BEFORE THE ARCHITECT – DREAM HOME DESIGNING BACKGROUND – UNIQUE HOME DESIGNING ARTICLES
HOUSE DESIGN TO-DO WINDOWS SCHEDULE
By Before The Architect Copyright 2003-2007, 2010
[Dream home design and dream home building] standards have diminished; that is, both standards expected and standards delivered. Buyers focus on five-peak façades and not what’s holding them up, the drapes and not the wall on which they’ll hang. Home designers and home builders echo that superficiality. Minimum safety standards, a/k/a building codes, are goals to achieve, not grades to surpass. As for added safety, durability, convenience — forget about it.
Before The Architect
hOUSE DESIGN TO-DO WINDOWS SCHEDULE
Functionality, egress, lines of sight, daylight penetration, etc. - take care .
. .

INTRODUCTION
In a designer's home plans
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WHAT ABOUT THE TO-DO WINDOWS SCHEDULE?
Expect a lot of
answers from a windows schedule:
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Comment: In this fine home designer’s opinion, a mulled window should be avoided in virtually all designing - diminishes, depreciates most styles and a frame can distort for insufficient window structure when mulled
Tempered or
otherwise glaze-amended?
| |||||||||||||||||
| Consider
amendments in high-heat and UV build | |||||||||||||||||
| Consider
amendments in glare lines of sight, especially in travel-sensitive
areas, e.g., stairways, active traffic pattern interchanges, etc. | |||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer?
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Comment: Remember to site by window centerlines to avoid misplacing for differences in window widths between manufacturers
Comment: Before The Architect usually applies Marvin Integrity windows –
Pros – In the experience of this dream home designer, historically excellent reputation with clients in before- and after-market, excellent manufacturing reputation, benchmark durability and convenience of pultrusion manufacturing process; however, please see Cons’ entry below. At least they’re not Andersen.
Cons - Selectively limited product line; no true custom option; seemingly less and less attention to market in this dream home designer’s opinion.
Note: 1. While woefully lacking in transom alternatives in the Marvin Integrity line, there appears to be a workaround via Parrett Manufacturing Company, Inc., 810 Second Avenue East, P. O. Box 440, Dorchester, WI 54425-0440, PH=715-654-6444, FX=715-654-6555, http://www.parrettwindows.com; 2. At least one Marvin dealer – in Nashville, TN – offers custom options for muntins – especially notable in re Victorian and Craftsman Styles.
Comment: Note well that as far as Before The Architect knows, no two window manufacturers make windows in exactly the same sizes. Therefore, what could end up as windows in the final construct might well be different from those designed?
What to do?
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Model?
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Where on a wall
shall the windows be set?
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Comment: Window height is best defined as the vertical distance between finish floor top of face and rough sill top of face, thereby compensating even for significant build in a floor as may arise in thick-bed finish clad masonry.
| Window
placement on the horizontal | |||
| On
centerline | |||
Particularly in Period Styles, though not necessarily to the
exclusion of “community" styles and the like, the days of
single-height headers seem gratefully fewer as time passes
|
| The
sideways “v" points to the hinge, or trailing stile | |||||
Generally,
open to
| |||||
| Give it up
to distinguishing between left-hand and right-hand – almost as
subjective as door hands. | |||||
| Make sure
the client understands these symbols and agrees. | |||||
Draw the
sideways “v" and leave a record for the window supplier.
|
Special
considerations?
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Muntins?
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FINE HOME DESIGNER PERSPECTIVE
Windows are a big
deal
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Comment: Oddly and unfortunately, window investment can be a most likely target for getting cheap [read euphemistically: economizing]
For an occupant
|
| Takes time and
careful thought to address all the points that the other Guys' might not
be up to doing and should be and won’t be | |||||
Should be
engaged late in a draw
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Comment:
In working with
stock plans, windows and windows schedules can be troublesome:
|
All true stories.
A windows schedule
should be coordinated with and act as a cross-check to –
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ACTUAL HOUSE DESIGN TO-DO WINDOWS SCHEDULE
| Take a look-see for
yourself at a recently completed house plans Windows Schedule for a single
level. | |||||||
This pic is chopped
from a plans set that was heavily cross-referenced.
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House Design To Do Windows Schedule

KEY: ABV=Above; APX=Approximately; C/O=Callout; DBL=Double; E.=East; FIN=Finish; FL=Floor level; INT=Interior; N.=North; NLT=Not Less Than; RF=Roof; RFL=Rough Floor Level; S.=South; SG=Safety Glass; SHTG=Sheathing; SIP=Sill plate; TOF=Top of face; W=Width; W.=West; WDW=Window; WL=Wall
. . . . . . .
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