If you are among the many people who fell in love with the ambiance of an old house, there are DIY ways to restore the original windows. Consider the following reasons restoration might further the peaceful enjoyment of your home.
If you possess some carpentry skills and a good set of tools, there's a good chance you can effectively complete this project over a lot of weekends. Old homes typically have wooden casings that are relatively simple to remove. And if they are already painted, versus a natural wood finish, there's no reason to worry about cracking or chipping casement lumber.
Once the original models have been removed, you can cover the opening with a standard plastic insulating wrap or a sturdier material if needed while you work on restoring the older windows.
One of the driving reasons that property owners replace old windows stems from a perception energy efficiency cannot match newer models. But how much energy efficiency is enough, and can you upgrade the originals?
Starting with the drafty casings, a wide range of insulation options remain available. Spray foam ranks among the most popular and effective products for closing air gaps. DIY homeowners can also tuck fiberglass insulation into spaces to shore them up.
The top reason many homeowners give up on older windows involves glass as thin as 1/16 of an inch. Modern replacement windows typically employ thicknesses of 3/16, as well as double- and triple-pane options. That may seem like a huge difference, but older window panes can also be removed and casings fitted with new and thicker glass.
I'm John Mahan, Sales Associate with William Raveis Real Estate, Harwich Port Office.
Throughout his childhood, John Mahan spent summers on Cape Cod at his parents’ home in Dennis Port. His intro to the Cape was, as he puts it, when his parents “carried me down the stairs at Sea Street Beach when I was a week old.” With a lifelong connection to Cape Cod, it seemed only natural for John and his wife, Mary, to move to Harwich – where they still reside – with their two young children in 1996.
Prior to moving to Cape Cod, John lived in the Worcester-Auburn area where he worked for Mass Electric for 10 years and was a member of the International Brotherhood of Utility Workers. When John and his family moved to the Cape, he worked at NSTAR for six years.
John began his career in real estate in 2002 when he joined Team Waystack Realty in Harwich Port. He has been a consistent top producing realtor in the Harwich area for the past 20 years. John’s approachable demeanor, combined with an integral understanding of the Cape Cod residential real estate market, have allowed him to build trusting, long-term relationships with his clients – both sellers and buyers.
