Clerestory & Tall Picture Windows in a Vaulted New Build in SWFL

This job is a wood-frame new build in Southwest Florida with a tall vaulted wall in the main living space. The design called for two kinds of glass: a row of three clerestory windows high under the roof framing, and a row of tall white-frame fixed units lower down. Both are installed in these photos, with the framing still open and scaffolding in the room.

The first photo looks straight up. Three tall white-frame windows sit side by side in a plywood-sheathed wall, well above head height, with open trusses and duct runs above them. The labels on the glass read PGT WinGuard, which marks laminated impact glass. Scaffolding is set right against the wall, because a window this high has to be set, plumbed and fastened from a stable platform, not from a ladder.

The second photo is the lower row. Three tall white units sit in rough openings framed with doubled studs and solid headers, and you can see the plywood sheathing and its grade stamp behind the framing. Along the jambs are small black installation clips at regular spacing. On a wood-frame wall, those clips or straps tie the window to the framing at the intervals the product approval lists. Other walls in the room are faced with R-Max Thermasheath foam board, so the glass is going into a well-insulated shell.

Why clerestories? They pull daylight deep into a room without giving up wall space or privacy, and on a south or west wall in Florida they can be placed under the roof overhang so the high sun stays off the glass. Tall fixed units do the same at eye level. Fixed glass also has no sash to seal, so it is usually the most efficient and the best performer on water and air leakage.

High glass in Florida comes with a few rules. Windows higher on a wall, especially near corners, often need a higher design pressure because wind loads go up with height and at the building's edges. The rating on each label must meet the plans. In the wind-borne debris region every unit, even one twenty feet up, needs impact glass or approved protection, and shuttering a clerestory is not practical, which is why impact glass is the usual choice. In a frame wall, flashing is lapped shingle-style, with sill flashing first, then jambs, then head, so water always runs over the layer below it.

If you are planning a vaulted room, ask your installer how they will reach and set the high units safely, what design pressure each one needs at that height, and how they will flash a frame opening against the sheathing. Also ask how the windows will be cleaned. It is a fair question to raise at the design stage.

We install clerestory, picture and impact windows in new construction and additions across Southwest Florida. Call for a free in-home estimate or a plan review.