Category: Windows

The Windows in house and garage, framing, glass and anything else to do with windows

First Stage of Improving Our Skylight Windows

Today, on this lovely sunny Monday, we took the opportunity to go up on our roof, to our Skylight Windows, to do some upgrades and improve the windows. We have been having some problems with moisture getting in, but we never realised this had been happening because it is very, very small amount indeed. It is only because we have installed our double glazing units, with the moisture absorbing crystals, sucking up this small amount of rain water, and only in the last couple of weeks, some eight months later from when we installed the units, we are now getting leaks. They are coming from the metal tray of these crystals, which have now turned into liquid and running out of the trays. Yukkkk!

Sklight first leak sign

So, we got the task of finding and sealing the windows better, hence this upgrade and improvement task.After careful analysis, even removing a section of the plywood on the inside of our Skylight, to dig around in the body, to backtrace the water, it seems to be coming from the glass and these trays. The “walls” of the Skylight are not damp at all, so the rainwater is not coming in from around the edges, underneath the glass.

This leaves the rubber seals themselves that we got squashed on both sides of the polycarbonate plexiglass material. And when we inspected the window up on the roof the other week (very chilly and very windy), we noticed that the bottom edge is showing definite signs of water moisture underneath the plastic glass, inside the rubber strip. We can see quite clearly through the plastic. We then unscrewed the clamping aluminium bar that we used to hold down the bottom edge of the pane of glass, and it is very likely that the rain water is managing to slide pass the thin rubber padding we got under the aluminium bar, and dribbling into the screw holes we got through the plastic. We didn’t do a very good job of creating a seal to block off the clearance holes. Some of the holes had extra sealant in them, but no way enough substance. Not good at all. we decided that we will replace the thin rubber strip with a 18mm wide strip of butyl heavy duty black glue that is designed to be very long lasting and resistive to drying out and very very sticky. We did that aluminium bar on that day a couple of weeks ago and waited for better weather.

That day came today when at last, we had a calm day and reasonably sunny as well so we got back up on the roof, to first unscrew all the aluminium bars off all the windows, a total of 32 of them, leaving behind the one we did earlier, and take them all down to our tools room. The one thing that we nearly forgot to do, was to label the individual bars with a location code so that we could return each aluminium bar back to its original place.
We then used the bench sanding machine to clean off the old glue, throw away the thin rubber strips and then apply the new strip of the butyl black glue and get them ready to go back after lunch. They got a protective waxed paper on.

Rooflight front strips with Butyl adhesive applied

After lunch, we took a bucket of hot soapy water and a scrubbing pad to clean the dirt away that was trapped under the bar and a towel to dry it off (it turned out that the Sun was strong enough to help dry the plastic by itself) and we went around clockwise with one of us cleaning the bottom edge of the window, moving backwards and the other poked the screws through the holes and the waxed paper, polished the surface to make sure that it is dust free and dry, position the bar down on the holes and tightened the screws up again.

We completed the job at about 5pm and the last dozen windows was lovely because the built-in solar panels was hot from having the Sun shining on them so we had warm bums !!

We couldn’t do many photos while we were up there and no one to take any of us sitting up on the pinnacle of our house !

22 April 2024
Skylight Double Glazing Units – Part 2

These last two weeks saw the installation of all our double-glazing units up into our long Skylight at long last.
But one of the last pieces of preparation work to complete was to cut the freshly painted white battens into twenty-two sets. Fourteen of them had four pieces and eight had just three. We took the glass size of each unit and added a generous 20mm to their measured lengths and cut the battens accordingly.At this point, we had to inform our glazing supplier that two of the triangle units were not manufactured correctly. We had specified that these two particular windows had a very slightly non-right angle corners and we had clearly indicated this in our drawings we had sent off, but somewhere along the process, this piece of information was lost and it was only third time lucky, after we had to strongly argue with our supplier that there are such things as non-right angled triangles, we finally received the correct shaped units yesterday. They fitted ok .. more later !

So, in the meantime, we started at one end of the Skylight, at the North end and specifically number 18, the first square one and proceeded to install each one in turn. Our first one nearly took all day to do as we were learning the procedures and order of getting each step done correctly. The first step was to test fit the glazing unit up into that window, to make sure the physical glass went in and had enough gaps all round for the sealant to go in. Then, it gets taken over to the cleaning department so that the outward facing surface was thoroughly cleaned and polished. There is only one chance to get this done perfectly because we won’t have access afterwards. At the same time, the polycarbonate outer glazing pane was also polished and double checked for any ‘dirt’. The double sided sticky tape was stuck all the way around the framework. The third step in our procedure is to put the glass unit back up into the Skylight and hold it up using two temporary wooden rectangular battens with two screws in each, to take the stain of holding the weight up. These 28mm thick units, comprising of two panes of 4mm thick toughened glass and 20mm space that has been filled in with argon gas, were quite heavy, ranging from 17kg to 26kg for the square shaped ones, and about 13kg for each of the triangle ones. This made them just a bit too heavy for a person to hold it up while we did various tasks, hence the two support battens on each of the upright sides.

Uint held up by temporary battens

At this point, we balanced the position of the glass unit by putting in plastic spacers on each edge, so we had an even gap all the way around. We wanted a sufficient gap to squirt in our low modulus double-glazing approved white sealant and make sure that it is completely sealed against any water vapour and dirt from entering the upper chamber. So, we stuck down bent over plastic spaces around the edges so when we insert the glass unit in for the final time, it will go up straight and evenly in one go, without worrying about accidentally slipping sideways and sticking the glass in the wrong place.

Putting spacers in to center the unit

At this point, we can release the glazing unit and lean it ready to one side of our working platform.
we now need to make up the two trays that holds the desiccant powder, cover it up with a breathable cloth tape and put two pieces of aluminium sticky tape at each end to seal the cloth tape to the tray, to stop the powder coming out.

Dessicant tray with tape on end

Dessicant tray filled with chemical

Dessicant tray covered up

This powder is highly active in absorbing the water moisture out of the air and we had to be very careful to tidy up afterwards each time we make a tray, or we get a horrible pool of very wet ‘sludge’ as we discovered! We modified our procedure, and we collected up any spillage by using a strip of toilet roll paper and poured any excess back into our pot of powder, clean the worktable, and vacuumed it as well to remove any fine powder.
These two trays then were immediately put up into the Skylight, to sit on their little prepared shelves, one at the top and the second one at the bottom. Then, the security tape had its protective wax paper peeled off and we lifted the glazing unit back into place, making sure that our plastic spacers were all still in place and push up hard to stick the glass to the sticky security tape. We reapplied the temporary battens to hold it in place as we don?t trust the security tape to hold the glass forever!

The next part of our long list of tasks to perform, is to measure the bottom and top edges and cut the battens with 45degree angles at both ends, using our chop saw. We had our super sharp mitre guillotine up on our platform, to allow us to trim a tiny bit off the length until the battens fitted in. A thin double sided security tape was then stuck on these wooden battens. Meanwhile, we used our compressed air sealant gun, to push a decent amount of sealant into the gap between the glass unit and the frame, all the way around on all edges, except the small section blocked by the temporary holding battens. We generally use about one and a half 300ml tubes of sealant for each window, but sometimes it is a bit more and sometime a bit less, depending on how big the gap around the glass unit is. We had bought thirty-six tubes and, we very slightly under-estimated the quantity, so we had to order two extra tubes!
Anyway. The next step is to push the batten hard up against the glass (remembering to peel off the wax protective tape!) and then nail the wooden batten into place using 50mm long brad nails, using another one of our compressed air nail guns. These nails have very tiny heads, so we only need to put very small spots of plaster filler on and rub it smooth, ready for painting. All this will be done later.
Having, done the bottom and top battens, all nailed and secured, we then can unscrew our temporary battens of the vertical sides and then finish squirting in more sealant to complete the full circuit. Here, we then measured the final two battens for the vertical sides and fitted them into place, with any small trimming to ensure that the mitre joint is neat as possible.

Nailing the battens in place

That finally, concludes the procedure of fitting one of these windows! As you can see, the first one took us many hours to get it all done, but after the fourteenth one, we were getting them installed in about 75minutes!

Then, we tackled the triangle ones! At this point, we were now in the Great Room so three of the four windows went in smoothly. The only addition that we had to adjust in our procedures, was that we needed to be able to cut a mitre angle at 22.5degrees, half of a 45degrees which are the normal square corners. Now, the four triangular windows have one 90degree corner but two 45degree ones which means that we need a way to cut the battens with an even sharper angle than the machine can manage. We made a ‘wedge’ to support our batten with an additional 22.5 degrees rotation and the blade now can slice long diagonal cuts.
So, as I was saying, three of them went in with reasonable ease, following all the steps we did before, but, for the fourth one, we discovered that the glass unit wouldn’t slide into place. It is very similar to the first window we put in a couple of weeks ago and like that time, we had to file and grind the framework on the long hypotenuse, to widen the ‘entrance’ to allow the glass unit to slip in. Once inside, there was enough gap all round so we resume our list of tasks and got that window done as well.

Lot’s Double glaing units (1)

Lot’s Double glaing units (2)

The final stage of doing the Skylight windows was back down at the other end, to put up the last four triangular units. Two went in ok as usual, and then we had the delivery of the two special ones with their non-standard right angles and we got them in too. One was very tight and the other one was very loose! It used up a lot of sealant and we were very glad to have ordered those extra tubes!
One observation we made today was the huge amount of condensation there was on these two last windows. The temperature had dropped overnight to below 10°C and the air inside our house was 60% humid and contained lots of water because it is still warm inside and we arrived this morning to find the outer polycarbonate pane covered in loads of water.

Condensation on a plain window

We wiped it all off. We then went to inspect all our other twenty windows that we had completed before today and there is no signs of any condensation at all. This is very hopeful and we keep our fingers crossed for these windows surviving for the long term. It depends on how good the outer rubber seals are on both sides of the polycarbonate pane. We can gain access from above if we need to do any extra sealing in the future and replace the desiccant material with fresh dry stuff.

14 October 2023
Skylight Double Glazing Units – Part 1

We started the new week by tackling the task of installing our new double glazed units up in our Skylight. We have twenty-two units to put up, 8 triangles and 14 rectangles.
But, the first job is to prepare the framework and make sure that it is nice and solid, without any gaps etc.
So, using our new High Platform, we went along and blasted out all the crevices with compressed air, put in short lengths of 10mm PU “sausage”, squashed into the gaps, to help to reduce the amount of sealant, squirted in plenty of sealant and bringing it all up so everything is more or less smooth and level.

Next, we gave the windows a thorough clean on both the outside and inside. Shaun went outside on top of the roof with a bucket of hot soapy water and armed with a squeegee and sat on the Skylight itself. He lent over to reach all corner of each window with the microfibre scrubber pad and then drew off the water using the rubber scraper. The windows haven’t been cleaned for several years so it took a while to get the dirt washed off. Shaun shuffled clockwise around all twenty-two windows and ran out of energy, and clean soapy water, by the time when he reached the solar panels so we will come back another day to do those.

Shaun washing skylight windows

We will invest in a long handle cleaning tool that can telescopically extend out but also has a hose pipe going up the middle to supply a flow of water at the same time while scrubbing the surface. This tool will also serve to clean our seventeen solar panels as well. It will save us having to clamber up onto the roof tiles and be able to do this task from the ground itself, or at least, on a high platform at the gutter level.While this was happening, Stephen went around inside to clean the inside surfaces of the windows, using a little gadget that scrubs and sucks up the dirty water at the same time. But, it was also needing several washing cycles and each were polished with a microfibre cloth. He was standing on our high wooden platform. These windows needed to be extra clean because they won’t get a second chance after the double glazing units gets sealed in later in a few days.

We were considering what sort of battens to secure and fix up the glass units, and after thinking about making it out of Oak, we decided to phone our local timber merchant and ordered a set of planed 21mm square beading. They come in 4.2metres lengths and we calculated that we would need 23.5 pieces so we round this up to 25 lengths just in case. It is quite shocking to how high the price of timber is these days, it cost us about £1 per metre of 21mm by 21mm planed pine wood and only a couple of years ago, we paid £1 per metre for 63mm by 38mm planed timber!!

Next we adapted a compressed air sealant dispenser tool so that we can get a constant pressure and flow of the low-modulus neutral cure glazing sealant that we need to squirt all around the edge of the 28mm thick glass unit and make sure that it is completely filled in. The problem we got with our existing tool, is that it is too long. It was designed to take a higher capacity sealant tubes that were 1½ inches longer. It is a pity that there wasn’t a unscrewable section on the body of the chamber and therefore adjust the tool to take shorter sealant tubes.
We made an internal extender to take up the slack by cutting out three circles from a piece of 12mm thick cement board, measuring 47mm diameter, using a core cutter. These three pieces were glued and bolted together to squash the joints and waited overnight for the glue to set. Next we found a little length of 50mm wide plastic pipe which is a fraction too wide to fit inside so we sliced a very small chunk out of it so it can close up to fit smoothly into the gun. Then, we “turned” the solid cement plug very fractionally so it also just fitted smoothly inside the plastic sleeve. We made sure that the cement core was exposed by 5mm or so so that we can slide on a fat O-ring rubber seal over the cement core and sit snuggly down to the edge of the plastic sleeve. The whole lot (minus the rubber O-ring) was glued all together so that it forms an air tight plug with just a small hole down the middle to allow the compressed air to enter the tube of sealant. The O-ring squashes up tight to the ends of the sealant tubes and the cement plug also seals against the original rubber seal at the bottom of the gun.

Air powered Sealant gun

It works very nicely without any air leaks! We can now go ahead to provide a steady flow of sealant for our glass units when we get them installed up into the Skylight.

We also modified some sealant nozzle to flatten them to allow the sealant to be pumped into narrow gaps around the units.

Modified sealant nozzle

Our wooden battens arrived this morning (Wednesday) and we got on with shaping all 25 pieces in our router machine attached to our router table. We just wanted to put on a single extra flat surface on the corner of the square 21mm by 21mm batten, to chamfer at a 45degree angle a third flat surface to provide a slightly more pretty finish than just plain square.

Double glazing battens

We then proceeded to give all pieces two coats of primer and undercoat, rubbing them between coats and get them ready for when we install the glass units.

The last piece of work for this week is to make the moisture extraction system. It sounds fancy but all it is, is a tray of desiccant powder with a breathable tape over the top. We bought a heap of long 1inch wide by ½inch high extruded aluminium trays, measuring 5metres long. We then cut these up to make two trays, one at the top and another one at the bottom, in each square window and one tray at the bottom of the triangle windows. We had pre-built a little “shelf” in each window, to hold these trays of desiccant but, we discovered that some of them are slightly tight so we sliced off a couple of millimetres to reduce the height of these trays. We made 36 trays in all, with eleven of them reduced in height. We also rounded the ends and then taped a small piece of aluminium tape to seal off the open ends, to retain the crystals.
Lastly, we test fitted a couple of our triangle glazing units because we discovered that the last two units that we had to order again were not correct. We were cleaning off some sticky tape that the glass people had put on and cutting off excess amount of the tough sealant that is filled inside in between the panes of glass, when we tested the angle of the “right angle” corner and discovered that wasn’t correct. We then measured all three sides and the glass people neglected to take any notice of the hypotenuse and just assumed that these two triangles were exactly right angles when they were not. For some reason, they failed to noticed that these two triangles had special angles. We took them up to the Skylight and made sure that we couldn’t get them in. We will now have to go and chase them up and get them to admit their mistake. What a Fuss! We tested two more triangle windows, number 22 and number 19. Number 22 fitted in straight away but number 19 was ever so slightly too tight and we had to make some minor adjustments to the wooden framework so we could eventually get the glazing unit to fit into place.
Finally, just for completeness, we also tested one of the square windows, number 18, and it went straight in with no fuss at all.

We will carry on in dealing with the Skylight windows so it is all done, before we resume working on the Great Room.

30 September 2023
Twelve Triple Glazing Units Arrives and All Are Installed
Very very early Friday, with all the alarms waking everyone, we staggered up to get ready for the arrival of the glass which could arrive as early as 8am!
What we are expecting is as follows:
- Nine large units, each weighing 118kg
- Two medium units weighing 75kg
- One slightly smaller one weighing 65kg.
We had our troupe here by 8am or soon after, under a very heavy cloudy sky and swirling winds. We passed the time having a much needed hot drink and fortunately, it wasn’t too long to wait. The van arrived at 8:47am.

The-Glass-arrives

12-Triple-glazing-units-waiting-to-be-unloaded

The-edge-of-a-Triple-glazing-unit

We carefully unloaded each unit, using four suction pad handles and transported each one on the adapted trolley to near each window position around the house. We put the glass on a narrow piece of polystyrene sheet to both protect the edge of the glass and keep it clean from the damp sandy soil.

Preparing-to-lift-a-unit-off-the-van

Moving-the-heavy-glass

Unit-ready-to-install

It took us 50 minutes to complete this task of moving well over 1.2 tons of glass. We had a much needed cup of tea and a slice of cake before resuming work!!

Then this is the big moment, will the glass fit?
And yes of course it did!
All of them!
We proceeded around the house, with one person inside taking off the wax protection paper off the sticky tape and four lifting up the glazing unit up and slotting it into the framework and then screwing several plastic beading clips against the glass to secure it into place.

Holding-unit-whilst-tape-is-uncovered

Glazing-clip-being-installed

Glazing-clip-installed

We started this process at 10:30am and got the last one done at 12:30pm.

We all had another much needed break to recover and enjoy lunch!!
So that concludes the installation of the Triple Glazing units, all Twelve of them! This makes us pretty much weather proof! Yahoo!
The final step to do next week, is to fix well over 300 of these plastic beading clips, cut the oak beading strips to length, mitre the corners, add the rubber seals and slide them onto the plastic clips. After that, we need to finish off doing the oak “wings” that covers up the ends of the larch cladding on either sides of each window. At this point we will be finished Phase 4 (The exterior of the house)!

Windows

Reflections
2 October 2020
Preparation of our Windows is all Done

Over the last ten days or so, we have been preparing for the arrival of our triple glazing units for our twelve windows in our main house. This was a mixture of taking down the temporary plastic polythene sheeting off the windows, removing the wooden strips that were holding them up. Then scrubbing and removing the old glue we had on the aluminium framework (from a failed attempt to attach polythene to the windows). Next was to paint the inside of the same aluminium surface black to stop it glittering in the middle of the window through the glass.

Another task was to construct a vehicle to help transport each glazing unit around the house to various locations. It took our small four wheel flatbed trolley and mounted a vertical padded framework to hold the glass while it was moved. This was sorely needed as the nine biggest glazing units weighed in at 120kg (265lbs or 19 stones ) each!

Glass-moving-rig

We also made a rain shield “tent” like structure just in case we were hit by the predicted Storm Alex that would be running across northern France and along the English Channel.

Rain-Protection

By Tuesday, we had some indication that our glass would be delivered Friday (2nd October) sometime, so we continued with the preparation task and went around the windows to stick on the double sided high strength security tape onto the aluminium strips, all ready for the glass. We left extra tails of covering paper which we folding to the inside of the window to allow easy removal after the windows was in-place. We decided that it was worth the risk of this getting wet in the frequent showers of rain we have been having all the while but it turned out ok because all the rain just came down straight and wasn’t blown into the windows etc. But we did discover that we were missing a roll of this sticky tape, we had originally ordered four 20metre rolls but couldn’t find the fourth one anywhere! We can’t prove that we were short-changed in the original order (because we ordered 6 months ago), so we had to dash to the computer and order an extra roll with an overnight morning delivery option. This was Tuesday lunch time!

Tape-Covering-Tails-

In the meantime, we took our homemade plastic glazing pads (see Manufacture of Glazing Support Pads), and went around sticking them on to the sill of each window, four of them for a large window and two for the smaller ones.

Frame-ready-for-glass

The drama with the double sided sticky tape was not over, because the courier had some issue and failed to deliver our roll before noon Wednesday as ordered. We phoned the supplier and they chased down the courier. We could see that our package was sitting in Norwich and had been since 6am Wednesday morning but it wasn’t until 1pm on Thursday before it finally arrived. Just typical that when we wanted a real speedy delivery, something goes wrong and when we don’t care, it always turns up promptly! Phew!
Anyway, we finished off the final three windows that afternoon and then went around with a straight metal “ruler” to test the level of the pads to makes sure that they were all flat and synchronised and did some swopping out of one or two pads for thicker ones and in one case a couple of thinner ones.
All is now ready for the glass!
The final concluding piece of information is that we learnt that the glass will be delivered first thing Friday morning, between 8am and 10am. We informed our cohort of helpers of this shocking news and set our alarms for 6am – Eek!!

1 October 2020
Manufacture of Glazing Support Pads

We resumed work after our so-called holiday on two separate streams of work, one to develop the automation infrastructure and Development Environment (see Creating The Automation Development Environment) and this stream where Stephen needed to manufacture specialised plastic pads to support the glazing units. Our units are triple glazing with 6mm thick glass separated by two 16mm wide gaps filled in with Argon gas. Hence, the total thickness of our glazing units are 50mm. We couldn’t find these to buy on the web and we had a special requirement because our window sills have a unique shape. We wanted the slope to go under the glass a small distance to ensure that any rain water will be encouraged to run out again if any got in or leaked pass the glazing beading strips.

Window bottom cross section

There is a flat area of 35mm wide and then the slope starts which goes all the way to the front of the sill, this means that our plastic pads had to grow thicker to accommodate the slope (The Pink bit in the above picture).
Here enters our 3D printer!!

The-3D-Printer

We had our 3D printer for a few years now but it is the first time we are using ABS type of plastic, ABS being a much tougher material and also offers a very long lifetime resilience, especially for the outdoor environment of rain, sunshine, insects and dust!

Stephen started to do some printing with ABS but it was not very successful, the plastic was not flowing well out of the nozzle and as the printer has to work at higher temperatures to melt this type of plastic, Stephen decided that certain parts of the printer needed upgrading.
The first thing to improve is the heat retention of the base plate that all the plastic objects are created upon. It is normally heated but we found that it wasn’t getting the temperature high enough to keep the ABS plastic steadily hot so that it does not warp by cooling too quickly. The improve this we glued the heater to the base plate (it was just placed against it before) and a piece of double corrugated cardboard was placed on the underside to insulate and retain the heat longer. It works very nicely now!

Improved-build-plate

The second upgrade was to the roll holders at the back of the machine, where the plastic filament rolls are stored. The large rolls are quite heavy and the weight was causing higher friction which gave problems to the feeder motor that was trying to pull the filament into the melting chamber. The solution was to make a conical plastic holder with a ball race bearing fitted in it. We printed two new pieces, using our 3D printer of course, fitted the bearing and threaded both on a rod with wing nuts.

New-spool-support-cone-with-bearing

New-filament-spool-holder

In the meantime, we had ordered a replacement all-metal spring loaded mechanism to improve the grip strength of the feeding motor, the old one being plastic and unsprung and we felt that the quality of feeding the filament into the nozzle was important to maintain a good pressure and flow of melted plastic.
The new extruder needed a lot of fiddling, filing, buying longer bolts etc. to get it to work well.

New-Extruder-motor-unit

The final part of puzzle was realising that the temperature of the extruder nozzle was not as hot as the machine was saying it was (It should have been 230°C and was actually below 200°C). I added extra insulation around the heater but it did not help so I just told the machine to heat it to 270°C to get an actual 230°C temperature.

Now we could start printing in earnest and we successfully printed a support, but we had parts where we still weren’t getting proper extrusion, so I slowed the printing speed down and got much better results. But each pad was taking 55 minutes to print. This was mainly because we were printing layers only 0.2mm high (50 layers for the print), I increased the layer height but found I couldn’t extrude fast enough with the fine 0.4mm nozzle so I bought a 0.8mm nozzle. This allowed a print time of just 20 minutes with 0.5mm layers, so I could print 3 supports at the same time in about 1 hour.

The-final-printed-supports

Printing-spacers-1

Printing-spacers-2

We only print supports under the actual glass panes and leave hollow elsewhere. So after 2 weeks of fiddling and upgrading we had all the supports made (with a few spares).

All-the-supports-printed

25 September 2020

Measured Windows and Ordered Glass

The task we did next, was to measure every window again, using a framing square and precisely get all the data that describes the state of our framework, with all the wobbles and skews! All this went into a spreadsheet and analysed all the numbers. We have concluded a final set of sizes for all 12 windows as follows ..

A.Great Room	1640mm by 1598mm
A.Kitchen	1640mm by 1598mm
C.Entertainment	1640mm by 1598mm
F.Utility	1030mm by 1598mm
H.Bedroom 3	1640mm by 1598mm
I.Bedroom 3	830mm by 1598mm
K.Bedroom 2	1640mm by 1598mm
M.Bedroom 1	1640mm by 1598mm
N.Great Room	1030mm by 1598mm
O.Great Room	1640mm by 1598mm
P1.Great Room	1640mm by 1598mm
P2.Great Room	1640mm by 1598mm

We managed to arrive at a fairly consistent size, by making adjustments to the clearance gaps between the glass and the framework and having slightly different thickness for the pads that the glass will be sitting on. We are having to make our plastic pads ourselves on our 3D printer because our glazing units are tripled glazed and they are 50mm thick, three 6mm panes and 16mm warm bridge spacers. Even if we could have bought them somewhere, our window sills had the slope starting only 40mm from the back edge, which means the plastic pads needs to get thicker at the front. So we will use our supply of ABS plastic strand (we first doubled checked the structural strength of this type of plastic and discovered that it is way strong enough!), design and print a 55mm wide by 100mm long pads with it getting thicker after 40mm from the back.
And finally, the glass will be stuck firmly on to the aluminium bars using double sided security tape which is 3mm thick by 12mm wide.

We placed the order for the glass today at a cost of about £5000 (To buy 12 oak windows would cost at least £12000).

28 August 2020

Oak Beading Created

These last five days have seen the creation of the Oak Beading strips that will hold the triple glazing units into the window frames.
The beads are held in place by clips are specially designed to grip the timber piece without having to use screws or nails and making a very neat finishing covers around the edge of the glass.

Window bottom cross section

This means that the Oak strips needed lots of steps to produce the required slots and gaps, using our router. But before that, we had to make a collection of planed strips ready for that complex task. We took all our prime oak timber out of storage, 2metres planks at 29mm thick and widths from 100mm to 150mm. We swopped one or two of them when we discovered that they were a bit too wobbly.

Then, using the similar process we used before, we slice a straight edge using our Track saw, and then pass each plank through our table saw to make a pile of 33mm wide by 29mm pieces. We produced 56 of them, eight more than what we required.
The planer machine and its two long support tables were assembled and we proceeded to plane all the strips on two edges to get them clean. Then through the thickener stage to end up with smooth finished battens measuring 25mm by 27mm.

Now we are ready to use the Router to remove wood material in various ways, using various router bits (three of them!) in a total of seven passes through the machine to achieve our neat and hopefully elegant beadings.
We used up a fair number of test pieces, trying different techniques and different styles before settling on the final method and final finish we like the look of.

Window-beads-Router-setup

Beading Routing order

1 The front visually exposed surfaces had a 22.5 degree angles sliced off
2 Then the top was removed to create a gentle slope down and a slope up, to meet in the middle
3 The narrow slot for holding the rubber glazing seals was cut using a very fine 2.3mm wide blade, going 5mm deep.
4 Another fine slot, again a 2.3mm wide but 9mm deep this time.
5 Then an area 12mm high and 2.5mm deep was removed. This is part of the plastic clip, the vertical part.
6 Finally, the bottom gap was created, a 19mm wide by 5mm deep removed off the bottom of the oak strips, done in two passes.

It was a very fiddly job to do, but with lots of patience, with lots of help from using clamped on oak strips and springy fingers, to guide each of the 56 pieces through the machine, we got there in the end.

Window-beads-Finished

Window-beads-Detail

We are now ready to order the glass! See next report!

26 August 2020
Oak Windows Frames Ready, Slate Ribbon Started

We resumed the task of getting our Oak Window Frames prepared, ready to be inserted into the house. The next job was to waterproof the inner section of the frames where the glass will sit so that we have extra protection against any incursion of rain water which does not drain away fully. All twelve frames were coated in a semi-flexible polyester resin dyed grey so we could see it (it will be hidden by the glass and beading), to spot any imperfections. Each frame was given a final rubbed down using a rough paper to improve grip for the resin, especially the aluminium material and then masking tape was laid everywhere that wasn’t going to be painted to protect it against dribbles etc.
We used about 350g of the resin (which contains 20% of the flexible agent) per large frame and a little less for the three smaller ones. All the inner surface on all four sides were done, and then also the outer surface was coated too to both aid the same water protection (especially up on the header) but also to aid a better seal when we come to glue the window frames into the house itself. It took about 3 days to complete all twelve of them, sanding them and applying the masking tape in the workshop, while the smelly painting operation was done in the main house on a temporary work table (made on a pack of polystyrene foam boards!!) and each frame laid out across the floor to dry and cure.

Window-frame-after-painting-with-Resin

The next job was to clean every window hole around the house, to sand away the weathering effects, especially the bottom edge that had the full blast of rain and sun on it for the last year or so. We also cut a chamfer on all four edges to provide a thicker sealant bead when we come to glue the frames into place.
Then every window was test fitted to make sure that they will slot in. Most of the back windows had to have some minor adjustments done to the bottom edge, removing material until the frame went in and sat nice and solidly. After that, all Oak frames sat tall and straight, none were leaning over or had to be pushed over. Just Nice! We remembered to reapply the chamfer along the bottom edge too!

Completed-frame-test-fitting

The final touch up operations was done to half of the window frames where the resin had reacted to the Oak timber in some fashion so those affected had their sills rubbed and cleaned with acetone and a second coat was applied. All is well now.

A-line-of-Windows

While we wait for a supply of PU grey coloured sealant for gluing and sealing the frame into the wall to come (notwithstanding the troubles of COVID-19 crisis), we got started on implementing our Slate Ribbon that will go around the bottom of the wall, underneath the cladding and half buried into the dirt. This is our solution to preventing splashes of dirty rainwater from reaching our Larch cladding planks and reducing the chances of rot and other unsightly defects (and using up some of our spare roof slates). It will be made of a layer of 50mm thick polystyrene foam which is stuck to the wall with mastic glue and also a large plastic “nail” driven through and into the concrete block.

Plastic-Nails

The polystyrene sheets were sliced up using our homemade “hot” wire cutter we made in our large flat top insulation cutting table.

Slicing-the-Polystyrene

Hot-wire-cutting-the-V-

And we proceeded to slice up eleven of the twelve sheets we had bought. Each strip having a 30 degree angled top and 400mm wide. We got three strips out of each sheet so we made 33 in total.

33-Beveled-Strips-of-Polystyrene

The final job of the day (Friday) was to mount two fixing points in the places where we are going to have a privacy gate to section off the public portion of the garden and drive way from our private gardens. The wall needed an extra plank fitted to the outside surface which will serve as the anchorage point for the fencing.

Fence-attachment-on-H-Wall

This 95mm by 45mm timber plank goes up from the level of the cladding battens and stops at the 2metre point, this being the height of the fence. We reinforced the wall by putting in three horizontal noggins behind the cement board, inside the wall.

with-noggins-in-support

It was stuck up with PU tough glue and four long screws.
The final day was starting the process of creating our Slate Ribbon around the house, digging the soil away from the wall (we started right over the far side on the “P1” section), scrubbing the surface and then putting mastic on the wall to stick the polystyrene strips to the wall, and then drilling an 8mm diameter hole straight through and into the concrete blocks. A plastic “nail” was then driven in to anchor the foam strip into place.

First-strip-of-Beveled-polystyrene-installed

Plastic-nailing-in-progress

Then we sliced up some slates into 55mm wide strips and proceeded to stick full size slates (using a cement based tile adhesive) directly onto the polystyrene surface and then the little strip on the slope.

The-slates-tiled-onto-the-Polystyrene

The last hour was to analyse and design the the shape of the foam block that will reflect the thicker parts of an outer corner where there will be an additional oak octagon cover going around the corner. We will buy some 75mm thick foam board on Monday and then slice it up into the complex shapes needed to form the required octagon pattern that marries the Slate Ribbon going around the corner to the next wall section.

Outside-corner-Polystyrene

So this week saw our first full 6-day work for ages! All our usual meetings and other commitments have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak! Something positive to come out of all this madness that has hit the world! Phew!!

21 March 2020
All Window Frames Created and Installed New Better Looking Fencing for Loke

For the start of the new week, we sanded down all the wood filler we had applied to the Sill and Header pieces where there were small knot holes and in one case, a very big knot hole on the under side of one of the sills.

Large-knot-hole-after-filling-and-sanding

Then we started making a jig to hold the various oak pieces that makes up our Window Frames. We have nine large windows to put together so having this jig will greatly help us maintain tight alignment and good square right angles, consistent across all windows.

First-try-of-the-assembly-jig

Then over the next couple of days, we proceeded to build those nine frames, using the tough thick PU slow setting glue for the major joints in all four corners and the faster thinner PU glue to hold the four aluminium strips into place around the edge, ready to support the triple glazing unit.

The-first-window-is-assembled

and-waiting-for-the-glue-to-cure

Then we adjusted the jig to do the two smaller window frames and finally the smallest one too.

Last-window-assembled

All-13-Windows-assembled

So that being done, and while waiting for the glue to set, we got on with another job, something completely different this time, putting up a new fence along our Loke to hide and block off the view of our mini-digger and some plies of old pallets etc. We bought the cheapest fence panels we could find, just £100 for five 6foot square panels and six metal post sockets to take 75mm square wooden posts. We made those posts by using six planks of our treated 63mm CLS timber and doubled them up to form 76mm by 63mm posts. We glued the two pieces together and once set overnight (we used some really old slow setting PU glue), we then trimmed the end to form a neat pointed tops. Plus also we stuck on a slab of cement board, just the right size to pad out the bottom of the post so it was the correct dimensions to fit nice and tightly into the metal sockets.
After that, we dunked both ends in timber preservatives, making sure the bottom ends had a good 30 minutes sitting in the liquid.
While that was going on, we went outside to clear away part of the old plastic mesh fence and pulled out several old wooden posts. Then collected 21 concrete blocks which will form the bottom layer underneath the panels, to raise them up off the dirt. The original round 3inch post was pulled up and moved to be right next to the hedge and we used this to tie on a string to make a taut straight line to align everything up. We were very lucky these last few days with lovely weather and that enabled us to go out and install our new fence panels, with their six new homemade wooden posts plus getting the concrete blocks set into the dirt in a level straight sections, one for each panel, before stepping up. The Loke is on a slope of about 2or 3 inches for every 6 feet, so our panels steps up each time.
It was all fairly simple to do, getting the posts into place using a double spirit level gadget that measures the verticality in both directions at once. The metal sockets have very long spikes that easily slides into the ground and two nuts and bolts to clamp the sides of the socket onto the post.
We made a heap of rotating toggles to hold the fence panels on the inside and nailed up long strips (about an inch square) on the outside to make a neat presentation for the whole fence line. These toggles allows us to quickly release each panel, just in case, we have a delivery that needs access to unload items.

Section-of-fence-to-block-the-view-of-our-junk-from-our-neighbor

We will make a simple ‘gate’ to fill in the remaining gap that we left behind to stop most people from just accidentally wandering into our garden but have this gate to allow us to get out onto the Loke if we want to.

Finally, for the last day, Saturday, we got back to cleaning our newly glued window frames, rubbed down all the surfaces to remove any dribbles and cleaned the aluminium strips. We now have a heap of solid window frames, waiting for the next task to be performed on them, which is to apply a waterproofing coating of resin in and around the area where the glass will be situated, especially down on the sill so that any rain water that gets passed the outside beading holding the glass in, will just run straight back out again and not sit on the wooden surface and potentially cause damage with rot.

But First of all, we did some testing with a special blend of polyester resin where we added twenty percent ‘flexible’ resin which makes the finishing resin layer much more flexible so it won’t crack with movements. We painted some small pieces of wood, one was a thin strip and the second one was two pieces screwed together to form a slightly loose right angle joint. After we had finished cleaning the window frames, we got out our prototype narrow frame to give it a coat in this special resin. We applied masking tapes right around the frame to protect against any dribbles and had only an area of 75mm exposed, which got coated in the grey flexible resin. We didn’t use any fibre glass as we just wanted to seal the oak timber to protect it from rainwater.

Testing-the-resin-coating-of-the-frame

We will see how that looks on Monday and if is ok, we will proceed to do all the other twelve window frames too.

14 March 2020