Drywall return for a wood window

12 years ago

I'm beginning to suspect my builder does not know how to manage a drywall wrap return on a window. Wood returns are pretty standard around here, but I hate the wood window trim and it will not suit our "spare" design style of this house. He indicated that a drywall return would be no problem (though he claims there is little call for them due to structural issues). I suspect there was a step left out and now he's hoping to just cover it up.

We have Anderson 400 series windows (picture, awning and double-hung) with a natural wood interior finish. It appears that the house framing was planned for wood returns as they can be shimmed to be properly located. The house framing was not built up on the inside so that the drywall wrap does not line up in where it's supposed to (not even close). Instead, there is a large gap between the interior of the window reveal and the drywall. He's planning to "put in some trim" to cover that, but the gaps between the drywall and the windows are not consistent and I'm concerned about the look.

I don't have a photo right now, but I will post one later today (I'm hoping I can edit this to add photos later…if not then I'll add them to the comment section). I have found plenty of images of drywall wrapped window returns, but I'm having trouble finding close-up images particularly those for windows with wood interiors. Anyone want to help with this?

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Comments (5)

PRO
Chermac Builders Inc
12 years ago
If I picture this right, all he really has to do is shim the reveals so that when the drywall is installed you will have an equal reveal of the window wood all the way around. Sure it's a pain, but it can be done using shim materials of varying thickness. He could also use a j-metal where the drywall meets the wood window frame, then a nice clean bead of caulk would finish it off, and provide a bit of elasticity between the j-metal and wood frame where expansion and contraction could lead to cracking over time.
unruli
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank you Chermac. That was my understanding of what needed to happen. I'm not able to edit my original post, but here is a photo of what the gap looks like (and all the gaps are of course different and some are different from top to bottom). He wasn't happy that his drywaller will need to pull everything out (installed, beaded and first coat of mud), but I'm sure it was originally that he'd forgotten to let his trim carpenter know the returns would be drywall and everyone proceeded as usual.
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PRO
Chermac Builders Inc
12 years ago
Out west we don't install as many wood windows, however, at one time our company was a Certified Pella Contractor (when the program was still operating). We installed THOUSANDS of Pella windows in homes as large as 20,000 square feet. Each was a bit different, but even when we knew they would be trimmed out by a finish carpentry company we set a "head" height for all the windows on a given wall, then centered the windows in the openings so trimming them out, either with moulding, or drywall, would be much easier to do. I think you are right. It looks like they were in a mode of "business as usual" and set the window thinking there would be extension jamb and trim. Now it's just more tedious. That's all. They need to take material of varying thickness and shim out the head, sill, and jambs so that when the drywall is installed you get a symmetrical reveal of the wood window. Pain? For sure! Doable? Absolutely!
heatherf7
11 years ago
Do you have an update? I have the same issue.
unruli
Original Author
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
I'm sorry heather, I didn't see this before.

All of the window areas needed to be shimmed and re-drywalled as Chermac stated, however no j-metal piece was added and our request to add such a piece was not considered. So far everything is pretty good, but expect we'll eventually wind up with trouble along the edge of the windows later on because the metal edge between the drywall and windows was left out. That metal edge would have allowed the edge of the drywall to better slide along the face of the window and would have helped eliminate some of the potential cracking.

We're now a little over a year after the final completion of the build and this is what the same window looks like today......mostly good, though there are a few windows (mostly the larger ones) that are already developing very fine cracks about 1/2" from the window.