How to Glaze a Window (Unmarried Pane)

Tighten upwards drafty former windows with new glazing putty

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Time

A full twenty-four hours

Complication

Beginner

Cost

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 keep them draft-costless past replacing old glazing putty.

Tools Required

Materials Required

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

On older single-pane windows, the glass is usually surrounded by putty chosen "glazing chemical compound," which holds the drinking glass in identify and seals out the weather. This putty often lasts decades, simply over the years it becomes rock-hard, cracks and fifty-fifty falls off the window. Loose or missing chemical compound lets air current and pelting leak in around the glass.

Replacing the putty effectually ane pane of glass will have 15 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the pane and the stubbornness of the old putty. Replace broken glass while y'all're at it. This adds only a few minutes and a few dollars to the job—much cheaper than calling a glass repair service.

It'due south possible to supercede glass and putty with the window in identify, only you'll save time and get ameliorate results if yous can remove the window and clench it down on a apartment surface.

If you take broken glass, get information technology out of the way before you remove the sometime putty. Put on heavy gloves and eye protection, identify a cloth over the broken pane and tap it with a hammer. With the glass thoroughly cleaved up, pull the shards out of the frame by hand. Pull out the onetime glazing points with pliers. If the erstwhile glass is in practiced shape, leave it in place. Plus, acquire how to launder your windows the fastest style with crystal clear, streak-gratis results.

Project step-by-footstep (7)

Step 1

Remove the old window glaze putty

remove window glaze putty

The next step is to become rid of the old putty. If the putty is badly cracked, y'all tin can pry away large chunks quickly with a putty knife.

Putty in good condition takes longer to remove. With a oestrus gun in 1 hand and a stiff putty pocketknife in the other, heat the putty to soften it and gouge information technology out. Vesture leather gloves to protect your hands from burns. Proceed the heat gun moving to avoid concentrating heat in one spot. Otherwise, the estrus will crack the glass.

If your heat gun doesn't accept a oestrus shield attachment, protect the drinking glass with a scrap of canvass metallic. When the putty is removed, prime whatever blank forest inside the window frame. A shellac-based primer such as BIN is a skillful pick because it dries in minutes.

Stride 2

Sometime window panes: Supersede the glass and putty the window

If you need new glass, measure the opening, subtract 1/8 in. from your measurements and have the new glass cut to size at a full-service hardware store. Take a shard of the sometime glass with you to friction match the thickness.

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

The latex products, which unremarkably come up in a tube, take a longer life expectancy and you don't have to wait days earlier painting them equally you do with oil-based putty. But they oft begin to dry before you can tool them shine. If bully, smooth results are important, choose an oil-based putty.

Footstep 3

One-time window panes: Set the glass in place

Replace the glass and putty the window

For installation of new glass, the directions on glazing chemical compound may tell you lot to lay a lite bead of the compound inside the frame and and so set the glass over it. That works well with soft latex chemical compound. But if yous're using stiffer oil-based compound, lay in a lite dewdrop of acrylic latex caulk instead. Prepare the glass onto the caulk, then jerk and press downward to firmly embed the drinking glass.

Printing glazing points into the wood every 8 in. Permit the excess caulk that oozes out nether the glass harden and piece it off with a utility pocketknife later.

Stride four

Quondam window panes: Spread the chemical 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 any gaps or hollow spots.

Pace 5

Old window panes: Smooth the chemical compound

smooth the compound

To complete the job, smoothen out the new glazing compound. Dip a putty pocketknife in mineral spirits to lubricate it and smoothen out the compound. Wet the knife once again and run over the compound as many times as it takes to create a smooth surface.

Oil-based putty is easier to piece of work with when it's warm. To estrus it, set the tin in a bowl of hot h2o for a few minutes. Remember that oil-based putty remains soft for days, and then be careful non to affect it after smoothing. Yous'll accept to wait several days before you lot can prime and paint oil-based putty; check the label.

Step 6

Old window panes: Clean the backlog

Clean the excess putty

Elevate the ridge of excess compound away from the finished articulation and scrape it upwards. Be conscientious not to touch the smoothed surface.

Step 7

An culling 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 matter, consider forest moldings rather than putty to agree the drinking glass in place (ane/iv-in. quarter round works for most windows).

Set the glass in place over a light bead of latex caulk. At that place'southward no need for glazing points. To nail the moldings in identify, you can advisedly drive in tiny brads with a hammer or carefully 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 difficult on the handle, and the piston pushes the brad neatly into the wood—with footling danger of breaking the glass. Virtually hardware stores and home centers don't carry brad pushers, simply you can notice them at woodworker supply stores or online.

Become a brad pusher on Amazon.

Originally Published: Baronial 27, 2019