keypad locks on a few doors. I wife prefers the Schlage keypad locks that we had before. Emtek misfires occasionally and doesn't connect the outside knob and bolt assembly. Schlage works every time (and costs less than half).
Bleeping bleeping . . . Spent hours trying to finally lock down where a buried transformer is. Still no luck. Switch for under cabinet lights is 120VAC. Each section of UCL has a single piece of romex coming out of the wall with 12VAC. Tried signal tracing from both ends hoping I could find the junction box/transformer by finding a common point for everything. No luck. There is a tiny chance that it is in a portion of the attic that is a prick to access (I need to drop the soffit and climb up to get there). Left the lights on for a long time and looked for heat from a transformer (looked at backs of cupboards, around switch, ceiling, floor above, above cabinets, etc). Nothing found.
@nobbie48 or anyone else ever played with TDR? I'm not sure if that could help me find where this bleeping transformer is. I need to do some more research to see if TDR can bounce off the transformer (and have sufficient distance resolution to help me). Buying a TDR good enough for this project seems not cost-effective but I could use a scope to make one.
I want to switch to LED's but with current wiring, i'd need a driver in every cabinet section and those drivers would need to be 12VAC which is not common.
@nobbie48 or anyone else ever played with TDR? I'm not sure if that could help me find where this bleeping transformer is. I need to do some more research to see if TDR can bounce off the transformer (and have sufficient distance resolution to help me). Buying a TDR good enough for this project seems not cost-effective but I could use a scope to make one.
I want to switch to LED's but with current wiring, i'd need a driver in every cabinet section and those drivers would need to be 12VAC which is not common.
I've sold/installed dozens of these without any warranty issues, and recently started swapping out my 20yr old crappy pollard original vinyl junk.
LowE comes in 3 levels. I opted for the highest level for my house (plus argon). It's noticeably darker inside, but getting used to it takes 10 minutes. The inside glass is the same temp as the walls now, during the cold season.
I order mine through Boncor in Hamilton.
www.vinylbilt.com
LowE comes in 3 levels. I opted for the highest level for my house (plus argon). It's noticeably darker inside, but getting used to it takes 10 minutes. The inside glass is the same temp as the walls now, during the cold season.
I order mine through Boncor in Hamilton.
Home
Vinylbilt windows are built for reliable comfort. Product performance and efficiency sets our windows apart. Discover our line of windows for your project.
www.vinylbilt.com
wtf. Platinum series or diamond series??? Marketing tries so hard to sell everything as premium that without further instruction consumers have no idea which of their series is better.I've sold/installed dozens of these without any warranty issues, and recently started swapping out my 20yr old crappy pollard original vinyl junk.
LowE comes in 3 levels. I opted for the highest level for my house (plus argon). It's noticeably darker inside, but getting used to it takes 10 minutes. The inside glass is the same temp as the walls now, during the cold season.
I order mine through Boncor in Hamilton.
Home
Vinylbilt windows are built for reliable comfort. Product performance and efficiency sets our windows apart. Discover our line of windows for your project.
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Unrelated to quoted post but does anyone do roller screens as stock? I hate screens with a passion. 99% of the year, the windows are closed and screens ruin the view and block a lot of light. Given their size, fragility and non-interchangeability, storing them in the windows is the safest/easiest solution. I'd be happy to pay for roller screens so I could deploy them for the few times a year I want them. Building them into the window system would be preferable to add-ons.
TDR at best will tell you the distance to the transformer (distance to the impedance delta compared to the wire) depending on the route of the wiring that may or may not be of much help at all.
My first recommendation is to rewire it. Sounds like they buried the 120v connection to the transformer and the transformer itself, which is not to code if it is inaccessible so finding it may not help much anyways as you still have a buried connection or an exposed junction box. Unless.... if you really want to find it, it sounds like a lazy/Kevinesq hack job. You need to get in their head, it might hurt a bit doing so. Odds are it is right at the switch box or right at the wall under the cabinets. Putting it anywhere else was likely just too much work. My bet is that lighting was originally 120V and someone changed it to 12V but reused the NMSC to now be the load side 12v feed, otherwise why use NMSC to run 12V... again more effort.
I'm not sure what magic windows my buddy bought...triple pane or something something....close to 30-35k for custom windows at his place...half of his place anyway. The other half wasn't ready for the windows yet.
Triple glazed helps some for thermal. It is huge marketing wank (either a huge upgrade or included as a "free" upgrade to differentiate). Similar to the $200 HDMI cables that stores use to throw in with a TV, the cost and MSRP are unrelated.
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I agree, I expected the transformer to be somewhere easy. We obviously have a code issue as there is no reasonable access to the transformer (if it happens to be in the mystery attic space, is that code compliant? You need to drop soffit, climb up with a ladder through the hole, across trusses to the place where it may be. If it's there, it is not completely inaccessible but it is far from accessible). I looked under the sink, behind the dishwasher and everywhere else. My suspicion is it is either in the barely accessible attic or they put it in the floor joists and then buried it. If TDR tells me ~6' I have a better idea where to look. If TDR tells me 6", they put it in the wall on the cold side of the insulation so that's why I can't find it with thermal. I suspect they used romex because it was on site (and 15 years ago, not so damned expensive). I highly doubt that these lights have been touched since construction.
Rewiring would be a nightmare. No access to joists above, cabinets on three walls with doors and windows chopping up a possible path through the walls. The simplest approach would be to drop the cabinets and open the walls behind them but that's not all that simple (especially if transformer is after the part I gained access to). If I really wanted to be lazy, I could probably hide wire behind crown molding to get access to the stud bays I need but that is too kevinish.
Just remember the low voltage wiring is not "governed by code" so you have more options here to be creative in routing/materials/installation. You just need to get properly from the switch to the power supply.... after that you have many more options.
That's fair but the 120V connection from the switch to the transformer has to be accessible. In practice that should mean I can also access the LV side even though that is not required.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
When I did mine, I installed 120v outlet above the cabinets, and ran the low voltage inside the cabinet.
My lights are wifi activated, I use a 2 button WiFi wall switch to trigger receptacle switches connected to the low voltage drivers.
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