It's that time of year again :(
We've got lots of wooden French-style windows, some with 6 panes in each side and some with 8 (plus a big one in the lounge that's got 24).
Most of them need repainting. Most of them new putty. Any tips and tricks involved in sorting them out?
I've been just completely stripping them right down (taking all the glass out), then attacking the faces / edges with a sanding disc - but I've not been able to do a lot with the decorative edges alongside the glass; sometimes the years of paint is pretty thick there, and paint stripper seems to do not very much. Will some kind of sand/grit blasting likely do much for them without damaging the wood underneath?
Priming + painting frames both sides with the glass out seems to work well, then putting the glass and new glazing points in, then adding new putty.
Masking off the glass with tape a few weeks later after the putty's cured to prime + paint that seems to take a long time, though - I was wondering if there's any kind of masking film or something else which might speed that step up a bit? My painting's too crap to just do it by eye and steady hand :-) (but at least by painting the frames before the glass goes back in, I'm only having to mask one side)
They'll all get replaced some day with modern windows, but we'd like to keep the same style with multiple panes and those seem to cost major money! :(
cheers
Jules (who *hates* painting anything)