Historic HomeWorks Forum

[Mike-in-Maine]

UPDATE 4-10-2010

It's been a marathon weekend of "catch-up" with my current window project.

After posting my initial (somewhat negative) comments on using steam... i've been trying and trying again (you know, the old saying? i live by it)...

Here are my conclusions and technique notes after 4 days...

TIME:
Hand steaming. I'm deglazing these crazy 6-lite sashes (6-over-6 double hung) which are VERY time consuming..... (so many panes and so much putty!) i've managed to deglaze one sash in 1-hour, but consider that a fluke... it takes about 1½ hours to complete one of these sashes on average (thats 15 minutes per lite to have it 100% cleaned out). This includes some exterior-side paint removal also, so true per-lite time is actually a bit less.. I think doing a 2-over-1 sash pair would be much much faster....

STEPS:
My miserable failure the first 2 nights were due to excessive moisture by the time i attempted to remove paint. I was trying to do too much at once. I believe ive figured out the problem and the solution. You have one shot to get the paint off and if you dont, you'll likely end up with too much water absorbed into the wood and any further attempt at paint removal will fail and result in scruffing and stringing and general discontent, expletives, fits of hopelessness, etc, etc. (you'd then have to let the sash dry out before trying again)

What I do now... first things first, I attack the glazing... that all i focus on. I dont touch the paint, leave it intact... if it bubbles up i leave it. I dont want water getting into the wood at this point. Ive managed to refine my head and technique and do not lose much glass now as a direct result of the steam. my latest losses were primarily glass that was already cracked, (corners broken already) and a couple of crackes due to haste and a tool)... no direct steam "TIC!" incidents since day 2.

After the glazing is all out and the beds are completely cleared, I begin steaming the exterior sash faces. Use enough time and move along methodically section by section and it works like John's video... I have yet to try the interior side though... Im leery... but we'll see.

CONCLUSIONS:
It works, but a few points... You definately have to develop a technique... you have to get a feel for the method and the material... the paint and wood will determine the technique... Ive got a batch of windows that demand my time and attention and this makes things much more time consuming that the simpler window designs ive done previously.

If I start to get the scruffies and the stringies, i STOP immediately, the wood must dry out, or another method be used.

I believe a steam box would greatly improve the time on these, but id be curious to know how long others are taking to deglaze a 6-lite sash using box or hand steaming....

[Jodi @ CCS Restoration]

We use a professional grade steam cabinet and leave the sashes in for about 1 hour. It takes less than 10 minutes to de-glaze a 6 or 8 lite sash. It takes another 10 minutes to get the vast majority of the paint off the flat surfaces. The interior profiles give us fits!

[johnleeke]

Jodi, welcome to the Forum!

[woodturner]

[johnleeke]

The steam generator is the Jiffy 4000. Steam is steam, and other steam generators may work well, such as a wallpaper steamer. The difference between thirty seconds and two minutes is that every old paint buildup is different, and responds differently to the stream. The initial temperature of the paint, the surrounding air temperature and even barometric pressure can play a more or less significant part in how long to takes the steam to soften the paint and how long the paint will stay soft during scraping. Also the altitude above sea level play a part since water boils and makes the steam at a lower temperature at higher altitudes. The difference between steam paint removal at sea level here in Portland is noticeably different in mile-high Denver.

[Uchmar]

I tried steam paint removal, and it failed. Reason is quite simple, steam generator I used is not fit for the job.

Many steam generators tend to produce steam at 3+ bar. These units are intended for cleaning, powering steam irons etc. Power of the unit is not relevant (my unit is 1800W), it is the way how the generator works.

Steam generator you use is for clothing maintenance, and it seems that these seam generators use low(er) pressure. Unfortunately I was not able to find something similar here and in surrounding markets.

[johnleeke]

That's right. This method uses steam generators that operate at atmospheric pressure, that is the steam is produced just like a pot boiling water on the stove. Presurized steam blasting out of the nozzle does not work so well because the steam is mixed with air and cooled off by the time it touches the paint surface.