Window panel above exterior door
Hi – looking to get a window pane for the area above our exterior front door on the second floor of the brownstone. It’s currently a piece of ugly wood ? . I’d love to replace it with a simple glass window like essentially every other home. Nothing fancy or expensive. Anyone have any recs or experience doing this? I know nothing about it. Thanks!
smoochas
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
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stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
Check out all of Bryson’s books.
JohnHancock | 4 years and 7 months ago
Lol, just looked this up. Looks like a fun read during the dark winter nights of the upcoming lockdown!
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
i think you and many others on here will enjoy. i was going to offer you my copy.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
I just ordered a used copy—the full title is “At Home: a Short History of Private Life”.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
I’ll see if I can find a copy
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
Bob, did you ever read Bill Bryson’s the History of the Home?
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
You dont miss anything do you. Glad your eyes are still sharp.
The window boxes missed me by only two generations. My grandfather who grew up in eastern queens in the 1910s and 20s told me about them and I guess they came in handy when they were still purchasing ice for something my grandmother called an “ice box”. And because of my grandmother, I know the ice box is not the freezer but where the fresh food goes.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
BTW, my front vestibule faces south and gets enough sun to be too warm for food storage, but the closet in my rear shed gets below freezing.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
Window boxes Steve? I’m old, but not THAT old 🙂
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
You know, I like my vestibule cold. We no longer have the window boxes they had back when bob m was a boy, so when we have guests around the holidays and we have loads of left overs, I place them in the vestibule. They keep for days there.
hkapstein | 4 years and 7 months ago
True it might be easier to insulate the vestibule, including floor and ceiling than to upgrade the glass in an original door. Blown in cellulose comes to mind. Double paned 1/8 inch glass though, you might have a shot to make it work. It sounds like you do it when you can.
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
It is difficult to fit the old double doors with insulation good enough to make considering double pain glass worth it. Sometimes we get lucky and when we do, I am honest and tell the customer it was luck, not skill. That way they don’t come to expect it.
Now, if the doors open right into the living space, that is another story. I some times get called by people who buy houses from flippers and they remove the vestibule and leave the crappy old entry doors, painted to look new, but old and drafty and these unknowing souls freezing. In those cases the owners would be wise to have new doors made by someone who installs modern insulation and double or if possible triple pane glass.
hkapstein | 4 years and 7 months ago
Agree Bob. All I’m saying is if the other doors and/or windows in the house had double pane glass, I would use that in the transom too.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
I can’t imagine that insulated glass in the transom above an outer doorways would make any substantive difference in energy saving.
hkapstein | 4 years and 7 months ago
Your house your call I guess. If rebuilding the original doors I’d be tempted to use single pane glass, but if fabricating a new door why not use the double. It’ll make some difference. A rowhouse is mostly abuting other heated spaces so much of the heat is lost through the facades and roof. The roof can be insulated, but the facades which are largely glass cannot really be. Double pane glass is about r-2, maybe r-3 if it’s argon filled or low-e. Single pane is less than r-1.
Now going from R-12 to R-13 is a few percent better, but going from R-1 to R-2 is probably saving you 50% of thee heat losses.
Most exterior wall assemblies are designd to be at least r-13.
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
i am not a big fan of insulated glass in entries. we have insulated glass here in my own house and i am sure the home improvement sales person who knocked on this door in the 1970’s, right in the middle of the oil crisis, told the homeowner how this insulated door was going to save them money. The vestibule is unheated space with an unheated entrance into the basement below it. Yes, keeping the drafts out is important but unless i put a radiator in, it will always be cold. what i suggest people do is to insulate the second door, the door from the vestibule to the parlor, to keep the drafts out of the main house. We do this often with wood door stop with vinyl insulation strip in it and wooden sweeps, all finished to match what ever is in the house. they sell it at dykes, but the manufacturer does not make it in the lengths we need in brownstones so we began making our own. (and when i tell people i call manufacturers and question them about prod uct, i called Randall Products in Newark and told them we need longer insulated door stop; that fell on deaf ears so i make my own).
www.thetinkerswagon.com
hkapstein | 4 years and 7 months ago
This project will probably require some carpentry, an most glass shops I’ve spoken to don’t do the wood work. If the transom is intact it may be possible to take it apart and replace the glass. New glass sheet probably ends up running between 100 and 300 bucks depending on size, thickness and double panedness. So figure a few hundred for labor, maybe this project could be done for under 1k?
If the transom is not serviceable or not there, you would to fabricate a new one, which is not difficult. Maybe could be done for 1500 bucks? A one man shop would probably offer the best prices for this project. The carpenter will know where to buy the glass.
Don’t use pine or any softwood to make the transom. It’s cheap, but it’s not rot resistant enough for exterior use. Sapele or african mahagony is probably the best choice on the market right now. White oak would probably be fine for an exterior fixed transom, but red oak or poplar should not be used. If the doors have d ouble pane glass I would try to use that. The glass shop can make an insulated glass unit for your project for not much cost, the cost of glass plus about 60 bucks probably to make the IGU.
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
Op, my load might lighten about mid January. i am not sure if you know my business name: www.thetinkerswagon.com. i generally do not sign off with it as i am always busy.
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
@bobbklin: i am sorry to hear they did not get that going. th.ey knew what they were doing and they had been there forever. to be replaced by chocolate? makes no sense, now a days we can get the best belgian chocolate from any corner store but we can’t get a piece of glass.