During the winter season, storm windows are useful in keeping the home warm, as well as in keeping moisture and outdoor noises out of the house. It doesn’t take much to shelter oneself from the cold; learning how to install storm windows mainly involves cleaning them and merely slipping them in.
The ideal time to install storm windows is during early fall, since it isn’t usually too cold at that time so the heat wouldn’t have to be on. The materials that will be needed, aside of course from the storm windows themselves, are some soapy water, a window cleaner, some caulk, an industrial-strength spray lubricant, and some rags.
For the first step of how to install storm windows, the window screens are removed by simply pushing in the tabs at the screens’ bottom, causing them to slide out of the window frame. The edges of the window screens are then cleaned off by wiping them with a rag that had been soaked with soapy water, and then dried off using a clean rag afterwards. One should take care not to let soapy water remain for too long on wood, as water could seep into the wood inside one’s home if it has not been properly sealed.
Next comes the cleaning of the window tracks. This is the portion of the window frame where the window screens or the storm windows are held in. If there are no tracks on one’s windows, they will have to be installed. One could have someone else install them, but the installment is easy enough to be done on one’s own. To clean them out, the edges are wiped down first using a wet rag, and then followed with a dry rag. Be careful not to have too much water seep into the window frame.
If the edges of the storm windows also require cleaning, do the same cleaning process that had been done for the window screens. One might also want to use window cleaner to wipe the glass down. If the seal around the glass appears damaged, apply caulk on it so that it can be sealed back up. The window track is then sprayed with a slight amount of industrial-strength lubricant to guarantee smooth installation and removal. Wipe the track down with a rag afterwards.
The storm windows are set into the window tracks and slid into place, making sure that they easily slide up and down the tracks. If one is having difficulty putting the storm windows in, it could be that the tracks are misaligned and should be reinstalled. One may also want to put weather stripping along the perimeter of the windows if they seem to be drafty.
One should not have to wait for the cold weather to arrive before preparing one’s home for it. Forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. The process of how to install storm windows is easy enough to carry out. One should also be wise enough to know when it is the right time for them to do so.
