Making Single Glazed Windows Into Double

I'll be honest - this wasn't a job I was looking forward to!
The customer wanted the 5 windows on the exposed face of his property to be changed from single glazed to double. As the windows were hardwood, of good quality and thick enough, we decided that it would be best to increase the size of the rebate (or rabbet for the Americans) where the glass sits so it could take the thicker units.

Working on the wrong side of the heater!

 This is a bit of a dirty job really every step involves dirt and dust! First we had to remove the old glass from the windows, this was done with a combination of chisels, knifes, the multimaster and a hammer! Cleaning up any broken glass before moving on to the next step.

Luckily I had Tim with me to help or it would have seemed a bit of a daunting job on my own as you couldn't rust it for fear of damaging the frames.

Removing all the old putty

Once we'd removed all the glass and cleaned up the old putty from the edges I could set about making the rebate deeper. My new little Bosch router (bought mainly for this job) was ideal as it has such a small base it could get round all the edges without hitting the walls. It was tricky to find a rebate cutter for the router with the right sized bearing to give us the correct width of cut, the ones in the set were either too big or too small but luckily I had a bearing from an old router bit set that was just the right size (shows you should throw nothing out!).

My new little router was ideal for this job - still had to have a steady handso as not to wobble

 Once I routed round each window, three of them having 16 panes of glass (this was a dusty job - I had sawdust everywhere - and I mean everywhere!) it was just a matter of tidying up the corners with a sharp chisel. I had to be careful when routing as a lot of the time the router was just resting on the thin mullion or transom and a wobble would have been really noticeable.

Cleaning up the waste in the corners

I then made some templates for the new glass and boarded up the windows.

A dirty job, but one that will make the house feel a lot warmer on this exposed site when the new glass is fitted.

Changing Glass And Parking Far Far Away...

My wife accuses me of liking "quirky" jobs or locations. Well this one fits the bill. The job is to remove the glass from some windows and then tidy up the frames ready for new glass to be fitted, this is simple enough.

I've left this picture high resolution - see if you can spot how far away I've had to park my van!

The difficulty come in getting to the job. The van has to be parked miles away, you walk up a steep shared drive (with very little parking) then you walk up a muddy track to the house.

The main track leading up to the house

The walk is worth it as the house is in a wonderful spot with views stretching across the Herefordshire countryside, you can watch a storm blow in from miles away right in front of your eyes.

Beautiful views across Herefordshire

I've been to this job a couple of times now (trying to fit it in around my other work) and the glass is coming out slowly. The first two pains I managed to cut the silicone and remove the glass in one piece but the next six a more aggressive approach had to be used. I donned safety glasses, gloves and made sure I had long length sleeves on my shirt before using the last resort way of taking glass out - with a 20oz claw hammer.

Sometimes there's only one way to remove glass from a window...

The customer also wants me to make a two flights of stairs for the house. I've very little time free at the moment (which is good) but I hate to turn work down and these would be interesting as I'd have to assemble them on site due to how far they'd have to be carried. Still there's quite a bit of glass to come out before I need to think about that!

Broken glass - one of the sharpest substances on earth

Anyone else got a long walk to a job?

Making A Window

For the wet room job I've got on at the moment I've got to make small window to replace the current one.

Today I had the day at home to make this and did some "alfresco" joinery between showers. I dimensioned the timber the other day using my little planner thickness so this morning I set about rebating all the stock. This isn't as easy as normal as I have no spindle moulder nor router table so in the end I routed it out using the router handheld, moving the clamps on each pass, and adjusting the depth of cut on each one also - a slow job!

Then using an old kitchen table I found in one of the sheds as a workbench, I set about marking out each joint before fighting my way inside the container to use the mortiser and bandsaw. It was worth the fight though as it saved no end of time, the joints are quite simple mortise and tenon, just with the tenon stepped to account for the rebate. Clamping up on the floor of the container was a little awkward but its made the two frames rock solid. I haven't got enough space to do them both at the same time so they took it in turns!

I had to finish the final mouldings round the outside of the frames by halogen site lights (in light rain) so I could get them finished tonight. The neighbours must wonder who lives next door!

The window is now sat on the dinning room table with the paint drying - I'm not sure who misses my workshop more - me or my wife!

More on this window when I order the glass and get it fitted.

Closing The Gaps On Some Windows

Although I keep being let down with work at the moment what I do have is pretty varied!

Wednesday and Thursday this week I spent trying to close the gaps on some old windows. The windows need replacing really, and the customer understands that, but due to budget (as the house is listed and the windows would not be off the shelf) they decided just to have the gaps closed up a bit to try and save on heating and to make the house a bit more comfortable to live in.

First job was to take out some leaded glass from an old frame, break the frame apart, clean it up and re-glue it back together. I had to be really careful with the glass as its hundreds of years old, really thin and the lead holding it together was pretty weak. Then I had to linseed oil putty the glass back into the frame once it was back in position. My putty work will never win any awards as I don't do much of it, but it looks fine where it is and should last a bit longer now.

I then worked on closing the gaps on the four large windows on the front of the house. Not really a very fun job, sticking strips on and planing them down to fit. But it did mean I worked with hand tools for 2 days straight, mainly my three favorite planes (60 1/2, No.4, No.778)

The gaps are much smaller now and it should make the house less draughty, I even filled and then primed the repairs, ready for the windows to be painted.

A lovely old house to work on (the upstairs even had wide hewn oak floor boards).