Replacing double glazed unit in pvc frame

[Richard]

Hello all. I would greatly appreciate some advice on how to proceed! I have removed the beading but the glass is solid and firmly fixed to the frame. On closer inspection I see that all along the periphery of the inner glass there is a dense black adhesive which appears to be not very low modulus! It is holding the glass unit extremely tight. How does one deal with this situation? Is there a solvent to soften the adhesive or is there some way of breaking the glass/pvc seal? Further, once the glass is removed, how can one remove the remaining adhesive from the main frame, it appears to be about 4 - 5mm thick and about 10mm wide around the whole glass peripheral edge. Any guidance here will be gratefully received... Kind regards... Richard.

[Chris Bacon]

As far as I know, there shouldn't be any glue or sealant in there. The glazing unis is fitted by means ofd various thicknesses of plastic spacer, and the beads retain the thing. Fixings which constrain the unit are known to cause problems (misting).

Are you thinking of keeping the unit, or replacing it?

[Andy Burns]

internal or external?

The double-sided glazing tape would normally be used with [older] externally glazed units.

heat gun (beware damaging the frame) and a stout putty knife?

[The Natural Philosopher]

or possibly use something like a cheesewire - guitar strings are a useful source of thin steel piano wire. Also very useful for winding lightweight springs...

[Richard]

Keeping... I have a quote for the damaged existing unit £24...

[Richard]

External...

Yes... and thanks for that Andy... I'll give it go with the putty knife :-)

[Chris Bacon]

Hm, £24. I am "tight" myself, but that seems a good price, if you destroy the DG unit getting it out. I'd perhaps (depending on how tough the glue is) have a go at it with a Stanley or similar, maybe with some sort of lubricant, if I wanted to keep the DG unit. As others say, it might be worth warming it up, bit if it's glue, I can't see a good result.

As for solvents, slice a bit of the black stuff off, and see if it's affected by petrol, nail varnish remover, meths or WHY that does not attack PVC too quickly.

[jkn]

I had to do something very like this on one of our kitchen windows last year. The window was not locking at one end, and the locking rod was fouling at the other. Basically the window frame had sagged over the years.

IIRC I got the glazing unit out (without damage) with a combination of a putty knife, stanley knife, and some solvent (IPA or meths probably).

I then spent a fair bit of time cleaning up the glazing unit and frame, with IPA or meths again. I bought some replacement double-sided adhesive foam tape, specified for this purpose, from eBay. I already had some packing pieces from another job, but these are again bought cheaply.

You only get one change to refit the unit with the foam tape, so I was very careful! I practiced offering the unit up to the frame with the outer adhesive-protecting sheet still on the tape, and I made very sure that I got the main packing pieces in place beforehand. After the DG unit was in place I 'heel and toed' it.

Youtube Videos are around for most of this. It was quite nerve racking work but ended up going well, and I am quite pleased with the result.

I'd be amazed if you could get that done for £24 (does that include replacing the DG unit?).

HTH J^n

[Richard]

Dear J^n thanks for the advice it has given me a way forward and the old damaged unit is now loosened... so tomorrow I will attempt to move forward with caution... Many thanks... Richard.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Are we sure this is in fact not part of the DG unit, I seem to recall seeing something that looked like old fashioned pitch around units before they were fitted back some 15 years back now. Brian