Sash window repairs - old owners painted them shut

[Smurfin]

Hi all

We've just bought an old Edwardian, double fronted house, and I have a couple of questions regarding sash windows.

Firstly, the front of the house doesn't currently look quite right - it's a dark brick, and the window sills are in bad decorative repair, with lots of flaking black paint Added to this, the windows themselves are wood which have previously been varnished, but they are looking tired and need re-doing.

Am I right in thinking that the general look of these should be white, with white external sills? I feel that the house needs to be "brought up" a bit, and white windows will tie in nicely with the white timber porch.

Secondly, given their state of natural (if tired) wood currently, how much could I expect to pay to get them rubbed down and painted? There are two bay windows, and 5 other sash windows of average size (1 bay and 3 normal sashes at 1st floor level)?

The other issue is that the 1st floor bay window is single glazed and has been painted shut by the previous owners, plus it has a broken cord

I had Everest in over the weekend and they quoted £8000 for a new window as well as another smaller window on the ground floor. Ridiculous imho, but it's got me wondering how feasible it would be to get the 1st floor window stripped, repaired and double glazed. Any ideas? And would I be looking at a specialist to do this?

Any advice would be appreciated

Cheers
Matt

 

[dextrous]

No, you don't need a specialist, although there are some who come along with their workshop in the back of a lorry, who wiss dimsmantle and renovate sash windows if you want to go down this line.

It all depends on how much you want to do yourself really. If not much, then a half decent decorator with nouse should be able to get the windows stripped, painted and up and running. Noone on here could give you an accurate estimate without seeing the job and what it entails.

Removing sash windows isn't difficult, nor is stripping paint, nor is sanding, nor is painting if you take your time and use reasonable brushes.

 

[Smurfin]

Thanks for the reply I've never come across sash windows before so no idea how easy they are to take out of the frame.

I assume they need to be dismantled for painting? Just thinking that with how long gloss takes to dry, I'll end up with no window overnight, which on the ground floor will certainly be a problem! Or am I being stupid?

 

[dextrous]

They don't usually need dismantling for painting, but will need dismantling for repair, stripping and renovation, especially if they have been painted shut and you want them to run smoothly afterwards. To do this, the bead on the inside edge which holds the lower window in place can be prized out with a chisel as it's only held in place with a few nails. If it snaps, no problem, getting another strip of timber which will be close enough is easy from any DIY store. The window will then swing inwards, after you've managed to break the paint seal. Cut the cord - this will need replacing anyway due to its age.

Next, prize out the central bead (which is held within a groove - again a suitable replacement can be easily found) and pull the top window inwards.

On both sides of the main case there will be access panels which will enable you to get to the cast iron weights. You can buy replacement cords easily and use the existing cut ones to measure from and cut to length.

Then, it's a case of stripping the window and the frame, repairing, and you can paint them at this point etc etc. The opening itself can be boarded up from the inside (get B&Q to cut the sheet to size) for a few days for security (it'll be more secure than the glass window already there).

First time I did one of these, I was scaaared - but it really is ridiculously simple once you've taken it apart and seen how the things are put together. I made it even harder for myself by replacing the glass with laminate for security and adjusting the iron weights due to the increase in weight caused by the new glass.