Steaming, Deglazing and Rebuilding
Recent Historic Preservation work on the Japonski Island Boathouse
involved restoring the windows true to the building's original look and character,
dating back to the WWII era.
Recent Historic Preservation work on the Japonski Island Boathouse
involved restoring the windows true to the building's original look and character,
dating back to the WWII era.
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We borrowed this neat thing from the folks working on restoring the former Sheldon Jackson campus for Sitka's Fine Arts Camp: THE ALMIGHTY STEAMBOX!
Pictured on left: The steambox in it's innocent, dormant state. Right: THE STEAMBOX IN ACTION.
All of our old broken window sashes were reusable to some extent, but all needed to be de-glazed and given some TLC before they could function as windows again. For anyone who has dealt with old window glaze, you understand how hard it is to deal with. But with the help of THE STEAMBOX, the old glaze was softened, and we were able to scrape, chisel, cajole etc. the old windows to give up their bad parts, so we could work with their good parts.
After the steambox stage, here are some shots of our hardy volunteers doing the scraping, chiseling and cajoling.
Pictured on left: The steambox in it's innocent, dormant state. Right: THE STEAMBOX IN ACTION.
All of our old broken window sashes were reusable to some extent, but all needed to be de-glazed and given some TLC before they could function as windows again. For anyone who has dealt with old window glaze, you understand how hard it is to deal with. But with the help of THE STEAMBOX, the old glaze was softened, and we were able to scrape, chisel, cajole etc. the old windows to give up their bad parts, so we could work with their good parts.
After the steambox stage, here are some shots of our hardy volunteers doing the scraping, chiseling and cajoling.
So, now we were looking at this nice stack of original circa 1940 window sashes (made of what looked like cedar), and the next thing to tackle was crafting the middle cross-pieces, or muntins, to hold the panes of glass.
Some brave souls tackled the painstaking task of making muntins from yellow cedar, while others worked on prying out the corner pins securing the sash's bottom rail. We needed to gently take the window apart on one end to fit the new muntins in.
We carved cedar plugs to fill the holes in the corners, and re-nailed the windows together with their new muntins. There was also a bunch of sanding, and glass cutting going on as well!
Originally, these windows were put together with beautiful wood, and with such lovely joinery.
It was a pleasure to restore them!
It was a pleasure to restore them!
