How to choose windows to your glulam house?

How to choose windows to your glulam house?

Nowadays the popularity of wood houses made from glued laminated timber is growing from day to day. The wealth of wood is one of the few resources that our country has, so it is quite natural to use these resources that are at hand for the construction of houses. Citizens of great possessions are tired of bump and grind of everyday city life, so that they move to the countryside or build good houses, where they can spend the summer, weekends or live permanently. One of the most important stages in wooden homes construction is house design and home decoration. While house planning you will face front facing, the choice of material for the roof and many other questions. Another very important question is the choice of the windows for the wooden house: so how should this choice be made?

While building a wood home many people do not believe in the great importance of thorough window choice and the installation of the windows. As after all windows are installed and the installation is performed competent your wooden home will get its final appearance, as well as all this will affect the house energy efficiency.

When choosing windows for a wooden house you should not consider only one variant. Some people believe that only wooden windows are suitable for a wooden house. Sure, they may look more harmonious, but do not forget that there are other equally good options to choose among.

When choosing windows you should take into consideration the fact that the house must stand for a while. The shrinkage of wood lasts for about a year or two years. During this time, you will be able to make a thorough thinking and talk to many experts. You will also have time to define the advantages of different types of windows.

To choose the right window type, you need to know exactly what future size of your window area will be. Indeed, during the shrinkage the yield of the building foundation can reach about 20 centimeters.The optimal variant is to begin window choosing after the first year of shrinkage. Then you will know approximately how much the yield of the building foundation has been. Taking into consideration this certain information, you can begin to choose windows to your wooden house. Only huge market variety can stop you. It is necessary to determine the color, the shape and the material from which the window will be manufactured. Thanks to modern technologies the choice of the material, shape and size of the windows is very large. In this article we will try to help you to make this different choice, understand and define all nuances and make the final decision.


Today the market, besides the well-known vinyl and wooden windows, also offers aluminum windows, plastic steel windows, PVC windows, solid wood windows, and combined models. Each of these material types can be applied in a wooden house. It’s a well known fact that the market leaders today are - vinyl and plastic steel windows. But you should not blindly follow this popular opinion. After all, these windows are often used in the construction of high-rise buildings. In the wood home construction vinyl and plastic steel windows are used less frequently.

If you do decide to install vinyl windows in your wooden house, please do not forget to find the complete information about the manufacturer, the features of the materials and glass units. Also you should not overlook the question of installation. Depending on it, you can get a quality product that will perform for years and satisfy all your needs.

Now we will describe each type of window material and give you main tips to ease the problem of window type choosing.

Vinyl windows
Breaking into our lives in the early 2000s, new vinyl windows have proved to be simple and practical analogue of old "Soviet" windows. With the development of this sphere of the market a huge number of different profile types, accessories and glass units appeared. Vinyl windows in general look alike, but they have some specific features and are very different in their characteristics and functioning reliability. Let us particularize some particular characteristics of vinyl window elements.

Vinyl window section
Excellent window quality characteristics can perform manufacturers that produce A-class vinyl windows, which don’t lose the color, and the plastic walls are thick enough to protect us from winter frosts. The idea to choose economy-priced producers may result in distortion of the geometry of the structure. Besides cheap plastic can turn yellow during first 3-5 years, and it would be impossible to fix.

The most common sizes for profile cross-sections are 58 and 70 mm. For a small house or a bath house suits 58 mm. And if you are going to build a large house for permanent residence during all year long, the selection is better to stop on window section size 70 mm, which is more reliable in house energy efficiency and better conserve heat.

Window fittings
The choice of accessories is also very important. Window fittings include not only a set of handles and decorative plates, but also the whole mechanism of opening and ventilation. The leader producers use only high-quality materials during manufacturing. By choosing a reliable manufacturer, you will protect yourself from the situation when your window casement will begin to open badly. Nevertheless even the most reliable and high-quality window fittings may need some setting from time to time. For these you can always refer to specialists, or find information on the Internet.

Glass unit
These days there are many different types of glass units specializing on different features - among them energy-saving, sun-protective, armored and tinted, and even multi-functional. Coming from your and your family needs as well as the environmental conditions of the place where your eco home is you can choose between different types of glass units. If you want to give your windows functionality, you can add new opportunities to the normal glass units.

An excellent choice would be the decorative layout inside or outside the glass, which will change windows home deign, or you can choose tinted units, if you want to hide from the neighbors.

Now we will in brief define the main distinguishing features of the most popular window unit types.

Energy-saving window units - is a construction that consists of a frame and energy efficient glass. Glass unit has a specially developed coating (sputtering), the so-called i-glass that passes visible light rays, but keeps the heat indoors. The manufacturing process consists of glass vacuum sputtering of the thin metal thin layer on the prepared glass. In this case it does not exceed the thickness of 0.08-0.12 microns. The cover-coat is almost invisible, while the heat reflecting characteristics are quite high. The metals mainly used in the cover-coat are titanium oxide and silver. It should be noted that this kind of window unit has not more than 15 years of guaranteed service period.

During winter period, energy-saving glass units keep the heat inside the house. In summer, it, on the contrary, will not let the hot air pass into the house. Due to the fact that energy-saving single-chamber glass unit weighs lighter than usual one, period of fitting service increases to 30%. Energy-saving glazing also prevents the formation of condensate. Beside all these, energy-saving glass reduces the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation: walls, flooring, painting does not lose its color over time.
Single-chamber energy-saving windows retain 25% more heat than usual dual-chamber units.
The two-chamber glass units with three energy saving windows is recommended to install on windows overlooking the busy street. This will guarantee additional excellent sound proofing.

Sun-protective window units - reflect shortwave infrared solar radiation, preventing overheating of the room even in the hottest days. Up to 58% of heating energy does not penetrate into the room, and you save on air conditioning. Sun-protective window glass is produced by a sputtering on the glass surface several layers of different chemical compounds. During the manufacturing process glass gets mainly gray, blue, green and bronze tones.

Armored window units - are resistant to housebreaking and various types of impacts - from mechanical shock to the firearms. The construction protects the object from the extreme situations of the highest level of danger. Creating a protection, this kind of window units performs usual functions: casement opening, room ventilation, and on the external characteristics do not differ from simple windows.

As a summary of all information about vinyl windows we should notice that there are advantages and disadvantages in these kind of windows:

Advantages:
-Affordable price
-Usefulness
-The service life of 20-30 years
-Good energy-saving performance

Disadvantages:
-Environmentally unfriendly
-Attracts dust
-Difficult to repair

Laminated vinyl windows
Laminated vinyl windows in contrast to usual white vinyl windows will brighten your house, underline the home design and the interior. This type of windows are naturally usual vinyl windows in their construction, but with the application of high-quality lamination cover of various colors, shades and the textures, for example wood texture lamination. The main advantage of this kind of vinyl windows is the great variety of designs. But its main negative side is that laminated cover is very afraid of scratches. While small scratches are almost invisible on a usual vinyl window, the scratch on laminated vinyl window will really stand out, so that you will need a special marker that can only paint and cover it. The price on the laminated type of vinyl window sections will be 30-50% higher than usual vinyl sections.

Glued laminated timber windows
Other good variant of window type for your wooden house can become glued laminated timber window. Preserving the beauty and qualities of wood, these windows are much warmer, more eco-friendly and exclusive than vinyl windows. The main materials for glued laminated timber windows are pine, larch and oak, which differ in texture of wood, performance, and price accordingly. Modern multi-layer paint technology protects the wood perfectly, and the color remains unchanged for many years. The main advantages of glued laminated timber windows should be considered its high strength, high levels of noise prevention and thermal insulation, long service period, environmental safety and attractive appearance. Please draw your attention to the fact that the price for glued laminated timber windows will be in 2 times more expensive than vinyl windows. You should also remember that glued laminated timber windows are afraid of high humidity and temperature changes, so it is very important to support a constant temperature in the building.

Wooden windows
Timber is a traditional material for the window frames manufacturing. Wooden windows are environmentally friendly, comfortable and perform long service. Timber is an excellent material for window frames as it allows the air to pass through its microspores and perfectly absorbs noise.

There are two types of wooden windows: traditional (woodwork) and wood windows with glass units installed. Traditional wooden windows, in general, do not differ much from those which were installed in the homes 100 years ago. But the technology has become much more perfect. Nowadays it is most commonly that modern wooden windows have double-glazed window units installed. In many ways the construction is similar to that of vinyl windows: window sash opens and can be fixed in any position. But they are heavier by weight than vinyl windows.


One of the important positive sides of timber as a material for windows is that you can make out of it different sizes and forms of the window frames (large and very small, and practically any form you can think about).
The main bad side of wooden windows is that the buyer usually doesn’t have enough confidence in the quality of the wood frame. It is a well-known fact that all wood products swell from high humidity and crack during the shrinkage of wood. Good masters never make furniture, windows, doors, household items from fresh wood. Timber should pass the stage of shrinkage. It is very important to dry the material as unitary block. Only after it can be cut and put into the production process. Otherwise, the finished item may change its form or even crack, if the desiccation process isn’t followed ant the wooden item is drying in a finished form. A desiccation time for wood is quite long and depends on the type of wood. Many years ago the period of wood desiccation lasts for several years before the material was taken into work. Modern technologies have simplified many things, but not all. Today special vacuum installations help to speed up the whole process.
The solid wood frames manufacture produces a lot of rejected materials. Which proves wooden windows technology simply can not be cheap!

The lower cost has glued laminated timber windows type, which was described above. Such a multi-layered material made of wood performs longer service life and better usage characteristics. Plus it is less influenced by humidity.
In general timber is evidently best eco-friendly material. But this material must be covered by special substances to make the timber strong enough, preserve from cracking, deformation or insects. The surface of wooden frames is covered with refractory protection, as well as with paint or varnish to protect them from the effects of rain, moisture, temperature extremes.

Now according to the information in this article you can consider the advantages and disadvantages of different types of windows. We hope this article will help you to make right decision!

Look more:

You can see a video-review of the wooden house “Mirage”:

You can have a look on 3D-tour of the wooden house «Mirage»:

Wooden house "Mirage" from profiled glued timber 99m2