(Pronounced:
No
Mo - rhymes with no
Wa - rhymes with ahhhh
Ba - rhymes with ahhh
Stands for:
No
More
Water in the
Basement)
As part of Operation NoMoWaBa, we are filling in the gap around our house with dirt and sloping it away from the house so water will drain away from the house instead of into our french drain system.
As with many basements, we have windows in the rooms. Small windows near the top of the wall. Typical basement. Outside, our windows are below ground level. No big deal when you have a two-to-three foot ditch all the way around your house. Light gets in and you can kind of see the sky. Nice. A little bigger deal when you are trying to fill in said gap with dirt and rocks. We can't just cover them up with the dirt, although my husband is incredibly tempted. I'm pretty sure he did some research to see about cementing them in or bricking them up. Especially the ones that still leak. Oh, so tempting...
But I still want windows in those rooms. The basement is so dark as it is. Sunlight is GOOD.
We already knew we needed to build a wall around the A/C unit, so we could build walls around the windows, too, but that would be a bit labor-intensive. In the end, we installed window wells. Imagine putting half a skinny, giant doughnut up against the window. We got ours at Lowe's. They come in at least two different sizes and they can stack on top of each other. It took a couple of trips because they only had a few in stock.
Here is what they look like. (Photo from Lowe's website.)
[I'm not affiliated with Lowe's and I don't get anything for linking. Not even a Christmas Card. You'd think I'd get cards for every holiday since we spend so much time and money there, but no, they don't even call me by name when I go in. The paving stone guy did remember me the other day, though, so that day may be coming! "Hi Staci, what do you need today?"]
Installing Window Wells:
1. The description gives the dimensions, but in order to install it, you need to measure the distance between the screw holes. This means you measure from the middle of one hole to the middle of the opposite hole.
The tricky part is that these are flexible since they are made from some kind of semi-rigid plastic. Great if you have to work around other objects on the outside of your home. Great so they can work for windows of multiple sizes. Not so great if you want to put a cover on it. BUY THEM TOGETHER and set them up before measuring! Although we found one that fit the wells we purchased, we never did find a cover to work for our house, and it would not have mattered if we'd done the wells with a different curve. Our windows are under the eaves, so we think they will be OK without covers. If not, we will cover them with a greenhouse-type plexiglass stuff my in-laws have on hand.
2. Take that measured distance (from one screw hole to the hole on the opposite side) and divide it by two to get the midpoint. For instance, lets say your screw holes are 36 inches apart. That would mean 18 inches is your midpoint. Remember this number for later.
3. Measure the width of the window. Determine the half-way point of the window by dividing the window measurement by two. Make a mark at the half-way point above the window and another one below the window. If you have a 30 inch wide window, it now has a mark at 15 inches. Chalk is a good tool to use for making marks because it washes off easily. If your wall is getting ready to be covered with dirt, a permanent marker is also fine. Red, that can be seen from several feet away -- or whatever.
4. Measure from the half-way point of the window (in our example it was 15 inches) to the right, and make a mark at the distance from step 2. Repeat for the left side. This will center your well on your window. For example, if I have a 30 inch window, my center mark is at 15 inches. I start from the center point and measure out 18 inches to make my mark on both sides. This gives a 3 inch margin on each side.
5. Make another set of marks at the bottom of the window. Draw a faint vertical line connecting the marks, hopefully ensuring your well will be straight.
6. Determine how high you want your well to go. We have dirt going higher than the top of the windows, so we installed ours higher than the top of the window.
7. Drill a pilot hole if needed (we were installing them into concrete, so we used a hammer drill and a concrete bit) for the first screw on your line. This is fun. You need to drill slowly and pull the bit out every so often as you go to pull the dust out of your hole. Be careful. Those big hammer drills are powerful, and the bit gets HOT. Like, blister-your-finger-if-you-touch-it-a-minute-later, hot. So use a different drill for the screws if you can. You will waste a lot of time changing out bits. And those kinds of drill are not really made to be screwdrivers. They are also heavy. Wow. But how cool is it to be drilling into solid concrete!? Choose a bit size the same size as your screw or slightly smaller. Too much smaller and you can't get the screw in. Any bigger at all and the screw won't grab. The bits usually have their size etched in the base. Screws also have different sizes. The package will say. You will need concrete screws if you are going into concrete. They are often (always?) a very pretty royal blue color. I don't know why. Perhaps so you can see them from several feet away...
AND, you can't use just any drill bit. Did you know concrete bits have an extra flap-thing on the very end? When they get used a lot, that extra flap wears off and you have to get a new one. We went through several with all these projects, and did some of all of them at the same time. And we have six windows. I can't say for sure you will use one up doing your windows, but it won't hurt to have two. If the store is 30 minutes away, I'd say for sure get two.
8. Screw in the first screw. The holes on these window wells are huge. I have no idea what size screws are SUPPOSED to be used on them, but the concrete screws we had didn't have large heads on them, so I used a washer. Hubby didn't on the top holes, but even he had to on the bottom holes. I had my first window well just come off the wall before I got the second screw in, so I opted to use washers for every screw from then on. I'm not a fan of having to redo work.
9. Double check. Move the well on the first screw until the line is visible through the hole on the opposite side. Check to see if it is level (if you are a perfectionist), and mark the exact placement for the other screws.
10. Drill the pilot holes for the other screws. We did four screws per window well. There are multiple holes. It is OK at this point to shift the well out of your way if you want. And, if you find that you have hit something (re-bar maybe?) and the bit gets chewed up instead of making a hole, then you can just try with another hole. Not that I had to do that --twice-- or anything.
11. Put the well back in place if you have twisted it away from where it goes, and screw in the rest of the screws, using washers as needed. You can check to see if it is still level and straight, but seriously, are you going to redo it if it isn't? How off could it be?
12. Install covers if you've got them. Since we didn't get any, I can't comment on this process. Good luck.
13. Repeat as needed for other windows. We had six to do. Hubby and I both got good at this process. Yay!
14. Clean up your work area and put away your tools. Somehow this step seems to be forgotten a lot at our house...
What projects are you doing this year?
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