Weatherstripping Double Hung Windows in 9 Steps

When Kevin O’Connor, the host of This Outdated Home, renovated his 1894 Queen Anne, he by no means as soon as thought of changing its authentic double-hung home windows with fashionable ones. “It could kill me to place new home windows on this home,” he says. For one factor, the handcrafted sash and blown-glass panes could be expensive to switch—as a lot as $1,000 apiece—and substituting something much less would destroy a lot of the previous place’s attraction. Nonetheless, he was dismayed by how a lot air leaked in throughout the winter, even with outdoors storm home windows in place.

How Can I Make My Double Hung Home windows Extra Environment friendly?

To repair the issue, he wanted a product that was each efficient and unobtrusive. “I didn’t need something that may change the best way the previous home windows look,” he says. The answer: a easy weatherstripping package that makes use of the identical sorts of seal present in fashionable home windows and is virtually invisible.

For about $80 and an hour’s set up time per window, Kevin bought the leak-free efficiency of a brand new unit whereas saving a priceless piece of his home’s historical past, in addition to {dollars} off his heating invoice. “The wind is blowing outdoors,” he says, “however the drafts are gone.” Proceed on to see how he did it.

Anatomy of Double-Hung Home windows

Leigh Wells

Old style double-hung home windows are so referred to as as a result of they’ve two sash, every suspended from a pair of cords or chains with weights on one finish. They are often simply taken aside, weatherstripped, and put again collectively.

Methods to Weatherstrip Double-Hung Home windows

Step 1: Pry Off One Inside Cease

Picture by Carl Tremblay

With a utility knife, break the paint movie (if any) by scoring alongside the joints the place the cease meets the aspect casing and the sill. Take away any screws holding the cease to the jamb. Insert a stiff putty knife within the joint about midway up the window opening. Gently bend the cease (proven) and insert a pry bar within the hole above the knife. Work the 2 instruments down towards the sill, putty knife within the lead, till the cease is free. Pull any end nails out by means of the again of the cease, then set it apart.

Step 2: Take Out the Decrease Sash

Picture by Carl Tremblay

Elevate the sash barely and swing it out on the aspect the place the cease was eliminated. Pull the twine out of its groove and tie a figure-eight knot in a single finish to maintain the twine from being pulled down into the load pocket. If the sash has chains as an alternative of cords, insert a nail by means of a hyperlink as an alternative.

Step 3: Pull the Parting Beads

Picture by Carl Tremblay

Utilizing a utility knife, rating the paint (if any) on either side of all three parting beads. Seize every parting bead on one finish with nippers or locking pliers and pull it out of its dado, the flat-bottomed groove within the jamb. Transfer the higher sash as wanted to get a very good grip. If the higher sash is inoperable, pry out the beads with a chisel, taking care to not gouge the sash. There’s no have to take away the higher sash. Its weatherstripping is on the alternative parting beads you’ll set up later.

Step 4: Rout the Assembly Rail

Picture by Carl Tremblay

Place the sash on a padded worktable with the outside aspect dealing with up. Clamp the sash so its assembly rail initiatives a couple of inches previous the sting of the desk. Take away the sash lock and put aside. Chuck the slot-cutting bit into the router and set it to chop 3⁄8 inch from the router base. (A bearing controls the bit’s reducing depth.) Maintain the router base firmly towards the highest fringe of the assembly rail and minimize a groove from left to proper.

Step 5: Rout the Backside Rail

Picture by Carl Tremblay

Unclamp the sash, rotate it so its backside rail is closest to you and overhanging the desk, then reclamp. Maintain the router’s base firmly towards the face of the rail and minimize a groove from left to proper.

Step 6: Weatherstrip the Double Hung Window

Picture by Carl Tremblay

Press the silicone weatherstripping, barbed edge first, into the groove routed into the underside rail (proven). Take care to not stretch the strip as you insert it. Insert the pile weatherstripping into the meeting-rail groove. Use a utility knife to trim the ends of every piece of weatherstripping flush with the surface edges of the sash.

Step 7: Substitute the High Bead

Picture by Carl Tremblay

Decrease the higher sash and measure the size of the dado within the head jamb. Mark that measurement on the shortest parting bead within the package (proven). Minimize it to size. Faucet the bead into its dado with the pile weatherstripping dealing with out.

Step 8: Minimize the Facet Beads

Picture by Carl Tremblay

Mark the jamb the place it meets the horizontal centerline of the sash’s assembly rail (proven). Measure up from that mark to the highest bead and down from the mark to the sill. Switch these measurements to the alternative bead, ranging from the bead’s middle; the place the weatherstripping on one aspect ends and the stripping on the opposite aspect begins. (The strips on the higher a part of the bead ought to face out.) Trim the highest finish of the bead sq.; trim the underside finish to match the angle of the sill. Repeat for the bead on the alternative jamb.

Step 9: Faucet within the Facet Beads

Picture by Carl Tremblay

The match must be tight sufficient to carry them in place. If it isn’t, drill, then tack the bead in place with a couple of 3⁄4-inch wire brads. Reinstall the sash, stops, and sash lock. While you’re accomplished, the sash ought to slide up and down easily and line up at their assembly rails.

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