Covering window recess and painting from the inside?

[Kaymo]

Hi,
Probably a typical problem in this country, but I have wooden exterior windows in an old house, and every time I have a spare few hours that I could paint them it is raining and/or dark!

It struck me today that as the wooden parts of the windows including the sills are all on the inside of a stone recess that perhaps I could block the windows somehow and paint them from the inside whether it was raining or not. They are sash and case so one of the windows can come right out and this would make it fairly easy to get to the frames

I thought about possibly cutting a piece of cheap MDF to size, but it would need to be secured, or maybe taping on some plastic film, but its quite windy here and I don't know how long this would last.

Anyone done this before and have any advice, i'm sure I am not the first person to have thought of doing this?

Thanks.

 

[Tigercubrider]

to be honest, I don't understand the question.
ideally you want to paint from otside.

but you could make a large box like structure larger than the window and possibly use a sheet of acrylic sheet as the "base" of the box while having a deep frame. By fixing a bar across the width of the box, and a piece of timber across the window recess in the inside, you could use studding or a ratchet strap to pull the "box" onto the face of the house.

however you then end up with trying to paint the inside of a cupboard like structure with the risk of falling out as the box is more weather protection than a safety thing.

i would wait for good weather. get a ladder. You can buy a cheap tarp and use it to cover the widow to keep out dry between coats.

 

[Kaymo]

Thanks Tigercub, I know it might sound odd but it sash and case so the windows really need to come out anyway so that they are not painted in place so its only the outside frame that needs to be done in situ. Its an old house with thick walls so with something covering the outer edge of the recess there is still about 20cm to the edge of the sill, and it really needs to be done before the winter as it has been neglected by the previous owner and there is a lot of bare wood and peeling paint!

I planned on wearing a harness while painting for just the reason you mentioned.

I could certainly tape a tarp in place, just thought there might be some standard trick of doing this that I hadn't thought of.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Right .

Never done it but a mate did up a house years ago and although the first one was a pain, he took out all his sashes and cleaned them up . You could easily make a plate bigger than the hole, fix some kind of block to the centre, and when you need to, drop a bar across the inside to hold it so that it is weatherproof

Be aware that a harness is no good without a rescue plan and can cause severe injuries if not used correctly

 

[Kaymo]

Thanks.

I'm confident that I know how to use a harness, and wouldn't do any job at height without someone near at hand checking on me.