re-painting French-style windows

[Jules]

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)

[S Viemeister]

I've used a heat gun and shaped scraper for our french windows, then smoothed off with a sanding sponge.

[Jules]

Hmm, that's a good idea - I'll have some scrap metal and could make something which matched the countour pretty easily. Ta! :)

Gives me a good excuse to bugger about making a tool rather than painting, too ;)

(I think technically 'French' just applies to the opening style, does it not; I've never found out if there's a correct name for any windows with multiple panes...)

cheers

Jules

[R]

If you intend re-puttying the glass anyway and can stand them being missing for a few days strip out the panes then take them in for proper stripping at a door strippers. Mostly around £10 ish a door. Cleaned back to bare wood leaving a great surface for a re-prime and paint then putty or sealing in with mastic etc.

[Jules]

Yes, I forgot to mention that - we have outer storm windows for the bad weather (and mozzie screens for the good), so last Summer I was just taking the French-style windows down and temporarily putting the storm windows up whilst I was working on them.

I tried some mastic tube-based stuff and it was horrible to work with (yet I'm happy sealing round baths etc.) - on the window I tried it on, I ended up dumping it and going back to the putty (which takes ages, but I found it possible to get a much neater line with it)

cheers

Jules

[R]

Storm windows!...........Are you "exposed"

[Jules]

I'm in the northern US these days (ex-UK, and I like this group as it's full of some really clueful folk :-)

We can get some pretty big storms around here, and the winters last for

5-6 months and involve temps of 30 below zero - so it's useful to have an extra layer of windows on the house. (Summers are nice, though - it's been up in the 90s the last few days)

cheers

Jules

[tony sayer]

Blimey!, I don't think 90 in the summer is that pleasant, neither is some 30 below;!..

Quite like old temperate England;))..

[Jules]

I don't mind the heat, so long as the humidity's not too bad. I was at a football (as in soccer, not 'rugby with girly padding') tournament this weekend so have been outdoors in all that - so I am feeling a little cooked today.

90's actually a little high for the norm - it's usually somewhere in the 80s (we don't seem to get much of a spring or autumn here; it pretty much just goes from cold winter to warm summer and back).

The cold's interesting - drop below about 15F (-10C) and I can't really tell the difference between that and -30. It's just f*cking cold and not sensible to be out in for long!

I like the consistency here, I think. Proper snowy winters (it's just not winter without snow!) but then long warm summers where outdoors things aren't always getting cancelled due to the crappy weather.

Tornado warnings are a pain in the backside, though - not for the personal risk or inconvenience, but because I hate the thought that I'm doing all this DIY stuff that could easily get wiped out in an instant ;-)

cheers

Jules

[tony sayer]

Jeezz ... where is here in the USofA Jules?..

[Jules]

Middle of Minnesota, more or less. I believe the weather patterns are such that we get a lot of the cold stuff coming down from Canada over winter, which is why the winters are so harsh - but it tends to work the other way in Summer, with warm air coming up from the south and giving us long, hot periods.

Tornado activity's generally much further south, but that doesn't seem to stop the odd stray coming up this way (none so far this year, but we had a few warnings and one touch down about 15 miles away last year)

cheers

Jules

[tony sayer]

Well if you come back to the UK anytime you can leave them there, after all they weren't invented here;)...

[Jules]

I like extreme weather - just not extreme weather that trashes my stuff! :-)

J.

[<me9]

The UK has one of the highest densities of tornados (not the steam train variety) in the world.

[tony sayer]

In article , [e-mail] scribeth thus

Whirlwinds or dust devils not prapper ones;)..

And anyone see her on Sunday nite?, surely the most beautiful mechanical sight ever;))))

[Jules]

That's the 'new' one, isn't it?

I was having this discussion with some folk a few months ago as to whether anyone could even build a steam engine any more (albeit stationary stuff, not locos) simply because a lot of the information from the era (in particular the "tricks of the trade" which would have been handed down by word-of-mouth) has simply vanished.

I'm not convinced that this loco quite counts as proof - weren't all sorts of compromises made in the design and construction both on cost grounds and to overcome various 'red tape' hurdles? (not that I'm in any way saying it isn't a spectacular achievement! :-)

cheers

Jules

[dennis]

All sorts of "short cuts" were made in the original steam engines too. They are still steam engines, as is Tornado.

[Andy Champ]

You might want to pull down the latest "Top Gear" from iPlayer. The race was really a bit silly - all three vehicles were limited by speed limits, not by capabilities - but they matched Tornado, an XK120, and a Vincent Black Shadow from Kings Cross to Edinburgh...

Jeremy was tired and filthy :)

Andy

[dennis]

It was a bit unfair.. it was supposed to be a race as it would have been in the past.. They let the car and bike use the dual carriageways which wouldn't have been there.. but made the train stop to fill with water which it wouldn't have had to do in the past. Also the train would not have had a 75 mph limit on it then.

[tony sayer]

Yep:!..

Well time shave changed of course but shes running on the mainline so;)..