Post by mschanandlerbong on May 13, 2013 17:47:17 GMT -5
I live in a cape-cod style house built in 1936 with the original windows. They're 6 pane double hung. Surprisingly some of them still have all their sash cords in working condition. Most are in need of some sort of repair. I'd love to get them to where they are reglazed where needed, cracked panes replaced, and have the sash cords fixed.
I've been searching on Angie's list for window repair, but am not coming up with much. Is there something else I should be searching for, like people who specialize in old windows? It seems like mostly replacement windows, and I would just die if we got rid of our beautiful original windows.
Has anyone had this done to their house and have any ballpark figures of price per window? I figure it's a pretty pricey project with all the labor involved.
Is this something that could be a DIY project? I'm mostly worried about the difficulty of getting the windows out of the frame myself without damaging them, as I don't think that the glazing itself would be too difficult, just time consuming.
Depending on how handy you are, it's absolutely DIY-able. DH and I did all of ours. We pieced our info together from various books and websites, but I've read that Terry Meany's Working Windows is a good bible for this sort of work. I do have one window that I'm scared of tackling myself. It's about 5 feet across and has leaded glass with a tiny crack in one pane. I can do lead work, but it's just so huge that I'm afraid of taking it apart and possibly dropping it or something. I'll probably hire that out eventually; I just haven't gotten to it yet. If any of them just need re-glazing or replacement glass, that can be done in place, depending on whether you can reach them from the outside. You'd have to disassemble for sash cord work. Any specific questions on that I might be able to help.
If you don't want to tackle it yourself and can't find anything on Angie's list specifically for windows, perhaps try to find a good carpenter. He will have all the skills necessary to get the sash cords working (but might not know exactly how to go about it). Or maybe call around to some glass shops and see if they can point you in the right direction. Our house painters were able to do some re-glazing on ours when they painted the exterior, so you might also try that. I'm guessing that in less preservation-minded places there many be few, if any, options so you might have to piece some workers together for different parts of the project?
@bluesky had similar work done in SoCal, so she might be able to give some search terms.
Thank you for saving them! Wood windows are so vulnerable to destruction by homeowners, so I absolutely love it when I see originals. Storm windows are also a good thing to look into if you would like insulation (wood ones will look nicer).
@bluesky you've been leading me on with promises of pictures for almost a year now. That tease pic of the new one was good, but I need some follow-through on the others You're just being cruel.