Hi,
Time to consider painting the windows (waiting till they fall apart to get double glazing).
Is there anything other/better than putty that can be used as "standard stuff" to hold glass panes in place? You can tell how up to date my decorating knowledge is :-)
TIA Charles
There are other 'glazing compounds' but there's no reason to believe they are any better than good old fashioned putty
If you can handle putty (I can't) - and have no crows - carry on. If you can't handle putty or have crows: wooden beading with a line of sealer behind, every time as far as I'm concerned.
Only problem with this and old windows is that the bits of old putty that have not actually fallen off can be a real pane to remove! (Careful with the hammer and chisel!)
S
PS: On the inside of old glass where the black mould tends to collect and water tends to run down and make the wooden rails permanently wet (If its the bathroom say.) After appropriate cleaning and scraping, you can run some painter's friend/mate into the crack. Though take care if it's textured glass as it's quite tedious to wipe the surplus out of some patterns.
S
Bad old fashioned putty. This is much better
Yes, been there myself...
I tried some of that glazing stuff that you use in a sealant gun and it was bloody awful - I can handle sealing round baths etc. and do a neat job, but I really didn't get on with that stuff. Part of the problem was that it was difficult to do neat corners, and our windows are all French- style with 8"x10" panes - so there are a *lot* or corners to do! :-)
In the end I went back to putty, which I found far easier to work with.
It's the painting bit I can't stand, though - I loathe painting at the best of times (I'm not a neat painter) and masking off that many bits of glass for primer and a couple of top-coats takes forever...
cheers
Jules
Linseed putty's the dog's danglies imho. There are modern alternatives but I cant see them lasting as long.
NT
You can't see acrylic lasting? Why ever not? In most locations, and in all but the thickest layers, linseed putty dries out, whereupon it becomes worse than useless, being rock hard and leaving the tiniest of gaps between it and the glass.
Bite the bullet and consider putting double glazing in before Autumn. Your house will be warmer in winter and quieter all the year round. I did my own about 15 to 20 years ago and I am well pleased with the result.
We recently had cavity wall and loft insulation done and the internal temperature doesn't vary anywhere near as much now.
Dave
So much of it still working perfectly after 100 years.
NT
And that which didn't work has long since cracked and fallen out, causing the wholesale replacement of perfectly good Victorian windows.
I once lived in a 30s house where the north facing casement windows were virtually in their original condition, but the south facing ones had almost disintegrated. I don't know how UV resistant acrylic putty is, but it has to be superior to linseed oil. It can be painted next day and doesn't degrade if it isn't overpainted.
UV isnt a big problem, linseed is always overpainted. No putty is perfect of course, but linseed has an impressive record. I'd be surprised if acrylic lasted as well.
NT
snip
wiindows baked by sun suffer from the different thermal expansion/ contraction rates betwixt wood and glass (IMHO)
Cheers JimK
Linseed oil putty seems to win.
When it's cracked get it out (tiresome but worth it), scrape out the rails outside & inside, stanley blade the glass to remove all paint & immigrant moss, use a good preservative, use a good oil based primer, linseed putty again (sausage roll, apply, spatula), leave for a while then 3M blue masking tape the glass & oil based primer & paint over the top. You must have a thin line of paint onto the glass to seal the putty-to-glass interface.
The downside of putty is that it goes hard, does crack behind, but it is rectifiable - if putty is ok even the lowest scrap grade 5 windows seem to last reasonably. Really big firework bangs can blow the putty to glass seal if the putty is a few decades old (you will hear it crack and the glass can be pushed).
The good thing about wood is repairable, the bad thing about DG is the ridiculous payback period. Not uncommon for houses "flipped" to have new DG every time, 4-5 times in 20 years which is a vast sum of money down the drain.
One thing to watch, the putty perpendiculars - if the putty goes there you can get quite severe wood damage; never pressure wash windows as it can lift the putty at the sides which tends to get somewhat neglected.
I'll let you know in 20 years time. Meanwhile, my money's on the acrylic. At least you're not depending on it not curing for longevity
In 20 years you'll know if acrylic reaches a mean life of 100 years plus? Maybe I could borrow your crystal ball some time.
NT
Which is why I still don't understand why anyone wants to faff about with putty when you can simply buy beading of any profile you like and stick it on with modern flexible sealants. You wouldn't dream of using putty round the bath or shower: why ponce about with all it's cracks, fingerprints and algae on the outside of a window? And that awful overlapping border of dirty paint, mildew and putty, you can see when you look out from the inside too! I've rarely seen a puttied window where the levels were the same inside and out, but with bead you just buy it the right size and automatically have a nice straight edge that matches the inside.
SI am with Stuart on this one, I repair sash windows in the course of my work and have been using acrilic putty for about seven years with no complaints from customers. I use Super Dec frame sealent (very cheap), and allthough the technique of applying it takes a bit of practice, (gun on,skim with a wet putty knife, leave to dry overnight, then peal off excess) I find I get superb results and it can be painted next day or even after a few hours if weather is warm. The advantage over wooden beading is you can repair sections of cracked putty with it without having to hack out the whole lot.
Martin
So I expect you've come to the conclusion, as I did, that failed putty is the major cause of rot, certainly in sliding sashes, because the bead is so shallow. It stands a better chance of surviving if there's more of it, as there is on some casement windows. IME the really evil thing about linseed putty is that you don't know whether it has failed until you try to take it out. Often the paint is masking the cracks but allowing moisture to build up in the rebate.
Basically because wooden beading doesn't last long outdoors and, the smaller the profile, the quicker it rots. It's a shame there isn't some kind of plastic/wood hybrid material that could be sawn and overpainted. IIRC there was something around in the early 80s but it obviously didn't catch on.
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