Pane by painful pane secondary glazing

[Windy Miller]

I'm hoping to fit secondary glazing (2mm acrylic) to each of the window

in my listed house. Each of my windows has several panes and I am goin to cut the acrylic to fit each individual pane (distance roughly 15mm and fit onto the existing frame-I'm not a fan of those non seale sliding door thingies. The frame surrounding each pane will have a thin strip of wood place round it adjacent to the existing glass and the acrylic pressed agains that. I'm looking for any ideas from those who may have done thi already as to fixing the acrylic in place and also ensuring a goo seal.

The other alternative I am considering is mounting the acrylic "proud to each entire frame (still allowing the windows to open).

Any advice greatly appreciated

-- Windy Miller

[owdman]

What you propose could make a visual mess of the windows as well as being tedious to do. I'd make up the 2ary glazing as separate units, perhaps just one sheet per window, and apply them, with catches, to be removed in summer. Also those non sealed sliding door thingies can be sealed i.e. have brushes or something around the frames. cheers

Jacob

[Chris J Dixon]

One way to do this is by magnetism. You used to (maybe still can) be able to get adhesive steel strips to stick to the window surround, and flexible magnetic strip to stick to the plastic sheet. Offer it up and it leaps into place. Not cheap, but simple and effective.

Chris

[meow2222]

I contemplated doing this once, but what put me off was the expectation of mould and rot. Unless your secondary is airtight, youll get condensation slowly build up on the original glass, causing mould and rot. Bear in mind the secondary will make the primary glass much colder, thus condensation is to be expected.

NT

[Anna Kettle]

I agree with Chris that the magnetic strip technique is effective and inconspicuous especially as the double glazing can be easily removed in summer. My mum has it on her listed building and I plan to have it on mine when I get to that stage. I think that is the technique used by "Storm Windows" which are not cheap, but I once found a link to a much cheaper source of the strip online ... I can probably dig out the details if you are interested

Anna

[Windy Miller]

Thanks all..

Food for thought

-- Windy Miller

[meow2222]

What experience do you have re condensation and mould Anna? I would expect it to be a real problem. One could always test it by doing just one pane on each window first.

NT

[Anna Kettle]

My mum is an retired theatre sister so mould is not allowed anywhere near her windows :) She wipes the window frames clean when she removes the secondary glazing for summer ... but then she would do that anyway even if they looked perfectly clean to mere mortals

I suspect that as the windows are old and rather draughty, one of the main advantages of double glazing is blocking the draughts. The draughtiness would perhaps limit condensation and mould growth

Anna