Replace windows after Internal Wall insulation

howay5o

Hi,

We plan to refurb a couple of the rooms downstairs, Skimming walls, replacing skirting/internal doors/window boards and adding Internal Wall insulation to the external facing walls.
In time (when the budget allows) we will also replace the windows at the front of the house, including those in the affected rooms.
I have heard people say you should replace the windows first before adding internal insulation. But nobody has told me why...
Could anybody explain to me exactly what the problem is?

I'd like to make a more informed decision here, so any advice would be most welcome

Wheety

We have done some improvements to the house and to be honest I wish I had thought out the sequence better.

We had the internal insulation put in. The problem now is that when we change the windows there will be a fair amount of damage to the insulation.

The walls have 4 inches of insulation and the window surround has less but the visible area of the window frame surround on the inside is only a few mm.

howay5o

Thanks Wheety,

Ok so, in order to replace the windows afterwards you would need to: remove the insulation from the window surrounds, fit the new window and the reapply the insulation?
I may be being a little naive here.. but that doesn't sound like a huge additional cost/effort?
It also depends of course on how many windows are affected There are likely to be only 2 large front windows in our case

Wheety

It's glued to the walls and plastered over so not so simple to just remove the insulation on the window surround.

Maybe, I'm over thinking it but it seems logical to change the windows first.

Hopefully someone who has gone through this can comment as I'd be interested in knowing too.

colm_mcm

Internal though

Pete_Cavan

I would have thought that it shouldn't matter once the internal insulation doesn't go into the reveal. You most likely would have to break out part of the reveal (the original reveal next to the window) to get the window out but try to leave the new part of the reveal created by the drylining. If needs be, the glass could be removed from the window and then collapse the frame in on itself to get it out. The new windows might have to be a slight bit smaller to get them in and close it up with a proper cold bridging detail. The reveal will have to be plastered again. Talk to installers to get their thoughts.