There’s always that new excitement when you first build your new house. You’ve planned the design, you’ve called the architect, you’ve made appointments with contractor and you’ve rented supervisor... But then again, there’s always that anxiety concerning about whether you’ve made the right decision: is the materials you chose good enough? Is the design you made appropriate enough? Does the placing right enough?
To answer your worries, we are going to provide you some options in choosing your perfect window.
There are a lot of window types based on its shapes like sash window, louvered window, roof window, awning window, bay window, and so many more. Sash windows are the most common ones and are good to fit any type of house design as well as awning or casement window and louvered window. Roof windows can be an additional attraction for your house, but it might cost you a little too high. Try bay window or oriel window that will give you best outside view and rich light.
There are several types of glazing you can choose too, like half glazing, full glazing, or you can even use stained glass as your glazing for more colorful lighting effects—this was used in various churches to create features of religious figures in multi colors and to create serenely luminous lighting effect. But remember, you want to be able to look through your window, so if you want to add stained glass, don’t overdo it—maybe some small stained glass tiles on the sides can and vivid colors on your gradation.
The window frames are crucial too. Now there are more options to select in window’s framing, including materials such as vinyl or PVC, wood, aluminum, steel, or fiberglass and there are individual advantage and disadvantages in each material. Vinyl or PVC have a very good thermal resistance and are easy to maintain; vinyl and aluminum window frames are the cheapest selection in range of price, but aluminum has a very low resistance towards thermal challenges. Steel frames are the best in its durability as it is long lasting and needs only an easy maintenance to keep. The most common window frames are made out of wood for its luxurious beauty, but you need to keep in mind that wooden frames are very expensive and it might shrink and swell due to the humidity changes although it is excellent in its resistance towards thermal conditions. The mostly chosen ones these late years are probably fiberglass window frames for it has a very good resistance towards weather, long lasting, and easy to maintain. But note that fiberglass windows can be very expensive, alongside the wooden window frames.
Don’t forget to place it right. Windows can be a very good tool to save energy. Place windows to the East in the living room, hallways, and kitchen to create good impression of fresh morning spirit. Sunset in the master bedroom can give you a soft romantic feeling in the afternoon. Don’t forget to prevent over illumination and glaring, try to surf more about passive solar building design.
And don’t forget, windows are interior and exterior. Make sure you make one good from the inside, as well as it is looked from the outside. Good luck finding your best windows!
