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Old window paint stripping (PIP)
We started with white windows that were painted shut (why, why, WHY would someone paint his own windows shut????). The white paint just made the beautiful trim just disappear.
I took the day off to finish stripping the living room window sashes. I eventually had to resort to Jasco on the sashes, yuck, but tada!!
I need to start taking pics at night. It's hard to see all blown out by the light. The sashes all operate now, just in time for spring/summer, and they all even had all the sash cords, which is a lot better than the others we've redone.
All the hardware was also painted, but boiling it and scrubbing with a wire brush salvaged all of it. Who is lazy enough to paint sash locks? Losers!
Still have to scrub everything, stain to even out the color, finish, re-insert all the stops and parting beads and clean up the panes, but we should be finished by next weekend. Yea!
I have another bay window on the side of the house in the same room, but I just can't face another one right now after 6 weeks of dealing with this one. I think the next project will be building the header for our new bedroom closet.
Re: Old window paint stripping (PIP)
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Haha, you're more than welcome. But you've already seen it all b/c I post so many pics! There wouldn't be any surprises.
***Nestie Bestie w/ TheDeatons***
Really good luck to you! I hope it goes smoothly with no surprises. If you need any book recs or amateur advice along the way, page me! For the windows, even more than baseboards or doors, I really recommend getting a contoured blade scraping set like this. Lifesaver.
Oh but I'm sure it's so much better in person! Plus I want to see your garden. Alas I've only ever driven through your state once so odds are it won't happen.
San Fran is always worth a re-visit!
I just ripped out almost all the inedible backyard landscaping and put in all edible perennials (rhubarb, blueberries, strawberries, kiwi, goji berry, guava, asparagus). I'm not sure it will be the prettiest yard, but I hope it produces well!
Edited to make sense.
Looks great! Could you share how you did it?
Thanks! Seriously, the surprises are what's holding me back from doing anything right now. I painted the dining room and went to take the plate cover off the light switch and the entire box fell out of the wall. Fun stuff, right
***Nestie Bestie w/ TheDeatons***
Sure. I should be better about taking progress pics. These were the last of the old painted sashes, so it was my last opportunity!. I started by stripping the outside trim with a heat gun, set to around 500 degrees and wearing a respirator. Because the trim was previously finished, the paint lifted off easily with a scraper. I followed up with an application of citrus stripper using the contoured blades to scrape off the residue.
To remove the sashes, there is a stop all the way around the inside of the window. I used a flat head screwdriver to remove the stop from one side. I maneuvered the bottom sash out of the channels and removed it from the window. I couldn't remove the sash entirely because someone had nailed the sash cord into the cord channel on the side of the window, and I couldn't get them out, so I stripped it while it was still attached to the window. I used citrus stripper with the contoured scraper (heat gun is a no-go near the glass). On my sashes, I ran into what I think might be milk paint on the bottom layer, so I had to resort to Jasco stripper, which is nasty stuff. I scrapped enough paint off the hardware to be able to remove it, then I boiled it on the stove until I could scrape the paint off.
Once i had the bottom sash done, I pulled it down as far as it would go so I could work on the top freely. I repeated the citrus/Jasco routine on the top sash to remove as much paint as I could. The top sashes were the ones that were painted shut, so I had to go all the way around with my scraper and break the paint seal that was left between the top sash and the parting beads between the sashes. I repeated with the scraper on the outside because ours were painted shut inside and out. Then we jiggled the window and as gently as we could yanked it down, breaking whatever seal was left. Then I removed the parting beads with pliers. These break often and can be tricky to remove (you have to raise and lower the top sash as you remove them). My local Ace sells replacements, but I glued mine back together since they were matching redwood rather than new fir. I haven't put them back in yet, so I may have to replace them in the end if they don't fit back in the channels. Once the beads were out, I finished stripping the top sashes.
I stripped the channels that are visible from the inside as much as I could around the cords. There's still some paint left, but with the stops in place, I don't think it will be too visible.
We haven't yet, but we'll be beeswaxing the channels when we get a chance for easier gliding.
Nice. Sounds like someone did some quality work there, haha. Better that you found and repaired it I suppose. We haven't had too many of those sorts of surprises; just pleasant surprises so far (beautiful woods, old carvings, non-rotted windows). We did have to patch one of the doorways where there had previously been a door installed, but that wasn't too bad. Hopefully you'll only find good things.
Wow, that looks really beautiful.
Even if you don't paint windows shut they become painted shut if they're painted in acrylic and they sit unopened for a while.
Wow, that looks so much better! What a great job you are doing!
I hate painted woodwork. When we were looking for a new house I passed over all the ones that had millwork that had been painted over... I'm not living through stripping again!
Thanks! I think there's a place for painted trim. Old-growth redwood isn't it
I do find the dark wood more difficult to decorate around, just because the white is so blah that it's practically invisible, but it's worth the effort. If we ever buy another bungalow, I think I'd also look for something a little more pristine.
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