Home Improvement

Window Types for Homes

Each window type for home has specific features and characteristics. In addition to appearance (from inside and outside), consider their function, whether or not you want to open them and the amount of light they let in. Also think about how you’ll clean and maintain them. 

Double-Hung Windows

Double-hung windows offer a classic look. They have operable upper and lower sashes. Lowering the top sash and raising the lower sash can allow warmer air near the ceiling to move out through the top, while cooler air can flow in through the bottom. Many double-hung windows have sashes that tilt inward, allowing you to clean the exterior surfaces from inside your home. This feature is particularly valuable if the windows are on a second story.

Single-Hung Windows

Single-hung windows look similar to double-hung models, but only the lower sash is operable. As with double-hung windows, some models allow you to pivot the sash inward to clean the exterior.

Sliding Windows

Sliding windows have one or more panels that move horizontally along upper and lower tracks, allowing you to easily open up half of the window for ventilation.

Accent Windows

Accent windows are available in a standard rectangular design or shapes that offer more visual variety, such as an octagon. These windows are usually fixed and don’t allow ventilation.

Glass Block Windows

Glass block windows are constructed from individual blocks sealed together with mortar. The thick, break-resistant glass provides privacy but still allows light into your home. Glass block windows are fixed, but some have a built-in vent you can tilt open. Other models — designed for use in a laundry room — include an outlet for a dryer vent hose.

Basement Hopper Windows

Basement hopper windows are hinged on the bottom and open from the top. They can provide airflow for a basement and are typically placed low on an exterior wall.

Other Types of Windows

Projection windows extend out from the house. A bow window is an assembly of three or more individual units positioned at slight angles — 10 degrees, for example — giving the appearance of a gentle outward arc. Bay windows are similar but fit together at greater angles — 30 or 45 degrees, for example — and project further from the house.

Picture windows are fixed models designed to offer wide, unobstructed views and provide lots of light.

Casement windows are hinged on one end and pivot out for ventilation at the other end. They’re easy to open and provide good air flow.

Awning windows have a top-hinged sash that tilts out from the bottom. The design of an awning window helps keep rain out when the window is open.

Skylights mount in the ceiling and may be fixed or operable. During the day, they function like overhead light fixtures.

Windows and Energy Efficiency

Some windows feature two layers of glass (double-pane) or three layers (triple-plane). Air or argon gas, which has better insulating properties, is sealed between the panes as an insulator. If the unit is properly constructed, condensation shouldn’t occur between the panes, but a drying agent, called a desiccant, may be used between the panes as added protection from condensation.

Low-emissivity (Low-E) glass has a coating that allows light in but blocks much of the heat that contacts it. A Low-E coating can help keep your home cool on a hot day by reducing the exterior heat entering your home. On a cold day, it can keep most of the interior heat from escaping through the glass. Low-E glass also reduces the amount of ultraviolet (UV) light entering the home, helping protect carpets, upholstery and furniture from fading.

The U-value or U-factor of the window indicates the rate at which heat flows through the window and frame and measures overall energy efficiency. A lower U-value means the window will insulate better.

Windows may be labeled as ENERGY STAR® certified for specific zones of the country.

Garden Pests, Vegetables

Diseases in Tomatoes

We’re having a lot of trouble with diseases in tomatoes. Leaves turn brown from the bottom of the plant and move upward.  Is it a blight or a wilt?  We’ve moved the plants and rotated them to a new location in the garden but this hasn’t helped.  So now we’re thinking about creating raised beds. Will that help if these are soil fungi?

These are soil-borne fungi.  They infect plants through rain splash, starting with the lower leaves and working their way up the plant. Creating a raised bed might help as long as you’re using new soil.  But it may not eliminate the problem forever. Pick off any infected leaves as soon as you notice them and dispose of them.  Make sure that there’s good air circulation, avoid over-head watering, and mulch around the plant to reduce rain splash. Use an all purpose garden fungicide to protect the unaffected leaves on a weekly basis.

Early Blight: symptoms appear first on older, mature leaves near the base of the plant–one or two spots per leaf, spots ¼ to ½ inch in diameter; spots have tan centers with concentric rings and yellow halos around the edges, target-shape appearance with defined border; spots enlarge and coalesce. Large portion of leaf becomes a diffuse yellow and may drop. No mold appears. Disease spreads slowly.

early blight on tomatoes
Early Blight

Late Blight: water-soaked spots show first on lower leaves; spots start out pale green diffuse irregular spots on upper side of leaf, usually near the edges of tips of leaves; spots turn brown to purplish-black and velvety with pale green border on underside of leaf; spots appear on young leaves at the top of the plant; spots look water-soaked; no concentric rings or defined border around necrotic spots. In humid, wet conditions, a fuzzy ring of mold around spot appears on the undersides of leaves. Leaves shrivel, turn brown, and die. Disease spreads rapidly.

Late Blight on Tomatoes
Late Blight

Leaf Spot: numerous brown spots appear on the leaves 1/16 to 1/4 inch in diameter; spots are circular with dark brown margins and tan to gray center–a black speck in the center; spots do not have a yellow halo. Disease spreads upwards from oldest to youngest. Leaves turn slightly yellow, then brown, then wither.

Septoria Leaf Blight on Tomatoes
Septoria Leaf Blight
Landscaping

Outdoor Landscape Lighting

Since most outdoor landscape lighting is low voltage, it’s safe and easy enough for any DIYer to install. In fact, the only special tool you’ll need is a wire stripper, however, now many light systems have come out with a quick, screw on coupler.

LED lighting around a pond

To prevent accidental cutting of wiring for ground-level fixtures, install wiring after your landscape has been planted. That way you won’t accidentally chop through it with a shovel. Also, don’t install wiring in digging areas like garden beds, and be sure to bury low-voltage wire at least 6 in. below the surface or use a conduit just under the surface.

LED lighting illuminating on tree

Expect to pay about four times more for an LED bulb, but they use less energy and you’ll get up to 20 years of life from one compared with only two or three years from a halogen.

Options for solar landscape and deck lights have exploded at home centers. And there are some reasons to love them: instant installation, no wiring and no increase in your electric bill. Just don’t expect the same kind of light you’d get with other systems. Solar fixtures typically produce fewer lumens, which means they’re not as bright.

Solar torches in a planter
Solar torches in a planter

You can buy complete ground-level landscape lighting kits at home centers. Kits are convenient and adequate if you only need a few fixtures. But the transformer—sometimes called a power pack—will be too small if you decide to add more fixtures down the road, and style options for fixtures will be much more limited with a kit. For a deck lighting system, plan to buy individual components.

Design layout for lighting

Before you buy anything, make a sketch of your deck or patio on graph paper (or use a program like Sketch-Up) and plan the location for each of your new light fixtures. To get an idea of the effect a fixture will give, pick up a clamp light—the kind with a metal reflector shade—and a few different types of lightbulbs with different brightness’s. Then, when it starts to get dark, try out the clamp light using different bulbs in a few different spots so you can observe their effect. Mark the most desirable locations on your drawing and pay particular attention to lighting areas like stairs and transitions to different levels for safety.