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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

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Basement Update: I Officially Love Glassblock Windows

December 9, 2010

Thumbs up to glassblock. 2010 EKW carved into the fresh mortar. I know I’ve dwelled quite a bit on how unattractive my home was from the outside before I had the siding redone and built the deck, but I haven’t really gotten into talking about one concerning thing: security (mostly because I was worried about someone tracking me down and busting in). There were five basement windows when I moved in (probably originals from when the home was built), but over, the wooden frames have rotten, the glass has been broken, and security was iffy… and no one ever really bothered to fix the home. Some windows were only covered by a piece of plywood, so as you can imagine, the basement was also a very cold, dark area.

Glass block window installation was my decided solution, and has been at the top of my need-to-do list since I moved it. With the home buyer tax refund, I finally had the extra means to secure and insulate the basement. Here are some before’s: Note the thin, silver insulation, and spray painted single-pane glass windows.

  • Those windows? Plywood and weakened glass, covered by insulation. All kinds of bad.
  • Another old window. Awesomely spraypainted.

I hired a local one-man crew who resonated with me after being brutally honest about the complexity of my particular windows AND how they would look cosmetically when he was done (something about them being set in the foundation much differently than 99% of other homes he’s encountered so they wouldn’t look as good as he would want them to look). Some larger local companies quoted me just about the same dollar amount (actually, a smidge more if you wanna know), but those companies didn’t do quite as much do-diligence in inspecting the area, and weren’t forthcoming about the potential problem. It was also appealing to me that he was literally just a one-man operation, so his name was on the line and I knew I wouldn’t be assigned a subcontractor that just wanted a quick buck. (I should say, I’m not being paid or credited to endorse the company I selected, but Craig’s totally shout-out-worthy, and I’d refer him to anyone in the Western NY area).

The problem in his eyes (which really isn’t a huge issue to me) was that when finished, the windows would look way set into the house, instead of being pretty and lined up with the outer siding. He warned that it would need extra carpentry work and paint to finish the job correctly (we can do that!). This “inset” problem is caused because the thickness and design of the insulation and siding (from the original home construction, not my recent siding update) made it so that the siding hung further off of the foundation than is typical, making small gaps around the outside edge of the new glass block. Simple fix will be to make some custom window frames (using little bit of trim) to line the inner area of the house along the edge of the window. OK, I know this is almost impossible to understand, but maybe looking at some of the during/after shots will give you a better idea of what he was so concerned about.

  • Pete and Craig inspecting the foundation after the first window was removed.
  • One window is nestled in the foundation underneath the sunroom (which was an addition). Here I am, looking out into the space beneath the sunroom. Good news, no creepy animals or bodies.
  • Two windows removed. Let the sun shine in!
  • One finished window - see the slight inset-ness? No big deal, we'll fix it.
  • New glass block window! So clean, so secure.
  • Here's a new window - this is where the old spraypainted glass used to be! BIG difference.

Overall, SO HAPPY with the new windows! My basement is bright, warm, and safe.

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Basement  / Curb Appeal

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

2 Comments


Andy in MN
October 21, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Reply

Hi Emily! I put the link to the house I am buying. When I saw your basement photos I thought “holy smokes, that looks kind of like my basement.”

I wanted to ask you some questions about glass block. Any reponses would be great!

– Did you end up making the openings bigger than the original windows? I feel like with glass block you can make the opening way bigger than the old nasty windows.

– How much did each window cost to convert to glass block?

– What’s the rul of thumb about putting in the vent vs. leaving it solid block? Is there a minimum amount of ventilation I should be aware of?

– Did you put glass block in a downstairs bathroom? If so, did you put in a fan or ventilation system?

I have more questions but I’ll start with those :) Thanks for any help you may have!

-Andy



    Emily
    October 21, 2011 at 6:59 pm

    Hi Andy! Thanks for the nice comment + awesome questions.

    – Once the old panes were out, the glass block windows ended up needing to be made larger than normal and custom-sized by the company who installed; they fit in really precisely, with the proper amount of mortar around the glass, but the lack of frame from the inside definitely does help to make it feel like there’s a larger opening.

    – I believe each window was $75, materials + installation. I feel like I remember that price being a smidgen higher than “standard” sized windows, and definitely more expensive than DIY (because I looked into that too). From memory, I recall thinking I could DIY each window for <$50.

    – Every contractor I spoke with recommended two+ window vents, positioned in a way where a cross-ventilation could be achievable; in my case, they're diagonally across from each other in the basement, and we were careful to avoid putting one in a window that looks out beneath an enclosed porch (presuming that wouldn't really allow for good ventilation).

    – There sure is a toilet in my basement, but it's not a formal 1/2 bath (we even tore out all of the walls and built a new little tiled throne for it), but it's not something that would require a vent fan (unless you were to eat something unmentionable… and use of that toilet is kind of a last resort for us anyways). Ha. I did, however, have to account for a dryer vent in one of the windows; we put it in one of the windows that did not have a ventilation system (to avoid sucking the fumes back inside) but the hookup was basically built directly into one of the glass blocks. It seemed really efficient and easy to hook up.

    I hope this helps! If you have more questions, feel free to ask away!

    Emily

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  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

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