DonaldHWagstaff

What is this? Looks like paid advertising. Who does your PR?

I see maybe what i wrote earlier was a bit unclear and even a bit flip. But windows are crucial and I have seen many tragic efforts at boosting efficiency really trash an otherwise lovely old house so I tend to sympathize with historical commissions even though I have confronted them in practical matters myself.

Anyway I'm facing almost exactly the same problem just now - along with about a hundred other equally pressing matters - in restoring a house although this time not under the constraints of any official oversight. So here is what I have done so far and am really pleased with. I hauled out the top fixed sash and the lowed sliding sash. In the upper one the putty was loose in places but the glass still tight, wood all around sound. The lower sliding sash was in very poor shape- also had L brackets and even some straight brackets next to that. First thing to do was chip out the putty and set the glass pane aside, very nice rippled glass- irreplaceable, not to be compared with the historical glass- sorry, that's my opinion, read David Pye. Luckily the frame was pinned with wooden pegs ( draw-boarded) at the four corners and the center muntin. With the pins punched through I had the five parts in hand. The bottom rail was beyond saving except for what I could split out of it for 6 new pegs. Then I cut the stiles and muntin back well beyond the rot, used a japanese birds mouth scarf to splice on new wood, the moulding or profile was easy enough to extend with a rabbit plane, cut the mortices and made a new bottom rail, pinned it all back together, rubbed in some thinned linseed oil, reset the glass and placed them back in the window frame. But that is not all. I saw in the window frames there, fragments of old hinges, And up in the attic was a shutter, It had been sawn in half and nailed against a wall but it could be fixed. And out in the old chicken coop was another shutter and when I put them in the right window frame they lined up just right with the hinges. And now, every night in the winter and on very cold days I close up the shutters and every morning I open them to let in the sunshine and we won't go into the efficiency of these shutters compared to. let's say other alternatives.

Hi,
It would be good to see your Gransfors collection. It is a dream of mine to build or restore such a place. I remember when I was young these old abandoned cabins were pretty common sights. You going to put out more photos?

Hi, Someone asked before but I,m also curious how you add more photos, or is that a faux pas?

Fix those windows up good but keep them as they are and then check for any indication of whether or not there were ever shutters either outside or inside. Functional shutters not just decorative. That means place then also around the back.