Painting Colonial windows

[csp]

Has anybody got any ideas on painting colonial windows without masking all the panes first. Is there any products on the market that can be placed on the glass first. Or, how do the pros do it?

Thanks

[leeton]

With a brush...sorry mate...couldn't help it.

[Kev Y.]

you can purchase (or used ot be able to ) a product which I *think* was a wax based product. It was in a roll-on applicator and all you did was follow round the edges of the glass, then painted the tmber.

check out your local paint store.

IF that dont help, make up a straight edge or template the size of the glass, place it up against the window and paint around where you want.

failing all of that, go get a good sash brush, your local piant store *should* know what they are and be prepaired to waste time and be bored stupid

below is a sash brush

[Jacksin]

If the panes are splay puttied-in I always like to get a seal of paint along the edge of the putty/glass, and found the only successful way was by free-hand with a good quality brush. Time consuming but with patience a good finish can be obtained.

[silentC]

Agree. You want paint on the glass to cover the edge of the putty. Get a good cutting in brush and you'll be real good at it by the time you've finished a few. You can clean up indiscretions later with a razor blade scraper.

Don't use tape or anything that you paint over and peel off because it will tear the paint unless you pull it off when it's wet. It nearly always bleeds anyway.

[Gumby]

I have to agree. It's a prick of a job but I've found painting it on and scraping it off the best way. Just run a sharp blade around the perimieter first to make a cut in the paint and scrape it off to that line. Masking tape, etc won't give a clean edge.

[ozwinner]

Better change the sig line Gumby, it been and gone.


Al :D

[Gumby]

I know, i was just hanging on to it because it had such a profound effect on my life. :)

Better now ?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I'm a lazy bugger... I hate cutting in, panes are a pain.

So I invented my own method; I mist the panes with water from a household squirt bottle and lay plastic film (ie. glad/cling-wrap type stuff) over it, squeegeeing out any air bubbles. A quick run around the edge with a stanley knife and then I hit 'em with the ol' compressor & spraygun, with a bit of cardboard to prevent overspray on the walls.

When finished I have a cuppa while waiting for the paint to develop a surface seal, usually within 1/2 hour, before removing the plastic film.

End of job. :)

[JDarvall]

I never liked the look of putty in windows. The paint work on it always looks a little ruff. ...... What I think looks far better,,,more 'classy',, is to mitre mouldings in. What I'd do is pick out the old putty, remove the glass, clean it all up, stick the glass back in, pre-paint the mouldings and nail them in. That way you'll get a crisp clean line between the glass and the mouldings, no matter how close you look, rather than a wobbly paint line.

I personally would go even further. I'd remove all the paint. Go back to natural timber. That will look even 'classier'....I mean , 'claaaaaasier'.

[scooter]

I agree with Gumby, scrape paint off glass later.

Tripper, isn't claaaaasier spelt "claaaaarrrrrssssiiieeeerrrrr"? :D :D


Cheers.................Sean, scrapin' by :)

[mic-d]

I have to disagree that the scrape paint off later method is better. I did a bunch of windows/doors like this (6 lights or more) and my comments are that its an annoyance how slow you have to paint to get a neat line (and you still don't) and once you finish painting its not the end of the job, you still have to neaten it up with a razor. Finally its finished and you still don't have a neat line. Then I did another bunch by masking. The masking beat the other hands down in time and appearance. Sure the first windows are a little slower until you get a system for masking. I use selleys blue tape and run it off the putty line and cut it in the corners with a sharp putty knife, then run the knife over it to prevent bleeds. I can now mask a 6 light window in about 10 minutes. Then you can be as care free and quick with the painting as you like. And I don't pull the tape off when the paint is wet, because I want 2-3 coats. When they're done, I have trusty razor in hand and pull the masking tape of carefully as close to flat along the window as possible, this prevents lifting the paint and the razor is there if needed to knick anywhere it might begin to lift. Occasionally there might be a little bleed here and there which is easily cleaned up by a razor. Then its all finished and it looks better than the pros do without masking - nice straight paint lines. Okay, it *may* take a little longer than doing it without tape initially, but the bitterness of a less than perfect job remains long after the extra time taken is forgotten. :)

[echnidna]

Just painted some doors.
I found it very easy
I slopped paint on with a 2 1/2" brush
Swmbo cut in with an artists brush.

[Garves]

I personally would go even further. I'd remove all the paint. Go back to natural timber. That will look even 'classier'....I mean , 'claaaaaasier'.

A friend of mine recently gave me about 15 windows out of an old queenslander that he was renovating. What is the best way to remove the paint and get that natural timber look? Some jerk removed all the original windows and put aluminium windows in my place before I bought it. I plan on replacing the aluminum with these timber windows gradually over the next year or so.

[JDarvall]

A friend of mine recently gave me about 15 windows out of an old queenslander that he was renovating. What is the best way to remove the paint and get that natural timber look? Some jerk removed all the original windows and put aluminium windows in my place before I bought it. I plan on replacing the aluminum with these timber windows gradually over the next year or so.

Yeh, it ant easy. Like stripping old painted doors to bring back the timber. It doesn't look any good, in my opinion, unless you remove ALL the paint. So, it may be easier for you to buy them or make new ones.

You can pay someone to dip them in a stripping solution. But, the results arn't the best, IMO. The solution attacks the wood as well as the paint. I reakon, if you plan to strip, just be patient and just scrap off the paint.

First I'd just pick out all that putty. And remove the glass. Tricky, if you want to keep the origional glass. A razor blades good here to release the glass from the putty in places.

The best tool for scraping, IMO, are those profile scrapers. Their curved on one side, flat on the other. Your sharpen them on a well dressed grinder, to burr the edges. (If its not well dressed the burrs will burn, and blunten very quickly). Like this they will rip paint off very quickly. The technique I use is to run the curved edge heavily accross the wood first. Cause its scraping only a thin area in each pass, it will cut deeply to the wood. (The goal is to remove a little wood as well for best finish).....Do a series of passes with that curved edge an Inch or so apart. Then flip the blade and rip out the paint left between the previous passes with the flat edge. I've tried a lot of ways of removing paint. And I still reakon, you can't beat a basic profile scraper. Quite fast. No chemicals etc.
..........But the new ones arn't much good. There ok, but they wear much faster than the old thicker ones. Can get the old ones from old toolboxes at fleamarkets for just a few dollars.
....Its ideal, to scrape so deeply, that your actually taking off a thin layer of wood with every pass as well. Cause, this way your not actually draggin the blade through the paint. Its the paint that bluntens your scraper quickly.

So, now ya got most of the paint removed. Then I get out a hand plane (not your favourite) and shave away layers of wood to remove the last of the paint. Taking the joints at an angle so you don't tear too much as the grain changes direction.
Then, do some finishing shavings with a fine set plane. Card scrapers are very handy here too.

On the other side to the puttied areas there is usually moulding thats not removeable. This is tricky, cause you gota clean all that paint out by hand, whilst not damaging the profile too much. Have to use sandpaper I'm afraid for this. Carving gouges are good here too.

To get the paint out of the cracks at the joints I usually run a thin kerf saw in the crack to rip out all the paint.

With the glass out, you can consider putting in stained glass or whatever. Make it look nicer maybe.

I make a fit to the window frame. Shave it to fit nicely. Sort out all the hardware fittings. Hinges etc, first. Then make and mitre mouldings to hold the glass in. Stain the frame and the mouldings. When dry fix the glass in with the mouldings. Just nail them in. The point is.....all stain, or paint or whatever your finishing it with is done BEFORE the glass or any hardware is fitted,,,,so you don't have to tip toe around it with a paint brush. Crisp neat lines is what it make it look nice IMO.

You'll end up with clean lines at the glass. Lovely timber, usually. Can come accross anything in old frames from demolitions. Cedar etc. And also, should some kid smash your window with a rock or a cricket ball, cause the mouldings just nailed in, you can easily replace the broken glass, without having to deal with messy putty and paint, by just pulling out the mouldings carefully.

Christ I can rave can't I ...:D