Historic HomeWorks Forum

[mattswabb]

1 down 79 to go. I started with a garage window since they are still boarded up from before we bought the house and I needed the light in there to do my de-glazing in there. Plus it's 6' off the ground and hard for others to see any mistakes. There are 3 garage windows but I'm only doing 1 now. I need to get to the the ones on the house.

Here's how it looked before


and after




Next up is a small kitchen window.


Then on to the dining room windows

[Hannah]

Wow, what a gorgeous job! I love the cheerful red with the bright white brickmold. Now I'm thinking about doing that--painting my sashes a contrast color. Great work!

[mattswabb]

A few of the houses in my neighborhood have black sashes with a lighter trim. A friend of mine used black cherry on both of his historic houses and it looks really nice.

They paint the entire wood trim and frame the lighter color and the sashes and storms get the dark color.

[rncx]

[johnleeke]

The sash at my 1899 victorian in Portland, Maine, were originally black on the exterior, and I've been using black for the dozen or so I've worked on over the years.

Last year I paint one the same browish red we're using as an exterior trim color, and I really liked the look, even though it's not original.

Now we think we'll try a dark forest green on the sash, which might go better with the dark red on the trip.

Even after 6 years of art school all I can handle is shades of brown or matching an actual historic color. My wife does all the colorist work here and what she comes up with is always a delight.

[mattswabb]

Finished the kitchen window today. The upper sash took me about 3 hours to glaze 10 pieces of glass. My next window has 27. I'll start that next week after I get the kitchen window frame stripped and painted and the window put back together.

[mattswabb]

Just wanted to share my method for securing the window opening while working on the frame. I cut some 1/2" plywood into 1.5" strips and jammed them in the stop groove. I had to thin them down ever so slightly on the table saw to fit. Then screwed my plywood to it. This allows me to work on 99% of the paint while keeping the inside of the house clean and no permanent fasteners to the house. The system is locked in and cannot easily fall out.

Now on to steaming the frame.

[johnleeke]

Excellent detail of using the parting bead groove to hold that extra strip.

A big advantage is that the everything except the interior sash track is exposed for paint removal, including the exterior sash track, which is often gouped up with a lot of paint.

I sometimes make two plywood panels the same size as the sashes for easier handling.

Also, I screw the panels on from the inside, so they are more secure from intrusion by the burglars and bandits.

[mattswabb]

Finished the kitchen window today. It was missing the sash lock so I was putting on a new/salvaged one and realized the lower sahed was never drilled for one. Upon closer inspection I realized that the lower sash was replaced at some time.

I still have to paint the triple track storm and install it. It's missing the screen, I hope I can find someone local to make one.

[johnleeke]

Great looking work.

What did you do for paint prep and coatings on the exterior frame and brick molding?

[mattswabb]

I steamed and scraped to bare wood then a coat of sherwin Williams alkalyd primer. Then a good quality clear caulk against the brick. Then 2 coats of duration acrylic latex.

The inner sash channel was never painted so it was left as is and the upper channel was stripped, stained and then I used a paste wax on it.

Also added spring bronze weatherstrip to both sashes.

[mattswabb]

Got the scaffold ready for the next windows. These frames should be really easy to prep, most of the paint has weathered off already.

[mattswabb]

Did the first of 7 dining room windows today. Took about 4.5 hours to set all the glass, 27 pieces.

While this is skinning over I'll get the frame stripped and painted and the storm back in. I only want to have one window covered in plywood at a time. These windows get all the nice breeze during the day and helps keep the house cool.

[mattswabb]

Another one down

[johnleeke]

That's a pretty steady production rate, which is great for you, but I can't let my wife see this.