Our New Old House

Glazed, of course!

In my last post (A Spa for Window Sashes) I stained the window sashes and prepped them to start putting the glass panes back in. That process is called glazing, hence my stupid donut joke.

But really, glazed donuts are my favorite.

To further prep the wood I applied a 50/50 mix of linseed oil and mineral spirits.

Only mix up as much as you’re going to use at a time. I used an old candy bucket.

Linseed oil something I wasn’t familiar with until recently. But I’ve since learned that it is sort of a natural primer for wood. It helps seal the wood cells and strengthen the surface of the wood a bit. It adds a slightly golden color to raw wood, and once the excess is wiped down and absorbed leaves a nice natural surface. Because it is a natural oil, it may need reapplication on exposed surfaces and is not recommended for use on things like chairs. Sitting on it might let it absorb into clothes.

It’s the ideal product to use on certain parts of a window because it helps create a seal against moisture and allows moving edges of a window to slide against the frame without gumming up like paint would. Additionally, linseed oil is one of the components of glazing putty and it’s the part that helps it oxidize and harden.

I applied a thin coat of linseed oil/mineral spirits to the inside of the sash where the putty would go. I let it soak in for about five minutes and then wiped off the excess that hadn’t been absorbed by the wood. I went ahead and applied it to the whole window sash. It can be primed over again later with oil based sealant and I figured it would help condition the wood in the meantime. (The sash looks uneven and blotchy because I only stained the side that would face inward. The outside is going to be painted with white oil based primer so I didn’t bother staining it.)

Now I have to confess to a part of this process I did against the advice of all the experts I’ve talked to. Everyone I’ve spoken to has said that the Dap 33 brand of glazing compound is no good. (“Dap is crap!” is how Bob Yapp put it at his workshop.) But Dap is inexpensive and easily available. I’m using Dap on my project, but I am doing so with the understanding that 1) my windows will be protected behind very good quality storm windows, and 2) I’m going to take great care to make sure the remaining sealing steps get done really well to make the best seal possible. I’m fully aware that the experts recommend a product by Abatron, and if I had my way, I’d do every last thing according to the experts. This is one of those corners I’m going to have to cut, but hopefully I can do it with a little care so that the results won’t be drastically different from the good stuff.

When I bought my first can of Dap, I opened it up and pulled out a golf ball sized wad of it. Some of the oil had separated out of it, so I started kneading it to reincorporate it. But it was so sticky it soon coated my hands and was impossible to work with. In frustration I scraped off what I could and dunked my hands in a small can of mineral spirits to wash it off.

When I was a kid my dad was a baker. I remembered that when he was showing me how to knead bread that was too sticky, he floured his hands first and worked some of the flour into the dough until it was the right consistency. I read somewhere that plaster dust could be added to glazing compound to make it more workable, so I took a tip from the bakery and dusted my hands and my worktable with some plaster patching compound.

With my hands coated with plaster dust, the glazing compound worked into a soft, malleable ball.

I kept a small cup full of plaster dust handy as I worked and re-dusted my hands any time the glazing got too sticky. It made the whole job so much easier.

The first step in setting the glass back in a window is to lay a nice soft bed for it. To do this I pulled a quarter sized ball of glazing putty, rolled it out into a worm, and smooshed it into the rabbet. (That’s another cool word I learned! The notched out ledge where the glass will rest is called the rabbet.)

On a large single pane window, the glass actually slides into a slot at the top of the sash and then rests on the other three rabbeted sides. To create a good seal and give the glass an evenly cushioned set, I squeezed some putty into the slot where the top of the glass would go. I also took care to squeeze putty firmly into the corner.

Here you can see putty going into the slot and squeezed in along the rabbet.

All the sides of the sash had putty now, so it was time to set the glass in its nice soft bed.

It’s a little hard to see in this next photo, but I put the top edge of the glass into the slot at the top first and pushed it in hard enough to squish some of the putty out and around the edge of the glass. That gave enough clearance to get the bottom of the glass past the edge of the sash.

Here’s the other corner of the top. You can see the glass is snugly in the slot and putty is squishing out around it.

As I set the rest of the glass down gently into the putty I pressed firmly but carefully to get a good seal between the front of the glass and the front of the window. A lot of putty will squish out, but don’t worry, that will get trimmed off later and you can most likely reuse it on the next window.

Now at the glass was evenly set in the bed of putty, it was time to put in the glazing points. You’ll remember from a previous post that glazing points are little metal pieces that hold the glass in place while you’re glazing. They come in two common shapes: triangles, which require a special application gun, and tabbed points, which can be applied using a screwdriver or putty knife. I found both kinds when I was disassembling my windows and I bought the tabbed kind.

With a rocking motion, I wiggled glazing points into the wood about 8 inches apart on the three sides of the window that weren’t the slotted side.

Next I repeated the part where I made a ball of putty, rolled it out into a slightly fatter worm, and smooshed it into the groove around the window. Don’t be afraid of putting too much putty on. It’s better to have too much than too little and the excess will get removed as you use your putty knife like I’m going to show you.

I used a bent knife because it’s easier to get the 45 degree angle that allowed me to put enough pressure on the putty to really get it squeezed in tightly. Once I had a good thick layer of putty on, I pressed my knife into it an inch at a time, squeezing and compacting it into the crevice between the wood and the glass.

The excess putty collected on the back of my knife. I took that off and made a ball of it to continue using it as I went around the rest of the window.

All that pressing with the knife left a bumpy pattern.

So I turned my knife the long way and ran it down the edge at a 45 degree angle to smooth the surface and remove more excess putty.

I carefully removed the line of excess that got squeezed off the edge.

And voila! I had a lovely straight sealed edge. It looks a little messy because I still hadn’t scraped the excess off the other side yet.

I had to smooth the corners down with my fingers. The goal is to make sure there aren’t any cracks or pockets where water can get trapped.

When I was finished with all the sides I stood the window up and scraped the excess putty that got squeezed through the front.

Ta-da! The finished product. Well, at least finished with glazing.

Now to put the finished sashes in a warm dry room and wait a couple of weeks. One way Dap is inferior to other glazing compounds is that it takes a really long time to harden a skin. Since linseed oil is supposed to help it oxidize, I’ll brush a thin layer of it over the glazing. Apparently, it can take four weeks or more to really harden, though I’ve heard of instances where months after glazing, it was still rather soft. Painting over the glazing will slow down the hardening, so I’ll put off that part as long as I can.

I’ll post some more pictures soon of the 5-light sashes. The process is pretty much the same, minus the slot at the top. A bit more time consuming. But now that I’ve got the hang of it, it’s all going much faster. Can’t wait to put these beautiful windows back in the frames!

In my last post (Are your sashes slotted?) I mentioned that I had Shull’s strip the paint off my window sashes in their dunk tank. They did a great job but as with any paint removal project, I had some sanding to do. Here’s how they looked when I got them back:

I sanded them….

And they looked brand new!

It was time to start staining them. With the collection of substances I had to wipe on and wipe off I felt like I was running some kind of window sash spa. Cleaners, moisturizers, colors… maybe I was just wishing I could be at a spa myself. Anyway, I first wiped the sashes down with mineral spirits, then used Pre-Stain wood conditioner. The Pre-Stain is optional, but recommended for softer woods. My windows are some kind of fir or pine, so definitely a soft wood. Then I used the Red Oak color of Minwax wood stain to match my existing woodwork.

Here they are with the Pre-Stain:

Here’s what it looked like mid-staining:

I laid them out on plastic while I waited the 15 minutes for the stain to soak in.

Here are the first sashes stained:

Here are some stained and some not yet stained:

And all six sashes stained:

Next up: Replacing the glass! Check back soon and we’ll get to glazing!

When I left off in my last post (Window Prep Continues) I had removed the glazing putty and taken all the panes of glass out of the sashes to prep them for stripping at Shull’s.

I hope to do a more full-length post about Shull’s, but in case anyone needs to know, here are the basics: Shull’s is a furniture refinishing business in Valley Junction and they are the go-to place for having large things stripped of paint quickly and easily. From what I understand they have a large tank of chemicals and they submerge items to have the paint stripped off. Apparently they can do whole doors, and possibly larger items. Anyway, they had six sashes done for me within a day or so for about $130. For those items you just don’t want to spend the time stripping by hand, or for delicate pieces that need to have the paint soaked free, Shull’s is the place to go. (515) 255-9449

I got them back and my next step would be to cut a slot on each side of the sashes for the weatherstripping to fit into. For that I needed a router with a 5/32″ slotting bit. A Des Moines Rehabbers Club member was kind enough to loan me his plunge router and bit. Now, I LOVE power tools and I’m always excited to get my hands on a new one. This one was particularly fun and I was reluctant to give it back. I may just have to buy myself one someday and find things to use it on.

Here’s what the 5/32″ slotting bit looks like:

We had lots of fun at the Rehabbers Club Meeting demonstrating how to cut the slots for the weatherstripping.

And here are some pictures of how the slot looks. (Remember, the letters I etched in the sides are how I will match the sashes up to their original frames and panes of glass when I put them all back together.)

Don’t make the mistake I made here. In this next photo you can see I clamped the window on the side I had cut. I found out later the clamp had cracked the sash a little. I repaired it and all was well, but I learned my lesson. Only clamp the solid top and bottom. And use a rag so the clamp doesn’t bite into the wood.

I also damaged one of the muntins (that’s the wood between the small panes in an upper sash) when I was removing the glazing so I did a quick glue and clamp to repair that.

Here are my two damaged sashes waiting for the glue to set. The bottle of Citristrip is acting as a weight clamp for one of the sashes.

Now that the sashes were cut and repaired it was time to finish removing the remaining paint and varnish, give them a good sanding, and prepare them to be reglazed. Check back in my next post to see those steps.

I’ve had spring fever bad these past couple of weeks and I decided to start some seedlings early for my vegetable garden. The only place I can do that is in the basement but my basement’s awfully cold. So I built a makeshift heat tent to help hold in some of the heat from a space heater.

I planted seeds for eggplant, brocolli, cauliflower, and tomatoes.

Hopefully with the lights and the space heater they’ll be warm enough to germinate.

I hope in a couple of weeks I’ll see some little green sprouts. Fingers crossed!

If anybody has any tips, I’d love to hear them. I’ve never done this before, so if I’ve missed anything, let me know!

Last month we held our meeting at the Trinity United Methodist Church in the River Bend neighborhood of Des Moines. The building is under major renovation and we got to hear about the project details and tour the building.

I forgot to take a picture of the exterior so here’s one from Google Street View:

Inside the sanctuary the historic pipe organ is being protected while the plaster is repaired around it.

This organ is the oldest of its kind west of the Mississippi.

We toured the sanctuary and learned about the roof repair, the plaster repair, and plans for refinishing the floor and pews. They hired an interior designer to pick out paint colors and local plaster craftsman from the neighborhood are donating their time to patch cracks and prep the surfaces for painting.

We trekked upstairs to check out the balcony and get a better view of the sanctuary.

The huge dome skylight over the sanctuary was once so covered in pigeon debris that it didn’t let any light through. It has been cleaned and restored and with a fresh coat of paint on the trim, the colors really shine.

Plaster workers broke channels into the plaster so that electrical cords could be installed for sconce lights.

We didn’t get to see the lights that would go there but maybe they look similar to the fixtures in the hallway.

In the basement there were bricked up doorways that once led to the alley.

The architectural details in the building are beautiful and they’re doing a good job of preserving them.

The renovation work continues and they’re always looking for volunteers. If you can lend your talents or want to learn a new skill alongside a more experienced craftsman, ask about volunteering at Trinity. They have a work day the third Saturday of every month from 8am-5pm. Call (515) 288-4056 for more details.