The Window Job

01Your Opening, Specifically

brick-inset · no brickmold · the flange question, answered

• What's behind the aluminum: expect 1955 wood bucks between brick and frame — solid ones become the new fastening substrate; rotted ones get sistered with pressure-treated. The old sloped mortar wash under the sill is exactly why old sills leak — the new install gets a real membrane sill pan with a back dam.
• Measuring for the order: measure the masonry opening, not the old frame — three points each direction, use the smallest, deduct ~¼–½" per the manufacturer's sheet. Custom sizes are final-sale; measure twice, have a second person confirm.

02The Install

4–6 hours a window at first, 2–3 in rhythm

1. Contain — poly sheeting, drop cloths, seal the room. 1955 trim is presumed lead; homeowner DIY is exempt from the EPA contractor rules but works lead-safe anyway: wet-mist before cutting, no dry sanding, HEPA cleanup.
2. Remove sashes, then sawzall the aluminum frame into sections and pry each piece inward — never lever against the brick.
3. Strip to masonry/buck, repair or sister the bucks, vacuum the opening.
4. Dry-fit the new unit before anything permanent.
5. Sill pan — self-adhered flexible membrane with a back dam, lapped 4"+ up the jambs.
6. Set on shims, plumb/level/square, and check sash operation before fastening.
7. Anchor through jamb and head into the buck (or Tapcons into masonry), roughly 18" on center per the fastening schedule.
8. Foam the perimeter with low-expansion window-and-door foam — leave the sill line drainable over the pan.
9. Exterior joint: backer rod sized ~25% over the gap, then an MS-hybrid (polyether) sealant tooled to an hourglass, ~2:1 width-to-depth — it bonds brick and vinyl/fiberglass without primer and takes paint. Polyurethane is the traditional runner-up; plain silicone is wrong here.
10. Interior finish — stops, sill, trim after the foam cures.

03What to Buy

material truth first, then the tiers

The brick-pocket material rule: vinyl expands 3–5× more than fiberglass per degree, and in a rigid masonry opening that movement has nowhere to go but the sealant joint — worse with dark frames on south/west sun. Fiberglass moves like the masonry itself; Andersen's Fibrex composite is nearly as stable at a friendlier price. If budget vinyl wins anyway, keep it white.

• The 15-opening math (bay excluded): budget ≈ $4.5–6k · value ≈ $6.75–8.25k · best ≈ $10.5–15k, material-only.
• KC channels worth a call: Advanced Window & Door Distribution (claims 30%+ under retail) and the Pella DIY wholesaler above — a 15-window quote is exactly the order size that gets dealer pricing.
• Skipped on purpose: wood-clad anything (moisture risk in a masonry pocket, pro-install warranty strings), ProVia (dealer-only, install-priced), and builder vinyl in dark colors.

04The Glass

zone 4A honesty

• The working spec: double-pane low-E with argon lands U 0.27–0.30 — the ENERGY STAR North-Central baseline (U≤0.30/SHGC≤0.40). Hitting U≤0.25 means triple-pane or premium packages, and in KC's climate triple's payback runs ~20 years. Verdict: double low-E+argon as the house standard; spend triple only where it buys comfort — the west-sun and street-noise bedrooms.
• Orientation play: lower-SHGC coating (SmartSun-class) on south and west faces, standard low-E on north/east to keep some winter gain. Costs little to specify at order time.

05The Two Specials

the bay · the picture trio

• The bay — decision rule: if the frame, roof, and seatboard are sound (check for water stain on the seatboard and roof deck, give in the knee braces), replace only the insert units within the existing bay frame — roughly $1.2–2.5k instead of the $3.5–8k a full bay costs once cable supports, knee braces, and the roof-to-brick flashing pile in. If the structure is compromised: full replacement, and even a proud DIY crew should contract just the roof-flashing-into-brick portion — it's the one detail on this whole job where an amateur mistake means water in the wall.
• The picture + flankers: order as a factory-mulled 3-lite unit unless the opening is irregular (stiffer than field-mulling, cleaner sightlines; wide spans need reinforced mulls regardless). Check the tempered-glass trigger before ordering: a pane over 9 sqft with its bottom edge under 18" off the floor and a walking surface within 3 ft must be tempered (IRC R308.4.3) — spec it up front, not as a change order. And the handling reality: a ~6×5 sealed unit is a three-person lift with rated suction cups; that's the day the whole carpenter crew comes over.
• Bedroom egress: replacements must not shrink the existing clear opening (IRC replacement provisions). Like-for-like double-hung swaps are normally fine; changing operating styles is where egress quietly breaks — check before ordering anything clever.

06The Plan

sequence + what's still needed

1. First: one small non-bedroom window (bath/utility) to dial in the removal, pan, foam, and sealant rhythm.
2. Middle: the 11 standards, then the picture trio once the crew's in rhythm (that's the full-crew day).
3. Last: the bay — sash-replace if sound, contract the flashing if not.
4. Season note: pairs naturally with the attic project's timeline — envelope work compounds, and the attic still beats windows on $/BTU, so it goes first if both compete for the same month.

Waiting on: the window count confirmation + dimensions (masonry-opening, smallest-of-three per the measuring rule above). With those, this page's budget math turns into an actual order sheet.