When a double glazed window goes misty inside, is it possible to get a panel of the right size made up, and fit it myself, rather than have a company fit it?
Where would I order the panel from?
Are they easy to fit?
Thanks for any advice or information.
Depends on you. Some people can do it easily, some people are ham-fisted fuckwits. Which are you? After all, the guys that the double- glazing companies employ aren't some kind of superman, hand-picked from millions of applicants, with decades of high-intensity training.
Any local glaziers. All you need is the dimensions.
What're the frames? UPVC? Wood? Steel?
Yes...
A sealed unit manufacturer ;-) (you could also find a DG servicing company and order through them for probably not much more)
Usually, unless they are one of the type that are stuck in with double sided tape - that makes getting the old one out harder.
Generally its a case of prising out the retaining beads, swapping the unit and then replacing the beads.
Can you get them in the narrower gaps used in the 1970s? I have windows like that and one has a tiny crack just starting in a corner and the condensation is just starting. Been very good. Ally frames. Brian
You just cut through the tape from inside. You need to pull the old tape off the frame and use new tape to refit. All the windows glazed from outside should use security tape, there are some that don't. Maybe the installers forget to pull the protective cover off the tape?
Opening units are generally wedged so that the glass supports the frame to keep it square. You need to put the correct size wedges back or the frame will sag under the weight. There is bound to be a youtube video showing howto.
On the ones I am thinking of, the tape is not accessible from the inside
- its bonding the unit into the rebate. You need to take the glazing bars off inside, then work with a fine sharp blade slid down the outside face of the glass into the rebate to break the adhesion.
Yup that way round is common with hardwood framed windows with the glazing bars on the outside.
Yup, same with doors etc. Most glazing unit firms had a bucket of plastic spacers that will let you grab a handful from IME.
My local glazier does down to 14mm thickness (4-6-4). Was talking with a window fitter a couple of weeks ago, and they can be found down to 12mm thickness. These sorts of sizes are really for retrofitting into existing wooden frames. Spacers come in multiples of
2mm sizes, so thicknesses go up in steps of 2mm.Early ally frames work differently than modern ones, and make a waterproof seal between the beading and the glass, to prevent moisture getting into the frame. If they were well fitted, they will have a longer life than units in PVC frames, but fitting required more expertise to do well.
(PVC frames don't try and seal against moisture entry, and use drain holes instead to let the water out. This needs less skill and time to fit.)
Depends if the window is internally or externally beaded.
uPVC started off as externally beaded. Then there were concerns about removing the glass from the outside, and internally beaded windows appeared. Internally beaded windows require much larger uPVC sections, for openers, which lots of people don't like (significantly reduces available glass area to let light in), so then glazing security tape appeared, which allows externally beaded uPVC to be made secure, since you can't remove the glass without access to both sides.
If it's before 2001, then glazing security tape wasn't around, and it wasn't universally used until 2003. Before glazing security tape, a thin secondary beading was used to generate the presssure against the main beading.
You can buy packs of mixed glazing spacers from many outlets. They come in multiple colour-coded thicknesses and they are used for lots of things other than glazing in the building trade.
On Saturday 22 June 2013 21:39 John Rumm wrote in uk.d-i-y:
And don't forget to use bridge packers, not glazing packets as the first one against the frame in each stack.
The bridge packers have moulded rails and allow condensate to run underneath to whatever drain holes exist and also are sometimes a good idea to span any ridges in the frame rebate. This very much depends on the frame type - but as they are a bugger to get (other than by the 1000) it's best to grab some from the friendly glazing firm at the same time.
Glazing packers are available fairly easily from the likes of Toolstation etc in assorted packs of thicknesses.
That's probably some idle fitter using security tape on windows that don't need it. You only need the tape where the crims can pry out the glazing bars and then pull the unit out.
Same solution, just cut the tape from outside.
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