New Windows For My House

[FlyingScot]

There is no market for the old windows (I looked for a year before I found anyone else even selling their old windows--this was before I replaced mine.) Now my preservationist bent is being challenged again because I can't find anyone to replace the plaster in the upstairs bathroom. They all want to just slap up drywall and call it good, but I'm just not doing that. All the plaster in the house is good, except where they glued paneling to it! I won't be doing traditional plaster (we'll be putting in veneer plaster, which goes over blueboard) and we'll have to do it ourselves, I think.

Karen

Keep your old windows in case you decide to sell the house at a later time. It will be a good selling point. As far as the plaster. There is a product called Master of Plaster that is really easy to use. I only had to do a skim coat though and I don't know how far gone your walls are. If you go to the Old House Journal Website there is a poster named Clarence Bauer ( I think I spelled that correctly). He is a master plasterer and he highly recommends the stuff and gives great instructions on how to repair walls. Are there holes or did the whole wall get destroyed?

[tulip]

My house is 70 years old with the original single-hung windows. I love them. They have four vertical panes on top and one single pane on the bottom. Vinyl replacement windows would just look terrible and really diminish the character of the house.

I plan on repairing my existing windows (like FlyingScot did) and putting up good-quality storm windows and screens. The storm windows are not all aluminum frames these days. They can be painted to match whatever color scheme you have on your house. With properly repaired windows (sash repaired, weatherstripping, storms), the savings is at least as good as the replacement windows, and there are no old windows to add to the landfill.

Thanks for the link, FlyingScot. I may not get the tax credit (but I think you still can for stormwindows), but for me, it's important to retain the character of my house while still increasing the energy savings.

While I have not looked into it, there might be replacement windows that are wood framed, copy historic patterns, and are super efficient. But you still have the problem of how to dispose of the old windows.