New Openings, Additions, and Remodels

Putting a window where there was not one is a different trade conversation than replacing a window where there was. You are not ordering a unit to fit a hole; you are making the hole, and the wall you want to cut may be holding something up. That means a header sized for the span and the load above it, bearing at both ends, and somebody who can tell you whether the wall is structural before a saw ever comes out of the truck.

Same story for an addition, a bump-out, a garage conversion, or a basement becoming living space. The window is the last decision rather than the first. We match Wasatch Front homeowners with contractors who work in that order, structure and permit and opening and then glass, because a window salesperson and a remodeler are asking very different questions when they stand in front of the same wall.

Where structure comes before glass

• New openings in existing walls. Cutting into a wall that has been closed since the house was framed. Load path first, header second, window third, and a permit somewhere near the beginning.
• Headers and load-bearing spans. The wider the opening, the more the header carries. Turning a window into a picture window is a structural decision wearing the costume of a design choice.
• Additions and bump-outs. New walls get new openings, which is the easy version, since everything is planned before framing rather than discovered afterward with the drywall already up.
• Garage and basement conversions. Turning storage into living space brings egress, light, and ventilation requirements with it, and the wall you want glass in may be doing more work than it looks like.
• Combining or moving openings. Two small windows becoming one wide unit, or a window sliding sideways to clear a new kitchen layout. Both change framing, siding, drywall, and often electrical.
• Turning a window into a door. The opening goes to the floor, the header changes, and the floor structure joins the conversation. It is a doorway project that happens to include glass.

How a new opening gets built

1. Find out what the wall is doing. Bearing or non-bearing, what sits above it, and where the load travels. This is the question that decides whether your project is simple or genuinely interesting.
2. Design the opening and pull the permit. Size, header, and location go on paper before anything is cut. Building departments across the Wasatch Front want to see it, and the inspector will look at the result.
3. Frame the opening and dry it in. Temporary support where it is needed, header set, opening framed square, then flashed and wrapped so the wall is weather-tight well before the unit arrives.
4. Set the window and rebuild the wall. The unit goes in, then siding or masonry outside, then insulation, drywall, trim, and paint inside. That finish work is usually the longer half of the schedule.

What it costs

This is a framing and finish project with a window in the middle, so the window is rarely the largest line on it. What drives the number: whether the wall is load-bearing and what header the span requires; how large the opening is; what the exterior is made of, since cutting stucco, brick, or stone is a different day than cutting lap siding; what lives inside the wall, meaning wiring, plumbing, and ductwork that has to move; whether interior finish runs through paint or stops at drywall; and what your city requires for permit and inspection. Second-story openings add access on top of all of it.

Questions people ask