Continuing from Wednesday, with the guttering job done, we got on with installing our oak window frames. Over the next three days, we took each frame, test fitted it (making any slight adjustments to the wall when necessary but not often), sanding down all the surfaces (of the hole in the wall) to make sure the glue will stick with maximum strength. Then the next step was to charge the cleaned surface with our grey PU sealant glue all over the area being covered by the window frame (about 70mm wide) pressing the glue into the grain and any gaps holes etc. and then lifting and inserting the oak frame in. We had our 60mm spacers to put at the outside top to ensure that the frame didn’t go too far inwards and then it was wedged in place from the inside. Finally, more sealant was applied around the perimeter, filling in our small triangle chamfer and any gap around the outside to ensure strength to resist any rain water that may get blown in and then finished off inside with more sealant for maximum grip and protection. Sometimes if the gap was over few millimetres we inserted a foam strip into the gap to give the sealant something to fill against.
Larger-gaps-are-backed-with-a-foam-strip
This task took almost 40 tubes of sealant (Stephen’s hand was tired of squeezing the sealant gun)
For the last window task, we bought some thick heavy duty clear (well not very clear actually – about 60% transmission) polythene builders plastic and used double sided tape to attach pieces into all twelve windows to keep the wind out which keeps bringing in sand and dust into the house. Oh Yes, to stop the rain too of course!
The-P1-window-installed-and-glazed
The-glazing-is-Translucent
It is only temporary while we wait for the COVID-19 lock down to be lifted and we can get extra people in to help us install the nine large windows which will weigh a ton .. well actually 115kg or about 17 stones (or for our Americans cousins, 253lbs!). It might be quite a while hence the reason for putting in these plastic windows.
We finished mid-afternoon on Saturday and for the remainder of the day, we started a complete and thorough “spring” clean of the house! At long last, we won’t get any more sand and dust (and foxes) coming into the house and dumping their loads!! Over the last couple of years, we probably had swept up a good dozen builder’s buckets worth of sand and now, with all the holes, all fifteen of them, blocked off, we can do a thorough job and it will keep relatively clean for longer .. until we come along and mess it up of course!