Refurbishing windows

[mlvmd]

I live in a 1940s colonial with its original wood windows.  They have storm windows on them so I am less concerned about the energy efficiency of them as I am about the looks.  Years of paint are on the pane dividers and the storm windows themselves aren't doing a lot in terms of attractiveness.  However, I think if we were to replace them with wood it may be prohibitively expensive as we only plan to live here another eight years.

I am trying to avoid replacing them with vinyl because I don't think it would go as well with the feel of the house: heavy, all brick, not a modern bone in its body. I saw in another post someone mentioned refurbishing.  For anyone who has done this, do you remember the approximate cost?  Are they able to replace single pane with double and will they scrape off the old paint?  Thanks!

[Deleted]

Are you handy? We have DIY'd all of ours for very cheap.

ETA: Sorry, I had to run out for a dog walk.  Our DIYing was for weight-and-pulley double-hungs.  Someone here had I think 60s casements with broken glass and ended up having to go to a glass shop because they weren't DIYable.  So if you don't have weight-and-pulley I probably won't be very helpful.

A house painter should be able to scrape and repaint the wood; we have single lights so I haven't had to have that done on tiny muntins, but our exterior painters did our single light sashes as part of our house painting last summer, and they look great.  I actually wouldn't want double panes, even if it was possible (I don't think it is, but someone out there might be doing something I haven't heard of).  A storm on an old wood window gives you about the same efficiency, and the seals on the double panes are a major area of failure.  One of the best thing about old windows is that they can be repaired so darn easily, pretty much forever, and double panes wouldn't be.  You could get laminated glass, but if you have weight and pulley style windows, you would be adding significant weight to your sash, so you have to add tons of weights for them to stay open, which can be difficult to impossible.  Not worth the cost IMO for the minimal energy savings. 

What sort of storms do you have?  We built wood ones ourselves, painting them the same color as the window, so they are prettier than aluminum or vinyl.  We take them down in the summer and put up separate wood screens.  Since we DIY'd I don't have recs or quotes, but maybe get some quotes for nicer storms?  Might not be worth it for a few years though.  ETA2: something like this? www.oldewindowrestorer.com/woodstorms.html, www.woodenstormwindows.net/, www.aamillwork.com/w_scr_win.htm  Just the first results of a Google search.

[mlvmd]

That is a good point about the house painters. I've always done all of the painting and detest doing the mullions. These are double hung weight and pulley windows so I appreciate the insight and the failure of the double panes makes a lot of sense. I think we only have two panes in the whole house that have slight cracks in them so I'm probably better off getting those panes replaced and hiring painters. The current storm windows are ugly painted metal that have this complicated system of glass and screen that inevitably stick and make me never want to open my windows. I think I'd rather pour my money into replacing those with nice wood ones like you described. Thanks.

[Deleted]

I can't quote prices since I built my own storms and screens, but I did see $300-$400 per window on one of those links.  Sort of pricey, but definitely cheaper than new windows. Even if you only did nice looking ones on the front of the house, that might make you happier with the look of everything.  Or maybe you just need some WD40 to make the old ones not stick?

Broken panes are super easy to DIY or you can call out a glazier.  One thing to consider when replacing the broken glass is whether you currently have wavy handblown glass or just plain glass. If you have wavy glass you want to match, it's much harder and new wavy glass is $$$$$$$$$ (but beautiful and part of the reason I pearl clutch when people destroy their windows). I've unsuccessfully attempted to salvage some recently from a salvage yard, but the pieces were just too large and thin and ended up breaking from the tramua of removal. If you have smaller pieces, I think salvage would be more doable. In our remodel area, I just had to go with plain. Lots of our original windows have replacement glass anyway, and I just can't afford a house worth of wavy glass.

Do you have other condition issues like broken cords, rattling, etc.? Those can all be addressed as well, along with thightening up the sashes with brass or bronze spring weatherstripping in the channels for a snugger window.

I don't own this book, but I've read it's really good if you don't want to scrape together info from a million sources like I've done: Working Windows

[Deleted]

Oh, and I need to add this. Grill your painting contractors on old windows and make sure they know what they're doing with them. Then watch them like a hawk. Don't let them paint your sash channels, or you'll end up with your windows painted shut. We have a few companies here that specialize in historic homes, but they charge twice as much. I hired regular guys and gave them clear instructions, which they ignored. I was telecommuting on the windows days and was here to watch them. I practically had to sit on the guy to keep his brush off the channels.

[jloww]

Is this my husband posting behind my back?

We have the exact same situation so thank you for asking - I am bookmarking this!  We will start refurbishing windows one room at a time this summer.  Looks like I need to start saving for wood storms.  The aluminum ones suck.