I decided a while ago that the small louvre window in one of the bathrooms at home needed replacing. I’ve had the bits sitting there waiting for an idle moment.
So mid morning Sunday I thought I would bung the new window in. Half hour job I figured.
The old window came out easily – some surprise wood rot in the sill helped with that.
‘Maybe I can dig out the rotten timber and bog it up’, I thought. So I started digging out the rot and realised quickly there was more rot than good timber. ‘Okay, a new sill it is.’
Of course, the side bits (stiles?) were rotten where they sat on the sill.
And the head was a bit shabby on a close inspection.
So out came the frame.
And some of the render, sadly.
Off to the hardware store to get some timber. They weren’t going to mill it on a Sunday to exactly match the existing timber, so I took it home and planed the edges, but there wasn’t much I could do about the thickness – it was 5mm over size.
I sealed all the new timber, knocked up the new frame, and put it in.
Then I patched the render and topcoated the frame.
I put in the new louvre sides, but because the new frame timber was 5mm too wide on each side, the glass blades were too long. And they were laminated. Still, it was worth a try. I dug out a little glass cutting wheel I had years ago when I used to frame my wife’s paintings. It worked! A bit of a jagged edge, but nobody can see it.
The old internal mouldings looked a bit shabby with the new frame, so it was back to the hardware store to pick up a length of moulding. And that had to be cut, sanded and painted.
I should know by now that a half hour job never ends up being a half hour job.
Scott
So mid morning Sunday I thought I would bung the new window in. Half hour job I figured.
The old window came out easily – some surprise wood rot in the sill helped with that.
‘Maybe I can dig out the rotten timber and bog it up’, I thought. So I started digging out the rot and realised quickly there was more rot than good timber. ‘Okay, a new sill it is.’
Of course, the side bits (stiles?) were rotten where they sat on the sill.
And the head was a bit shabby on a close inspection.
So out came the frame.
And some of the render, sadly.
Off to the hardware store to get some timber. They weren’t going to mill it on a Sunday to exactly match the existing timber, so I took it home and planed the edges, but there wasn’t much I could do about the thickness – it was 5mm over size.
I sealed all the new timber, knocked up the new frame, and put it in.
Then I patched the render and topcoated the frame.
I put in the new louvre sides, but because the new frame timber was 5mm too wide on each side, the glass blades were too long. And they were laminated. Still, it was worth a try. I dug out a little glass cutting wheel I had years ago when I used to frame my wife’s paintings. It worked! A bit of a jagged edge, but nobody can see it.
The old internal mouldings looked a bit shabby with the new frame, so it was back to the hardware store to pick up a length of moulding. And that had to be cut, sanded and painted.
I should know by now that a half hour job never ends up being a half hour job.
Scott
. The origional waste pipe was only 40mm 
