How hard is it to enlarge windows?

[dr.girlfriend]

I keep seeing these "exterior transformation" posts where the windows have obviously been made bigger.  How hard/expensive is that to do? We have one room in the original house that we never use, I think partly because it gets little natural sunlight even though there are three smaller windows.  It's the first storey though, and obviously we wouldn't want to risk the structural integrity of a 1950's brick building.  Is this a huge endeavor, or like a moderately-doable thing?

[hazelden]

We had three windows that we took out and replaced with a patio door.

My first quote was for a 9 ft door for like 10k. The next guy that came out said a 9ft door would be too big and quoted us an 8ft door for 5k. He said the difference was because of the header, which is basically the framing structure above the window opening that holds up the house. He was 100% right that a 9ft door would've been way too big!

[maudefindlay]

Check out Chris Loves Julia on IG. They've added a window and just recently a door on a brick home.

[SusanBAnthony]

What kind of exterior is your house? Its a lot harder with stucco and brick than with siding. And its a lot harder if you move the top of the window up vs making it wider and lowering the bottom of the window.

[dr.girlfriend]

Aug 31, 2024 9:40:50 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

What kind of exterior is your house? Its a lot harder with stucco and brick than with siding. And its a lot harder if you move the top of the window up vs making it wider and lowering the bottom of the window.

It is brick (built in the 1950s), so I'm sure that would be hard.  I'm sure we would be happy with widening and not necessarily making taller, since it's not a super high ceiling in there.  I tried to find a picture of that side of the house but there's really nothing there worth taking photos of so I didn't have anything in my Shutterfly already.  I'll take one today and post it!

[heygrey]

It can be done, but the cost of all renos is insane so I'd be less inclined to take on a project that isn't necessary. What is the room used for now? Is there anything you can do to the inside to make it more inviting?

We have a room in our house now and had one in our apartment previously that didn't have great natural light so I lean into the cave-like aesthetic. Dark wall colour, lots of soft lights. Both are my favourite place to curl up with a book, wine, and quiet music. We don't gravitate to that space during the day, but it gets used in the evening, especially during the winter.

[simpsongal]

We’ve done it quite a few times, it isn’t cheap. But the impact is pretty incredible. Eg we turned a 6ft double window into a 9 foot baywith window seat in our dining room. The window was $5k (Marvin wood clad), the steel to reinforce and mount was like $1500, the header was probably $1500 (laminated beam) and the labor…. Idk it was part of a bigger job. We redid the exterior siding at the same time too. But you probably wouldn’t need the steel and could go less expensive on the window.

[dr.girlfriend]

Sept 1, 2024 0:05:41 GMT -5 heygrey said:

It can be done, but the cost of all renos is insane so I'd be less inclined to take on a project that isn't necessary. What is the room used for now? Is there anything you can do to the inside to make it more inviting?

We have a room in our house now and had one in our apartment previously that didn't have great natural light so I lean into the cave-like aesthetic. Dark wall colour, lots of soft lights. Both are my favourite place to curl up with a book, wine, and quiet music. We don't gravitate to that space during the day, but it gets used in the evening, especially during the winter.

This is the room.  It currently has the treadmill, which does get some use, another couch which never gets use unless we have a party big enough to take up both living rooms, and mostly it stores a bunch of my husband's geeky toys and action figures.  :-)  The windows I would hope to enlarge would be the ones behind the couch, although we never use that door (the treadmill is in front of it right now) and I kind of wonder if we could put a big window or even french doors there instead.

We have a much bigger living room with a big t.v. that we use every day that was not part of the original house.

This is the side of the house where the windows would potentially get enlarged:

[maudefindlay]

I'd think changing the door to a big window would be cheaper than cutting into brick and sounds like a better option overall. I also wonder about furniture placement if you make the 2 windows larger, might make that more awkward.

[dancingirl21]

We did this in our kids’ bathroom. There was a small, 80’s octagon window and we changed it to a rectangle double hung. We have siding on that side of the house, so not as complicated as brick. We bought a 24”x48” Marvin wood window that cost $1500. The total cost was just over $4k, to give you an idea. It made me a little sick but that window was original and desperately needed to be replaced.

[kitty]

It sounds to me like you may not use the room because it doesn't really have an "identity" (is is a home gym? sitting area? storage/collectables?) and that more or larger windows wouldn't necessarily change that. If the windows don't need to be replaced because of function, I'd have a hard time spending on that.

I would probably just replace the door with a full glass one of the same size, move the curtain rods to a higher/wider placement to enhance the visual size of the existing windows, and try to use lighter finishes and furnishings within the space.