5 Tips For Adding Daylight to Your Home

Jackie Braitman — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:23:16 +0000

As you know by now, I remodel older homes – always built before 1970 and often built around the beginning of the 20th century. Among the most frequent request from my clients is for more daylight. Here are 5 tips for adding daylight to your home.

This Room Highlights First 3 Principals of Daylighting

1.   Light every room from at least 2 sides. We feel more comfortable when we have daylight from 2 sides – it reduces glare and increases exposure. When the room you’re daylighting isn’t on a corner with windows on 2 adjacent walls, you can borrow daylight from other areas of the home. See Borrowing Light.
2.   Bounce Lights off surfaces. You’ll get more daylight if you bounce the light off adjacent surfaces – walls and ceilings. So I’ll place windows adjacent to a sidewall or close to the ceiling rather than in the middle of a room. If you have windows in the middle of a room, add painted built-ins on either side to bounce the existing light further into the room.
3.   Doors vs. Windows. Whenever I’m remodeling to connect a home to the outdoors, I’ll use glass doors instead of windows. This gives you the sense that the outdoor garden room is an extension of the home rather than being outdoors.

Glass Doors Make Garden Room Part of Home

4. Consider Exposure. If you’re in the south or other areas where cooling is a greater expense than heating, you’ll want to limit southern and western exposures or at least include overhangs that block intense summer sun. However, in northern climates, where heating is a bigger cost and concern, you want greater southern exposure. Of course, in a remodeling situation you have a lot less choice than in building new. In my own home in Washington DC where cooling is a big expense, I only have good access to the outdoors on my western exposure. I’ll still use extensive windows but I’ve already planted trees to block intense afternoon summer daylight and will include wide roof overhangs to let in winter light but blocks intense summer sun.
5. Light from above. Light from skylights can be nice but I resist putting them in western and southern facing roofs. The daylight is too intense and much less controllable than are windows. However, in a very shaded lot, skylights can make what was previously a dark room wonderfully comfortable. And I usually, again, place skylights at the room edge to bounce light off the wall and help brighten and diffuse the light in the room.

Skylights At Room's Edge Bring More Light Into Room

Let’s Talk Window Replacement

Jackie Braitman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:53:12 +0000

Simulated Divided-Lite Replacement Windows

Wood Replacement Windows With Aluminum Cladding on Outside

You’ll get dizzy from the myriad window choices in remodeling your home. There are several basic choices you’ll be making. The first decision is about whether to use replacement windows or new construction windows.

Replacement Windows:

With Replacement window the original window frame is left in place. The new window is a custom construction to just fit in the frame. You’ll lose about an inch of daylight around the entire window but the installation cost is a fraction of what it costs if you need to or choose to replace the entire frame. I usually estimate approximately $200-$400 in labor to install replacement windows depending on complexity. This doesn’t include the cost of the window.

New Construction Windows:

With new construction windows, the entire frame is replaced. This might be necessary if you’re increasing the size of the window or if the original frame is rotten. And even if you replace the same size window, you’ll keep or increase your daylight space because the entire frame and sashes are replaced. The labor costs to install new construction windows is anywhere from $1000 to $1500 per window. This doesn’t include the cost of the window.

The second decision has to do with materials. You can choose between all vinyl windows, metal windows or wood windows clad in vinyl or aluminum or unclad. I have a personal strong preference for wood windows clad outside in aluminum. Vinyl windows feel somehow cheap to me and I don’t believe they wear as well as wood windows. Inside, wood windows feel substantial and “like home”. They are also more “green” than vinyl. All the windows pictured in this article are wood windows with aluminum cladding on the outside. The third decision you’ll be making has to do with whether the windows appear to be a single pane of glass or whether the sash is divided into smaller panes of glass. And after you make that decision, there are several decisions about how the individual panes are constructed. It wasn’t until early in the 20th century that we had the technology to make large panes of glass. So prior to that time windows were constructed of smaller panes — called divided lites. Different architectural styles tended to use different patterns of divided lites. And some, like craftsman homes, had a single pane on the bottom sash of a double-hung window and multiple panes on the top sash. The nomenclature is 9 over 1 for example if there are 9 small lites on the upper sash and one lite on the lower sash. The window below is called a 6 over 1.

6 over 1 historic windows

Since home building in the US is heavily influenced by colonial architecture, often new homes have grills that simulate the look of divided lites — except the grill is a snap-in grill only on the inside. Or the grill is put between 2 panes of glass so you get the look of divided lights but the ease of cleaning a single pane of glass.

Then there are simulated divided lite windows where a grill is permanently installed on both the inside and outside of the windows. It makes manufacture less costly because the manufacturer is dealing with single large panes and simply adhering the mutin bars. The replacement windows in the bath, above, simulated divided lites. They look quite authentic. You need to have your nose against the window to tell that it’s not a true divided light and even then internal spacers confuse most individuals into believing they are true divided lites. I work a lot with older homes — built before 1930 — and if the owner wishes to retain the original character of the home, I often encourage them to invest in simulated divided lites. I also don’t like the compromise offered by snap-in grills. If you want to save money, I suggest going without grills rather than using snap-in ones.

Simulated-Divided Lite Casement Windows

These casement windows — new construction windows — use simulated divided lites to give authenticity to the Tudor Revival Remodel.

Simulated Divided Lites - Praire Pattern

In this patio door, we used a praire style lite pattern so increase the expanse of glass but to retain the feel of the lites.

Pella Between the Glass Mini-Blinds

If you’re going for a more modern look, you can also choose conveniences like blinds between panes of glass — like the windows above. You get the convenience of great light control but without dangling cords, without the blinds gathering dust and the clean architectural look of the windows and trimwork. The windows, above, are made by Pella. The other windows depicted were made by Weathershield.

And I haven’t said a word yet about R-values and choices of laminated glass for safety and security, triple glazing, argone filled windows, Low-e windows and the like. That’s another conversation. And we’ll also have an additional discussion about weatherizing and upgrading original single-pane windows. That’s an issue I’ll be dealing with in my own home which is in an historic district. Some historic districts will let you replace windows with ones constructed in an historically accurate manner — sold wood inside and out and true divided lites. The historic district I’m located in want to preserve the actual historic materials and most of us need to restore the windows to function and energy efficiency.

All images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build

At the Intersection of Art, Architecture & Design» 5 Tips For Adding Daylight to Your Home – At the Intersection of Art, Architecture & Design

5 Tips For Adding Daylight to Your Home

Let’s Talk Window Replacement