Tag: restoring historic windows

House in Bath Street

 

 

 

 

 

This listed house in Frome was a completely different kettle of fish, the window completely through me when I started work on it, the house I was told was some 500 years old but this window had a secret to it that I only discovered when I removed the the center cover strip.

The windows had wooden pulleys but what was unusual was the width of the center mullion but after pulling off the cover strip it turned out that they were two windows mashed together which meant that they never opened on sash cords in this house 

House in York Street

Typical rot job where the bottom rail and part of the sash stiles had gone, the best way to do these windows is board up the openings and take the sashes back to the workshop.

For more info and photo gallery click here

 

I’m bias but wooden joinery may be a pain to maintain but looks 100% better than this, certainly on a cottage anyway

New doors and windows fitted made from idigbo which is very good against rot but you do need to give it two coats of aluminium primer or something like Zinsser cover stain to prevent bleeding coming through, I thin the primer down by 10% to make it flow better but I then give it a second coat, thats not what it says do on the tin but after ringing the technical dept and explaining about the thickness and how horrible it was to use he said it was a good idea with two coats, it also sinks into the timber more rather than sit on top.

Making my self at home under the umbrella

Restoring the chapel doors in Rudge

These doors look pretty terrible and some might think there only good for fire wood, even the client set fire to the right side all though it was by accident whilst having a go at burning off the paint and got distracted by a visitor, he then decided to let me do it.

Thick Paint

All though the door had been stripped at one time they never bothered with the moulding and over it’s 178 years the mouldings disappeared in layers of paint and filler but before I could do this properly I had to take the door apart.

Taking the door apart

I dug out my trusty steamer for the operation and drilled holes into the wedges on the tenons and steamed away it was quite satisfying seeing steam coming out of every nook and cranny. It was then left to brute force with my lump hammer to give quick sudden  jolts to break the joint and away the stiles came.

Once one stile was off it was left for the other side whilst bashing (delicately prising) but needed a different approach,  I managed to get to battens between the partially opened gap which allowed me to make a slightly less than half inch thick hardwood basher and tapped the tenons out. worked a treat.

to be continue to photo gallery here