Getting "puttied in" glass out

The problem:

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landlord's idea of "secondary glazing" is to seal a second sheet of glass within a bodged frame he made. The space between is now full of dead spiders, flies etc. We'd like to get the glass out, clean, and replace the glass using some draught excluder instead. But how to get the glass out with cracking it! Can very old putty be warmed or something?

I'm going to answer all the obvious immediate questions! The window is high up so we can't push the glass from the other side, Why won't the landlord do it? The deal is that the place is very cheap, we do any decorating we want, he only gets involved if a boiler explodes or a roof caves in or something. Why don't we just break the glass? It's quite a big bit!

Any help appreciated!

Reply to
Jonathan
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With difficulty. A stanley knife and a metal ruler where the putty meets the frame. A tedious business if the putty is hard but hasn't yet started to crack. You also have to locate the small pins that hold the glass in place, which are not always easy to grip with pliers.

Can

Basically, no

Reply to
Stuart Noble

A hacking knife intended for the job is better than a Stanley knife. You can tap the back of a hacking knife with a hammer to chop off the putty. I'm not sure where to get one though, tools like that tend to get passed down in the family.

Oh hang on, found one:

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Reply to
Steve Firth

A brutish implement much loved by glaziers doing broken windows on council estates within the 20 minutes allotted. Good for cleaning out (and usually butchering) the frame after the glass has been removed, but not ideal if you're trying to salvage the glass.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Youmust have heavy hands, I've used one for glazing for years and so far no frames butchered. It's a lot safer IMO than trying to use a razor-sharp Stanley knife with a blade that can break.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Actually I don't think you guys have looked at the picture properly. The problem is that the glass has been bedded onto putty and a wooden (?) bead used to hold the glass in.

The bead has been removed by the OP and the glass is staying held in place by the bedding. All the solutions you've mentioned so far are for removing the putty on the 'outside' of the glass - and yes most of us have to do that for a broken pane and can then get at the bedding to cut that back, but that's impossible here.

Interesting problem and I don't know a solution. Even accepting a write off and breaking it will be dangerous.

One thought is to get one of those sucker things that are used for large sheets of glass and see if that could be used to pull it away form the bedding one bit at a time.

Rob

Reply to
robgraham

problem:

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> > The landlord's idea of "secondary glazing" is to seal a second sheet

Well, thanks for the answers. I learnt a bit, but there was just so much bedding "glued" to the other side that I think I was on a loser from the start... Still, breaking glass down into smaller bits makes a satisfying noise!

Only problem now is that the frame is so crap half of it came with the rest of the glass :)

Reply to
Jonathan

Solution find another flat whilst you are there,either that or bring in a rent assessment officer.

Reply to
George

Hi Can't you know replace the glass with perspex and drill a 2 inch hole at the bottom and plug it with something then when full of insects remove plug attach vacum cleaner and ............ maybe it will remove the bodies. Al

Reply to
al

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that's a bodge!

Smash the glass. It's quick, you'll end up doing it anyway.

Best tool I have for this is the Multimaster with the scraper blade. If I really wanted to keep the glass, and I had access to the bedded side, then I could get it out in one piece. However it's not quick, even with a Multimaster. Where I don't need the glass, I smash it -- even in customer's houses over their nice clean carpets.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

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