Recently purchased a new home that has a bonus room off the back that I'd like to convert to a home theater/man cave. The exterior wall has 4 large windows that I'd like to cover up. Rather than remove them (in case we ever need to convert the room back to a bonus room), my plan was to frame out a new wall in front of them.



My questions are -

1. Besides caulking, is there anything else I need to do to ensure they don't leak or have moisture problems down the road?
2. Should I place insulation in the windows themselves. (between the back of the new wall and the window)
3. Should I cover it with any type of vapor retarder?
4. Anything else I should consider?

Thanks.

 

IMO, you shouldn't semi-permanently cover these windows. Especially as a wall. I would hate for a client to ask me to do that. Would there be any way for you to cover the framing with black cloth, even in several thicknesses, stapled to the outer edges of the trim molding? What you have is beautiful, and would be less than perfect once you tried to remove any make shift wall to keep light out. The windows are tempered, thus expensive. Cover them, even semi permanently, and try to seal them will have detrimental effects on the wood trim and framing.

Certainly others may have different ideas, but I just had to interject mine. I think the room is impeccable.

 

After re-reading my post, I see that I left out that my reasoning for building a new wall is to gain some additional wall space for hanging movie posters and speakers. While thick blackout cloth or another blackout method would certainly solve for any light issues, they won't support hanging anything.

With that being said, what would cause "detrimental effects on the wood trim and framing." That's why I posed the question - how do I prevent any issues?

 

You'll be trapping warm, possibly moist air between your wall and the window panes, and once the sun hits the windows it will create condensation on the living side, and just stay there, rotting the wood in the meantime.

If you absolutely have to do it, allow for ventilation of some sorts. A good stiff, several layered scrim cloth covering could be an ideal background and support method for movie posters.

 

OK. That makes sense. Would it be better to build some sort of "plug" that goes into the window first?