Living room windows: Part 1

I joked with my colleagues a few weeks ago that I was taking a vacation day to work on one of my hobbies. Here's how the conversation went:

Nate: What did you do this weekend?
Coworker: Not much, took the boat out and fished for a while. How was your vacation?
Nate: It was good. I got to work on one of my hobbies.
Coworker: Sounds fun. What hobbies?
Nate: Windows. 

If you've been following this blog for a while, there are LOTS of posts about windows.

This is yet another one. A special one though...

I finally tackled addressing problems with the living room windows, the "face" of the house. No, I did not get new "replacement" windows for the front or add a pre-fabricated bay window. Those would be too easy and not in keeping with the character we strive to preserve.

My latest project was fourfold:

1. Reglaze the windows as the old glazing was failing.
2. Repair water damage to wood from failing glazing. 
3. Repaint exterior.
4. Improve air sealing by installing weather stripping.

Shameless plug: If you live in an old house with amazing old windows and want to know how to repair and maintain, without haste hurry to John Leeke's website for a copy of Save America's Windows.

I hesitated long on working on this project. I was worried about breaking 90-year-old mouldings, ruining the existing sashes, and generally causing damage. I was careful and shouldn't have worried so much. Everything came out without difficulty!

With sashes removed, I took them to the shop to the handy window easel I made in 2015. Now inside, under bright illumination, I could better appraise the current condition of the sashes.

I recognized earlier the glazing was failing. I didn't know it was this bad. The glazing was held in place only by paint, and only to the sash. There was no connection between the glass and glazing/paint film. Yikes. The glass was loose in the sash. No wonder it was so cold in the living room in the winter (and swampy in the summer)!

Failing glazing. The paint film should lap onto the glass, not creating a channel for water to enter the sash.

Glazing basically fell out when touched in some spots.

I taped off the glass (in case of a break) and then proceeded to chip out the rest of the glazing. I concluded this was the ORIGINAL GLAZING from 1929. After 90 years, it was time for a refresh. The oscillating multi-tool came to the rescue again, as did the wide array of scrapers in my arsenal.

Glazing removed, ready for the next step...

 The southern-most window had the most damage. The glazing failed a long time ago. Particularly at the joints between the stiles and the lower rail, some minor rot and degradation had set in. To consolidate the wood, I drilled holes, applied Abatron's LiquidWood as a consolidant before applying WoodEpox as a filler.

Consolidated and ready for Wood Epox.

WoodEpox applied and looking good, it's now time to turn to the other side...though that's a story for another post!

Next up was to reglaze the windows. I have no pictures of this process. It's messy and I didn't want to ruin my phone. There's a lot of kneading, pushing glazing, and smoothing to get the job done...

Having taken care of steps #1 and #2 from the project list, it was time to step ahead to #4: improve energy efficiency.

I installed bronze weatherstripping in the jamb of both the upper and lower sashes. I also put in new sash cord to replace the 90-year-old cords that were already in there.

Bronze weatherstripping. Fingers crossed that this works!

In the process of all of this work, I found a cracked board just below the access panel for the sash weights. Some glue and after an hour under clamp, all was back to normal.

Clamps: for more than making furniture.

I put everything back together on the inside and got ready to do the outside work of painting and priming. With everything back together inside, it was also time to tidy up the inside too, giving it the same refreshing treatment as the outside.

I'm happy to say that, after installing the sashes, there was less outside air coming in through the front. With the air conditioner on, the front room seemed to stay cooler. All signs point to a successful outcome!

Also, someday, I'll actually get to making furniture instead of spending time on windows.