DIY Measure that Window Yourself / HOW TO

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A metal Frame casement window that doesn't open and needs to be replaced. A brick veneer home can complicate the issue. See how we measure for a replacement and do it like a PRO.

Transcript:

DIY Measure That Window Yourself - How To

So, hello everybody. This is Dennis with Home Rehab Pros, and we have a challenge. I have to measure to get a replacement window for this opening. Let me show you the window that we're going to be cutting out of there and replacing.

So, here's the window. It is a metal-framed window. Let's take a closer look at it. You can see it's old, and it's got two sashes. Okay, and it's attached right to probably the brick that's outside. I'll show you what it looks like outside as well.

So, we're going to measure. We have two of these windows, and we have to demo them out and then replace them with vinyl replacement windows. Let's go outside and see what we have out there. Okay, so here it is on the outside. Let's take a closer look and see what's going on here.

You see that metal frame right into the brick. Okay, and up here, you see the lintel. I don't know if you can identify that, but right here is the lintel. It's an iron beam that goes across and holds the structure together. Again, you see the frame right to the brick. So, what I'm going to have to do is cut that frame out. You can see some of the challenges that are going on with that. Then, of course, we've got the sill, and the sill pitches. You see it? See how it pitches? Okay, so when I measure it, I've got to take all that into consideration.

So, there it is. There's the window that we're going to replace.

Measuring

Now that you've got a good look at our project, let's go about measuring for this window. Now remember, it's going to be a vinyl replacement window. So, I'm going to measure the rough opening in several different places. I'm going to take the smallest of those measurements in the width and the height. I'm going to subtract half an inch from the width and 3/8 from the height. So, this new window will fit nicely in there, and we may have to put some trim on it. We may have to put some stops on the inside, maybe even a little bit of trim on the outside, because it goes directly to the brick. We'll insulate it, we'll caulk it, but the first step, obviously, is to measure it. So, how do we measure this window to make sure that it's correct, it fits well, and we don't have to do any adjustments to the structure, which in this case would be really, really hard to do because it's a brick house? Let's take a look.

Width

So, the first thing I'm going to do is measure the width, and I'm going to do it on the bottom of it. Let's do that. Let's come over here, and I'm just going to measure. I get 35 and three-quarters of an inch. Okay, so at the bottom, I get 35 and three-quarters.

Height

Now let's measure the top. I actually get 35 and a half at the top. So now, that gives us two different measurements, and I'm going to start with the 35 and a half. That's the smallest measurement. So, I'm also going to measure the middle, and I get 35 and 5/8 there. Obviously, we have an opening that's a little bit crooked, so 35 and a half inches for my width.

Now let's measure the height. I get 37, 36 and 7/8, 36 and 7/8. So, the height is going to be 36 and 7/8. That's the rough opening.

So after measuring the outside, I found out that the brick opening is bigger than the inside opening. So, I'm going to go with the inside measurements. Remember what we measured, so we want to order it correctly. The measurements were 35 and a half inches wide and 36 and 7/8 inches tall. So, I'm going to subtract half an inch off of the width, so I'm going to order 35 inches wide. I'm going to subtract 3/8 of an inch off the height, so it's going to be 36 and a half inches high.

So, even if after I demo this window, I find that the window's a little small for the opening, I can always frame it out. I can put plywood around, I can put one-by's around, I can coil it on the outside and trim it on the inside. The biggest issue is I want to make sure that when we install it, that window fits right in there nicely. We can insulate it, we can trim it, and it's going to be finished. This window doesn't even open. It really needs to be replaced. So, that's what we're going to do.

So hopefully, you enjoyed this, and it educated you a little bit. I know there are probably different ways to do this and different ways to look at it, but this is the way we do it, and it works for us. So, if it could work for you, just do it, just measure that window. We're going to video when we tear this window out. It's a smaller window than other metal windows we've torn out in videos before, and we're going to show you how we do this when we install that new window. But until then, thank you for watching. We really appreciate it. You can like the video, and that would help us a lot. And so until next time, this is Dennis with Home Rehab Pros, and we'll see you in the next video.