Best Way to Add Shutters to a House

So what if yous want to crank upward the Bob Seger, slip on the dark sunglasses, turn up your collar, and slide across the living room floor in zippo simply your underpants and oxford shirt? Go right ahead—what you do in the privacy of your own home is, frankly, nobody'due south beeswax. Simply do the neighbors a favor and shutter the windows.

Functional exterior shutters, which swing shut when you need them to, volition exercise the job quite nicely. As This Sometime Firm technical editor Mark Powers shows on the following pages, you could put several pairs up in a weekend. Then, aside from privacy from prying eyes, yous'll also go relief from the summertime estrus, a barrier against storm winds, and a sure defense confronting arrow attacks (if you lot're a 17-century colonist, that is).

The bonus: Studded with hammered-iron hardware and a bright coat of paint, shutters will wearing apparel upward the forepart of your firm and add to its curb appeal. Which, we're guessing, is a better way to concenter attention to your house than your half-dressed homage to Tom Cruise.

Footstep 1

Hanging Exterior Shutters over

Analogy past Gregory Nemec

Functional exterior shutters attach to the trim around the window (the casing) and swing into the window opening, resting flush with the casing when closed and latched. When open, the shutters stand proud of the house, held in place by a pivoting metal tieback (also called a shutter dog), a hook, or a grab.

Provided with measurements, companies will custom-make shutters to fit your window openings. Taking the measurement is a critical first step - at that place should only be a 1/4-inch gap on all sides of the shutters when they're closed, leaving little margin for error. Positioning the shutters so they sit this style is where nearly homeowners run into difficulty, says This Old House general contractor Tom Silva. "Shutters are meant to fit inside the casing," he explains. "Many people think they're supposed to hang exterior the casing, but that would make it impossible to close them properly."

Give yourself a day to go the shutters painted and the windows prepped. Between coats, count the hardware pieces to make sure you lot have plenty of everything for each window. Remove any old shutters on the windows, expecting that you'll need to touch up some paint, fill up with caulk, or merely clean out the cobwebs and dead bugs y'all'll find dorsum there. You will also demand to remove storm windows if you want the shutters to operate.

With everything prepped and prepare, the biggest challenge you face is positioning the hinges so the shutters swing straight and close smoothly. This may accept some trial and error on the first pair, but the work gets easier once you get the hang of it.

Pace 2

Paint or finish the shutters

Photo by Kolin Smith

Pigment or stain and end the shutters before installing them.

When painting paneled shutters, use a small roller to coat the panels first, then tip off the pigment with a brush. Next use a brush to paint the horizontal track, then the vertical stiles, with long, feathered strokes.

When painting shutters with movable louvers, make sure to open up and shut the louvers later you paint them to keep them from sticking.

Always paint all six sides of the shutters—including the top and bottom edges—to protect them against wet infiltration.

Step three

Shim the shutters in place

Photo past Kolin Smith

Place one shutter in the window opening. Have a helper agree it as you lot shim it tight at the summit and bottom. Position the other shutter the same way.

In one case both shutters are firmly in the window casing, carefully reposition them and then they're centered and surrounded by a ¼-inch gap on all sides. Shim them all around

TIP: A shutter'due south wider rail always goes at the bottom. On paneled shutters, the simpler panels should face out when the shutters are airtight. On louvered shutters, the louver openings should face down when the shutters are closed.

Stride four

Install the upper hinge pintles

Photograph by Kolin Smith

Hook the two parts of a hinge together and position them at the top of one shutter. Eye the strap on the top track and the pintle (peg) on the casing. Using a level, check that the pintle is plumb. Mark the locations of the screw holes for both the strap and the pintle on the shutter and casing.

Set aside the strap. Using a drill/driver fitted with a drill bit sized for your hardware's screws, drill pilot holes at the marks for the pintle. Screw the pintle to the casing. Repeat this footstep for the other upper pintle.

Step v

Install the lower swivel pintles

Photo by Kolin Smith

Using a level, describe a plumb line downwards the casement from the summit pintle to the approximate location of the lower hinge. Use this every bit a reference for positioning and marking for the lower hinge, centered on the lesser rail, in the same mode every bit above. Screw the 2 lower pintles to the casing.

NOTE: This process works for the strap hinges shown here. Check the manufacturer's literature for instructions for other hinges.

Step vi

Spike the hinges to the shutter

Photo by Kolin Smith

Remove the shutters from the window opening and identify them on sawhorses. Using a drill/driver, bore pilot holes at your marks through the strap on the peak and lesser rails. Screw the strap hinges into position with the screws provided.

While you have the shutters on sawhorses, position and fasten 1 pull and the commodities for the latch to i of the shutters. Place them merely below the center of the shutter, where they tin exist reached through an open window (see photograph at Step 8).

Hang the shutters in place. Make sure they swing comfortably and close all the fashion.

TIP: To keep your drill fleck from going all the mode through the shutters, wrap a piece of tape several times around the bit at the depth of your screw so y'all know when to stop.

Step 7

Mount the shutter dogs

Photo by Kolin Smith

Assemble the shutter canis familiaris and the lag commodities that holds it away from the firm. Open the shutters all the fashion. Position the dog on the siding under the shutter, 4 inches in from the shutter's outer edge and 1 inch beneath the bottom edge. Holding the bolt upwardly against the house, check that information technology has plenty contact with the shutter to hold information technology open. And so spin it sideways and check that the shutter can clear it to swing closed.

Once you're satisfied with the dog's position, mark the bolt's location. Drill a pilot hole at the mark. Using a wrench, twist the bolt into the siding. Repeat the procedure for the other domestic dog.

Step eight

Attach the locking hardware

Photo past Kolin Smith

Close the shutters and move to the inside of the window. With a helper belongings the shutters closed, position the other pull in line with the one you attached above. Mark the screw holes, drill airplane pilot holes, and adhere the pull.

Position the latch in line with the bolt and the pull beneath it. Slide the commodities into the latch to make sure the shutters volition lock properly when airtight. Mark the spiral holes, drill airplane pilot holes, and attach the latch.

Footstep 9

Attach the copper capping

Photograph by Kolin Smith

Squeeze a dewdrop of silicone adhesive on the underside of the copper capping and slide it over the top border of the shutter

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/windows/21016464/how-to-hang-exterior-shutters