How to Coat a Window (Single Pane)

Tighten upwards drafty quondam windows with new glazing putty

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Time

A total mean solar day

Complexity

Beginner

Price

Less than $20

Introduction

Unmarried pane windows can last for a hundred years or more if properly maintained. Learn how to preserve your windows and continue them typhoon-gratuitous by replacing old glazing putty.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • Acrylic caulk
  • Glazing points
  • Glazing putty (oil or latex)
  • Window drinking glass (if necessary)

On older single-pane windows, the glass is usually surrounded past putty chosen "glazing compound," which holds the drinking glass in place and seals out the weather. This putty oftentimes lasts decades, but over the years it becomes stone-hard, cracks and even falls off the window. Loose or missing compound lets current of air and rain leak in around the glass.

Replacing the putty around one pane of glass will take 15 minutes to an 60 minutes, depending on the size of the pane and the stubbornness of the erstwhile putty. Supercede cleaved glass while you lot're at information technology. This adds merely a few minutes and a few dollars to the job—much cheaper than calling a glass repair service.

Information technology's possible to replace glass and putty with the window in place, just y'all'll save time and get better results if you can remove the window and clamp it down on a flat surface.

If y'all have broken glass, get it out of the style before you remove the old putty. Put on heavy gloves and heart protection, identify a cloth over the broken pane and tap it with a hammer. With the glass thoroughly broken upward, pull the shards out of the frame by paw. Pull out the erstwhile glazing points with pliers. If the old glass is in proficient shape, leave it in identify. Plus, learn how to launder your windows the fastest way with crystal clear, streak-complimentary results.

Project step-by-step (seven)

Step 1

Remove the old window glaze putty

remove window glaze putty

The next step is to get rid of the one-time putty. If the putty is badly cracked, you can pry abroad large chunks quickly with a putty knife.

Putty in good condition takes longer to remove. With a heat gun in one hand and a stiff putty knife in the other, heat the putty to soften it and gouge it out. Wear leather gloves to protect your hands from burns. Proceed the heat gun moving to avert concentrating rut in one spot. Otherwise, the rut volition crack the glass.

If your heat gun doesn't have a heat shield attachment, protect the glass with a fleck of sheet metal. When the putty is removed, prime any bare forest inside the window frame. A shellac-based primer such as BIN is a good choice because it dries in minutes.

Step ii

Old window panes: Replace the glass and putty the window

If y'all need new glass, measure the opening, subtract i/8 in. from your measurements and accept the new glass cut to size at a total-service hardware store. Take a shard of the sometime glass with y'all to match the thickness.

Likewise, purchase a package of glazing points to hold the drinking glass in identify while the new compound hardens. Glazing chemical compound is available in oil-based and latex/acrylic versions.

The latex products, which unremarkably come in a tube, have a longer life expectancy and you don't have to await days earlier painting them equally you lot exercise with oil-based putty. But they often begin to dry earlier you can tool them smooth. If neat, smooth results are important, choose an oil-based putty.

Step iii

Sometime window panes: Set the glass in place

Replace the glass and putty the window

For installation of new glass, the directions on glazing compound may tell you to lay a low-cal bead of the chemical compound inside the frame and then set the glass over it. That works well with soft latex compound. But if you're using stiffer oil-based compound, lay in a low-cal bead of acrylic latex caulk instead. Ready the glass onto the caulk, then wiggle and press down to firmly embed the glass.

Printing glazing points into the wood every 8 in. Let the excess caulk that oozes out under the drinking glass harden and slice it off with a utility knife later.

Stride iv

Old window panes: Spread the compound

spread the compound

Cover the perimeter of the glass with a heavy layer of compound. Be sure to completely fill in the recess; don't leave whatsoever gaps or hollow spots.

Step 5

Former window panes: Smooth the chemical compound

smooth the compound

To complete the job, smooth out the new glazing compound. Dip a putty knife in mineral spirits to lubricate it and smooth out the compound. Moisture the knife again and run over the compound as many times every bit it takes to create a shine surface.

Oil-based putty is easier to work with when it'due south warm. To heat it, set the can in a basin of hot h2o for a few minutes. Call back that oil-based putty remains soft for days, then be conscientious not to touch information technology subsequently smoothing. You'll take to look several days earlier you lot can prime number and paint oil-based putty; check the characterization.

Step vi

Old window panes: Clean the excess

Clean the excess putty

Drag the ridge of excess compound away from the finished joint and scrape it upwardly. Be careful not to touch the smoothed surface.

Step 7

An alternative to putty: Mitered moldings

Mitered Window Moldings

Applying a smooth, perfect bead of window glazing compound is fussy, time-consuming work. So when good looks thing, consider wood moldings rather than putty to hold the glass in place (1/4-in. quarter circular works for most windows).

Set the glass in identify over a light bead of latex caulk. There'southward no need for glazing points. To nail the moldings in place, you tin carefully drive in tiny brads with a hammer or advisedly shoot in brads with a pneumatic brad nailer.

But the safest method is to use a brad pusher. A brad pusher is but a metal tube with a sliding piston inside. Drop a brad in the tube, push hard on the handle, and the piston pushes the brad neatly into the woods—with little danger of breaking the glass. Most hardware stores and habitation centers don't bear brad pushers, but you tin find them at woodworker supply stores or online.

Become a brad pusher on Amazon.