PERSONALLY, and this is strictly based on our experiences of many years in construction (David built his first house in 1970 at the age of 16... family A-Frame vacation home mostly by himself). It is cheaper to by RV windows out of a wrecked RV than it is to rebuild the house windows. Once you find all the parts needed, you will have spent too much $$ and time. You could have bought top of the line Hehr.
Just exactly what is your problem with RV windows? I am typing this in an RV with RV windows that are over 30 yo. The alternative to RV or house windows would be to go to a sheet of glass (you can order tempered to size... just not cut it) and place a boat "window" (
ports) under it. That was one of our considerations for the Eagle... until I added up everything. Then I bought RV windows out of of a wrecked Winnie for $125 for all the windows in the RV. I saw the wrecked RV sitting beside a business going thru Ramhurst. To give you an idea of the size of Ramhurst... it is just south of Chatsworth (GA) on Hwy 411.. not much more than a couple of gas stations and a traffic light. I'm good at spotting things along the highways and I was passing thru there 2 or 4 times a month between Chattanooga and NC (Hwy 76 had cellphone coverage most of the way except for a couple of miles between Ramhurst and Ellijay, unlike the route Hubby favoured). We left the windows in NC because we didn't have room to bring them out and we also decided we did not want to cut any of the framing on the skoolie. They were all too big for the skoolie except one.
We kept some of the original bus windows and blanked out the rest with metal. What I like is that they can be opened at the top and allow fresh air in even when it rains. They are tempered glass. We kept 9 and I modified one for the shower (cut down in width and replaced glass with double glue chip from Hobby Lobby). I have them grouped in sets of two (one set on each side of the bedroom that incorporates one of the emergency escape windows in each side) a group of 3 (living area) 1 single on the opposite wall next to the fireplace mantle and one single in the bathroom (not counting the one I cut down that sits IN the shower stall).
Why did we reuse the original windows?
-- Cost was the biggest factor.
-- They did not leak except where they had been pulled out and replaced without being caulked in. and even those windows didn't leak except when I put the water hose to them to get some of the dirt off.
-- Only real reason to replace them was to keep the bus from looking like a school bus. Without major modifications, that wasn't going to happen and we are converting on a skinny shoestring.
So I tore them apart (put together with screws), washed everything and started putting back together. I could not get all the frame pieces apart due to rusty screws. So I rebuilt the ones I could. I separated everything out into piles and counted. I did come up with more "whole" windows than we decided we needed (we later dropped from the bedroom from 6 windows down to 4 windows). The rest of the window frames were used to build the "blanks" and I have been using aluminum pieces from the windows to make different things. I may regret doing the triple window in the living area. But the two "doubles" in the bedrooms seems to let in plenty of light with out it being too much. I do not have a window in the galley. I have one in the Class C's galley and it doesn't do much. Too small to let much air or light in. and when it is open, the wind will occasionally blow in and knock stuff over. I also have to close it when I cook because with the stove burners on, it creates a draft and the burners will go out. Besides I always turn on a light when I am doing anything in the galley.
The thing about windows is they seem like a nice idea. But when you live in a RV park where your neighbour is often a couple of feet away from you, you start wishing you had less windows. Windows let in a lot of noise. Plus there are times when you wish you didn't have the view out of your windows. One time, we were in a site that had our kitchen window in line with the big window in the neighbours bathroom. I really didn't care for the view. They never closed the blinds. They were so close that I could have closed the blinds for them (screens got in the way). And they saved money on air freshener. Luckily it soon warmed up to the point I could close up the windows and run the AC. They left after a month or so.
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