Moisture also can penetrate the frame’s lower joints, rusting the nails that hold the joints together or rotting the wood, causing the side jambs to drift apart. Old houses (especially those built on pier-and-beam foundations) have often spent years shifting and settling, so frames are rarely square and snugly fit when Pam exposes them. She replaces damaged stops with standard 1/2 ” by 3⁄4″ window trim from the local lumberyard. Usually these split when Pam takes them out, but she tries to keep them intact if they’re otherwise in perfect condition by using pliers to ease them out once they’re loose. Pam recommends a fine-tip magic marker used in a spot that’s not going to be sanded or painted.) After that, the parting stops can be removed. (It’s a good idea to mark this-and all other components-so you can be sure to put the window back together correctly.
After you’ve created some space, switch to a flat crowbar, again applying gentle force. Gently apply pressure to pry trim away from the wall. Do this carefully, easing nails out and removing screws if you find any. “I start by breaking the seal with the small pointed tip and turning it, eventually getting the whole narrow edge in so I can gently pry that trim apart,” she says. Pam uses a box cutter to cut through any paint and caulk, then begins prying trim from the frame using a 5-in-1 painter’s tool, which she likes because of its narrow dimensions. The trim and interior stops come off first-hopefully intact. Pam begins the window restoration by removing nails and screws and carefully prying off trim and stops.
If you need to access more than just the weights and ropes, removing any trim around the window is your first step. (Note: On some windows, knockout panels are held in place by small screws.) If there’s no knockout panel, you may be able to saw one out using an oscillating multi-tool fitted with a wood-cutting blade. Especially if it’s been painted, you may have to apply a bit of force along the scored lines with a narrow implement (such as the skinny edge of a 5-in-1 painter’s tool or a box cutter) to open it up, but rest assured that it was, indeed, made for this purpose. Look for a horizontal line between stops in a frame to determine if you’ve got a knockout panel to work through. If one exists, though, it’s a handy way to access a sash window’s ropes and weights without removing the trim.
#QUICKSLIDE SASH WINDOWS WINDOWS#
Generally, only higher-end windows have these (many in Fairmount do not). If a window is basically in good shape, needing only to have weights re-hung, Pam looks for a knockout panel (also called a pocket cover), a rectangle scored in the side of the frame that’s typically around 2″ wide and 6″ to 8″ tall-just big enough to pass a weight through. There’s nothing quite like a well-maintained old-house window.Ĩ Steps for Restoring Sash Windows 1. If a window has hung in here that long and it hasn’t been totally abused, it’ll be here another 50, 100 years.” “These are old windows that have been here for 70, 80 years,” she says, “and it’s just a matter of a little bit-well, sometimes a lot-of maintenance to make them perfectly good again. She finds she can fix just about anything, though, if she takes a window all the way down to its frame. In the process, she’s run into “all kinds of weirdness,” like a window someone had taken out and reinstalled upside-down. Today, she’s Fairmount’s go-to guru of window restoration. That turned into a job for Pam, and soon word of her skills got around. Not long thereafter, an acquaintance in Fort Worth’s historic Fairmount neighborhood faced a quandary when she discovered she would need to restore the crumbling old windows in her 1920s Colonial Revival.
In 2005, she returned to her native Texas to be closer to family. “I’m a restorationist at heart,” she says, so she learned to preserve original materials whenever possible. A confident do-it-yourselfer, Pam figured out techniques as she went, taking apart sash and frames, making the necessary repairs, then putting it all back together again. While residing in Massachusetts, Pam learned restoration techniques on the fly, first in an 1875 church she volunteered to help revive, and then in her own home, a 1930s Dutch Colonial in Boston with 22 windows in dire need of repair. Pam Rodriguez didn’t set out to restore old-house windows for a living. Self-taught window restorer Pam Rodriguez works on a home in Fort Worth’s Fairmont Southside Historic District.
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