Best Approach to Basement Window – GreenBuildingAdvisor

Hi all,

Zone 5A. Working towards a few things in my basement. 1970s build. Cinder block wall and poured concrete floor. 2 story home and basement contains the home HVAC. The basement itself is not temperature controlled. I have a few problems to tackle down here insulation/radon/etc. #

1 is the windows and I’d like to make sure it’s insulated and sealed extremely well.

I have four basement windows I’m looking to replace. Quotes vary widly, but overall I think is well within my DIY skillset and I’ve sought advice elsewhere I’ll share below.

Attached is a picture of one of the windows on the inside and outside. They’re all identical windows, but two are in wells. There’s the inside window pane which has a white frame and the outside wood window frame which is yellowed.

Seems like easiest approach, and the advice I’ve received, is to buy a new window that simply fits inside the existing wood frame. That way I wouldn’t have to cut out the frame or mess with the outside at all. Could even leave the screen in place I’m told. That leads me to a custom window though. White frame is 30.25″ x 18.25″ I’m also not sure how much better it would make the situation. 

The other approach is what I think is the best approach is removing the frame entirely. Cutting/chipping/whatever is needed.

The measurements from cinder block to cinder block width wise is 32″ and top of frame to bottom cinder block is 19.25″. So that gives a pretty good rough opening for a non-custom window from a big box store.

Seems like rough steps would be:

1. Remove window pane.

2. Cut out window frame.

3. Chip away and smooth out whatever was removed to get out the wood frame.

4. Seat new window in rough opening with shims.

5. Spray foam window in place and tapcon to cinder block.

6. Outside caulking

7. Do some form of framing inside / outside?

8. Done?

Any thoughts on how to approach this the best way possible?

Thanks in advance.