Window Repair and Wood Stoves

I appreciate the collective experiences and insights on TE, so I'll put this out there and if you have any experiences or "if I had to do it over" stories, I'd be interested in them.

The next phase of improving my little house involves repair of the windows, installing storm windows and screens, and getting my wood/coal stove working for the winter.

Window repair: My house was built in 1939. The windows are original and I'd like to keep them. They are 4-over-1 double-hung sash windows. The four lights are vertical, which I really like. They are mostly in good working order, but some have lost their cords, and two need serious repair because of rotten wood. Do you have any advice on repairing these type of windows? I am NOT interested in hearing about replacement windows.

Screens: Since my windows are double-hung, it would be great to have full screens so that I can open both the top and bottom to allow the hot air out and the cool air in. From my reading, it looks pretty easy to make wood-framed screens. Have any of you ever made them?

Storm Windows: I'm not interested in making these myself, but they would be good to have in the winter, not only for energy efficiency but to protect the original windows from the weather. I'm leaning towards wood-frame storm windows that can be painted to match the exterior trim. Any advice or lessons?

Wood/Coal stove: I have a Petit Godin stove that burns both wood and coal. I need to get it installed, which will involve some chimney work. Anything I should be aware of or ask the installer/repair person about?

Many thanks.

Cord repair is fairly easy, although somewhat tedious. You carefully pry the trim off, open the sash well, and thread in new cord over the pulleys and onto the weights. DH and I did about 10 of the 17 windows in our house when we moved in 5 years ago. We found detailed instructions online, and sash cord can be purchased about just about any hardware store. The hardest part was getting painted trim off without destroying anything.

We're working on the fireplace upgrade (wood-burning insert) now. We've had the furnace flue lined by a chimney company that we found through http://www.csia.org/. We liked them, and will have them back to do the fireplace flue. Be wary of any company that doesn't go on the roof as part of the estimating process. We had a company try to bid based on BTUs of our boiler only :eek: They never looked at the damage inside the chimney or at the first course of bricks. The company we hired noted all of these things and took B&A photos to prove it.

Good luck!

There are epoxy/resin products available to treat small areas of wood rot. Because they are trapped in the window frame, sashs tend to have more extensive rot than these are meant to handle. If it is more than 2-3 inches, or involves a joint, you may have to have the sash rebuilt.

The big thing with older wood windows is getting them properly reglazed, good write-up here. http://www.rd.com/how-to-glaze-singl...icle45866.html If you have a lot of windows, many painters will do this for a fee (and listening to their sales pitch for a full house painting).

Is your house multi-story? If it is, changing full screens for full storms is a major spring and fall project. It also means you have to store all of the out of season storm/screens. That is best done by hanging them vertically, which takes up a lot of space. There is a reason combination storm windows became popular. If you have a single story house with easy access to the windows from outside, and the storage space, you might see if you can find some used storms and screens that fit at an architectural recycler. Then you could go directly to painting them and installing.

Thank you both so much for your insights and suggestions. Becky, that CSIA website is great and I have a couple of chimney folks that I will call. And I might just try to replace the cord and weights myself, being very careful to get the trim off.

Newfsmith, I have a 900 SF house, single story, with 11 windows. I also have plenty of room for storing out of season storms and screens in the basement. I think that most of the windows will be fine with some scraping and repainting. Two will need to be rebuilt, and I'll have a pro do that. I've arranged for a visit by a window person who specializes in historic windows. I think he'll be way over my budget for all of the windows, but I want to know what my options are. He might be able to do the two that need to be rebuilt.

We have several well-stocked architectural salvage places in Richmond full of windows, storm windows and screens. I've been there for other things and have perused the windows, but now that I'm in window-mode, I'll go back for a more serious look-see. Thanks for reminding me!

I had all of my windows repaired. Some needed new cords, two need additional work that will wait until spring. One needed a weight. Done! I don't have storm windows yet. That, too, will have to wait.

My Petit Godin wood stove is hooked up about a month ago and today is my first day actually using it! I tried to light it a few times, but the chimney draw was not good and I got alot of smoke in the house. The reason for this appears to be that it was simply not cold enough outside. Something to do with pressure inside and outside. There's a whole wood stove forum that I consulted and they are very thorough over there. It's certainly cold enough today and it lit right up and has been burning beautifully.

I'm so happy to be using it, and it heats my whole little house. Since I work from home, it's quite practical since I'm home alot. It's such a nice, soft heat, too. And it's a very cute stove!

It's not cute, it's a work of art.

If you've any experience with wood stove heat you know it's very dry. Put a pot of water on top.

It's cold, alright. My window repair is going to involve the stuffing of towels around the windowsills :rolleyes: