I have five of these windows on a porch we're re-doing. The wife wants to keep them. The caulk has turned to stone. Does anyone have a trick to removing this stuff? Tried chipping it out, not going well at all. Tried a heat gun and it helped a bit but I'm afraid of what the heat will do to the glass. The windows are about 5' tall and 4' wide. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Well, all the Jalousie windows I've seen in the past had removable glass. Usually a tab or spring strip holds the glass in place. You could remove the glass and not have to worry about the heat damaging the glass.
Removing the glass strips from the outside is easy enough that it's the way some folks broke into houses. They'd remove the strips, climb through the opening, then replace the strips when they leave.
There's also a product made by Prazi called a Putty Chaser. It's run by an electric drill and designed to remove putty when reglazing windows. Depending on your physical design, it might work for removing caulk. http://www.praziusa.com/puttychaser.html
Gary
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Hey! Aren't you supposed to be working?
I bought one of those putty chasers and it was so useless I returned it. Maybe in the hands of a true craftsman it would be useful. If the putty was soft enough for the tool to remove it then I could remove it better by other means. If it was too hard to remove with reasonable effort by other means then it was too hard for the "CHASER." Maybe there is a happy medium in there somewhere that fits the tool but I didn't have happy medium putty.
I completely reglazed my previous house which was a 1928 Spanish Med style with all putty glazed windows and French doors except one bay window in a newer addition and 4 jalousie windows in the garage converted to workshop.
I have never personally seen jalousies with putty. Are we all on the same sheet of music? Aren't jalousies the typical "Florida" window that is a series of glass slats with a mechanism for opening and closing like blinds? Where is the putty?
If you get a large taping knife and use it as a shield between the heat gun and the window you greatly reduce the chance of breaking the glas while softening the putty. While soft you use the same or smaller putty/taping knife to dislodge the putty. I did break a few panes of glass in my true divided light French doors but on a percentage basis I didn't fare so bad as there were 72 panes of glass and I only broke 2.. I had no single or double hung windows. All were inward opening casement windows with true divided lights, no phony grills... whatever it took to maximize the reglazing work.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
The windows are about 40 years old. They are the type that crank open. There are 5 individual windows in each unit (5 units). They have been puttied from the outside multiple times over the years. The putty is like concrete, I've broken several windows so far. Today I made up a jig for my router and I think I've found a much better way to attack. I'm going to remove as much as possible and re-glaze them to make them look better. Thanks to all for the replys and hopefully I'll be back on my tractor and away from the windows soon. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Ah, Therein lies the understanding of our confusion. I thinik you describe casement windos if the whole window swings open when cranked. If multiple slats of glass rotate like blinds when you crank (most aren't built this way but a few were) you describe jalousie windows.
My old casements had no cranks and would blow around in the wind, sometimes slamming. Mine opened to the inside whereas most open outward.
Be careful of the glaizers points, those little metal darts that secure the glass till the putty is applied. You could launch one of those with the router and as all our mothers used to say, PUT AN EYE OUT!
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Pat,
Are you sure that yours were not in backwards? [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]
You ARE a redneck if... you knew someone whose last words were "Hey y'all, watch this!"
Backwards????? [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Which one of my neighbors are you? I have been known to do some dumb stuff. I'm sure they're in the right way. Found that replacment windows would have been easier.But being a guy I have to see this thru [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] .
Michael, Backwards? With the placement of the stops and the "directionality" of the hinges, the windows could only be installed one way. Now the idea that the windows should open outward and that inward is backwards is not challenged by me. Once the initial installation was made (well ahead of my stewardship) the "sense" of the window was completely and rigorously determined. These were not "stock prehung windows" but were custome made, built ins. (1928)
Given the number of coats of paint I discovered when performing work on the and around the windows, I'd say they had been like that for a long long time. The layers of paint were like a jawbreaker, color on color on color...
Luckily San Diego was a mild climate but even thoiugh a veritable desert, it still got its 13 inches of rain, most years. Think about it. the water runing down the glass had to be turned away from the window otherwise it would run in the crack between the window and the stop at the sill. A moulding was attached horizontally near the bottom of the window to shunt the water over the stop. Worked pretty good unless the direction and velocity of the wind made for a negative pressure differential and water was sucked in through the small gap. Had I designed the windows (and still opted for inward swing for some reason) I would have gone to multiple cam latches for tighter securing force and a gasket to stop the influx of wind driven water.
Alas, I didn't design the "system" and just went with it the best I could.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Pat,
You sure know how to take the fun out of a joke. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
You ARE a redneck if... you knew someone whose last words were "Hey y'all, watch this!"
Michael, One of the soicial shortcoming often shared by scientists and engineers is a certain degree of personality defect in the ability to detect a joke since we are trained to take things literally. I am often out of phase with others in this respect, either seeing humor where none was intended (or appreciated) or not seeing it where it was intended. I do have, I think, quite a sense of humor, just not always like everyone elses.
By the way, I thought my windows were built in backwards and would have been better functioning had they opened outward, albeit that they would have required mechanical restraints to hold them open. At least they would have been better able to shed wind driven water and not interfere with furniture arrangement.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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