How to Glaze a Window (Unmarried Pane)

Tighten up drafty old windows with new glazing putty

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Fourth dimension

A full day

Complexity

Beginner

Cost

Less than $20

Introduction

Single pane windows can last for a hundred years or more if properly maintained. Larn how to preserve your windows and keep them draft-gratis by 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 compound," which holds the glass in place and seals out the weather. This putty often lasts decades, but over the years it becomes stone-hard, cracks and even falls off the window. Loose or missing compound lets air current and rain leak in around the glass.

Replacing the putty around i pane of drinking glass will take fifteen minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the pane and the stubbornness of the old putty. Replace broken drinking glass while you're at it. This adds but a few minutes and a few dollars to the job—much cheaper than calling a drinking glass repair service.

It'due south possible to supercede glass and putty with the window in place, but you lot'll save fourth dimension and get better results if you tin remove the window and clench information technology down on a flat surface.

If you have cleaved glass, get it out of the way before you remove the old putty. Put on heavy gloves and eye protection, place a material over the broken pane and tap information technology with a hammer. With the drinking glass thoroughly broken up, pull the shards out of the frame by hand. Pull out the one-time glazing points with pliers. If the one-time glass is in good shape, go out it in place. Plus, learn how to wash your windows the fastest way with crystal clear, streak-gratuitous results.

Project step-by-step (vii)

Step ane

Remove the erstwhile window glaze putty

remove window glaze putty

The next footstep is to become rid of the old putty. If the putty is badly cracked, you can pry away large chunks quickly with a putty knife.

Putty in good status takes longer to remove. With a estrus gun in one hand and a potent putty knife in the other, heat the putty to soften it and gouge it out. Wear leather gloves to protect your hands from burns. Keep the heat gun moving to avoid concentrating heat in one spot. Otherwise, the heat will crack the drinking glass.

If your oestrus gun doesn't accept a oestrus shield zipper, protect the drinking glass with a scrap of sheet metal. When the putty is removed, prime any bare wood within the window frame. A shellac-based primer such equally BIN is a skillful selection because information technology dries in minutes.

Step two

Onetime window panes: Replace the glass and putty the window

If you lot need new glass, measure the opening, decrease one/viii in. from your measurements and have the new drinking glass cut to size at a full-service hardware shop. Take a shard of the old drinking glass with you to match the thickness.

Also, buy a parcel of glazing points to agree the glass in place while the new compound hardens. Glazing compound is available in oil-based and latex/acrylic versions.

The latex products, which normally come in a tube, take a longer life expectancy and you don't take to wait days before painting them as you exercise with oil-based putty. But they often begin to dry earlier you can tool them polish. If peachy, smooth results are important, choose an oil-based putty.

Step 3

Old window panes: Set the glass in place

Replace the glass and putty the window

For installation of new drinking glass, the directions on glazing compound may tell you to lay a calorie-free dewdrop of the compound inside the frame and and then set the glass over information technology. That works well with soft latex chemical compound. Just if yous're using stiffer oil-based chemical compound, lay in a light bead of acrylic latex caulk instead. Set the drinking glass onto the caulk, then wiggle and press downwards to firmly embed the drinking glass.

Printing glazing points into the wood every 8 in. Allow the backlog caulk that oozes out under the glass harden and slice it off with a utility knife after.

Step 4

Old window panes: Spread the compound

spread the compound

Cover the perimeter of the drinking glass with a heavy layer of compound. Be certain to completely make full in the recess; don't go out any gaps or hollow spots.

Step five

One-time window panes: Smooth the compound

smooth the compound

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

Oil-based putty is easier to work with when it's warm. To rut it, ready the tin in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. Remember that oil-based putty remains soft for days, so be careful not to touch it later on smoothing. Y'all'll have to wait several days before you can prime and paint oil-based putty; check the label.

Footstep 6

Old window panes: Clean the backlog

Clean the excess putty

Drag the ridge of excess compound away from the finished joint and scrape information technology up. Be conscientious not to touch the smoothed surface.

Step seven

An alternative to putty: Mitered moldings

Mitered Window Moldings

Applying a smoothen, perfect bead of window glazing compound is fussy, time-consuming piece of work. And so when skillful looks thing, consider wood moldings rather than putty to hold the drinking glass in place (i/4-in. quarter circular works for virtually windows).

Ready the glass in place over a calorie-free bead of latex caulk. There'southward no need for glazing points. To nail the moldings in identify, you lot can advisedly 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 simply a metal tube with a sliding piston inside. Drop a brad in the tube, button difficult on the handle, and the piston pushes the brad neatly into the forest—with little danger of breaking the drinking glass. Almost hardware stores and home centers don't behave brad pushers, just you can observe them at woodworker supply stores or online.

Get a brad pusher on Amazon.

Originally Published: August 27, 2019