The ReWindow Nuts and Bolts

A Sash is defined as; The glass AND the sur­round­ing frame that make up the move­able part of the win­dow. Let’s break down some spe­cif­ic terms.

• Sash Frame: The wood that holds the glass in place com­prised of two hor­i­zon­tal ​“rails” and two ver­ti­cal ​“stiles”.
• Glass: Referred to as ​“insu­lat­ed glass unit” is an encap­su­lat­ed unit com­prised of two panes of glass sep­a­rat­ed by an air space.
• Clear Glass: Sim­ply refers to glass with no addi­tion­al effi­cien­cy coat­ing applied.
• LowE Glass: Low Emis­siv­i­ty glass is the ener­gy effi­cient stan­dard in mod­ern win­dows with many man­u­fac­tur­ers and grades available. 
• Tem­pered glass: Is heat treat­ed to crum­ble when bro­ken. Tem­pered glass should be used in bath­rooms, stair­wells, and win­dows low to the floor.
• GBG grills: Refers to ​“grills between the glass” and is just that. Grill bars that are placed between the panes inside the glass unit.
• SDL grills: Or ​“sim­u­lat­ed divid­ed lite” are grills applied to the sur­face of both the inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or of the glass and are not removeable. 
• Wood grill insert: Is a remove­able wood grill only on the inte­ri­or of the window. 
• Weath­er­strip­ping: Some, but not all sash­es have a perime­ter seal applied to help pre­vent air, water, and insect intru­sion around the sash. 

The ReWin­dow process is focused on JUST replac­ing the sash, NOT the entire win­dow. What this means is the sash is removed from the win­dow frame with­out dis­turb­ing the sur­round­ing sur­faces. Even in the case of a fixed, sta­tion­ary sash, dis­rup­tion and touch up are min­i­mal. Read more…

Remov­ing Oper­a­ble Case­ment Sash:

1. The sash is opened and detached from its mechanism. 
2. The sash is then pulled from the open­ing by detach­ing it from the top and bot­tom hinges.
3. The sash is placed on a stur­dy work sur­face to begin trans­fer­ring hardware.
4. The hinge arms, oper­a­tor brack­ets, and lock keep­ers are removed from the old sash and trans­ferred to the new sash by care­ful­ly mea­sur­ing their loca­tions. Hand­ing and ori­en­ta­tion of the sash should be not­ed at this point to ensure prop­er re-installation.
5. The new sash is now set back in the hinge tracks and re-attached to the oper­a­tor mech­a­nism while final fit adjust­ments are made.

Remov­ing Fixed Case­ment Sash:

1. Fixed or ​“sta­tion­ary” sash may be held in by vis­i­ble screws through the trim or brack­ets behind the trim. 
2. If vis­i­ble sur­face screws are iden­ti­fied, the sash is sim­ply unscrewed from the frame open­ing and removed. The new sash is re-installed by cen­ter­ing in open­ing and re-set­ting the exist­ing screws. 
3. If it is deter­mined the sash is held in by brack­ets, the sur­round­ing inte­ri­or trim around the sash will need to be removed.
4. Paint­ed sur­faces are scored to find trim edges while gen­tly pry­ing loose.
5. Once the brack­ets are exposed, the sash is removed in the same man­ner as a vis­i­ble screwed in sash.
6. After the new sash is re-installed, the trim is put back in place and touched up if necessary.

Remov­ing Dou­ble Hung Sash:

ReWin­dow works specif­i­cal­ly with a com­pres­sion fit style dou­ble hung win­dow offer­ing a com­plete sash set replace­ment designed to fit the exist­ing win­dow frame much like a case­ment win­dow. Remov­ing and replac­ing dou­ble hung sash is quite simple. 

1. The upper and low­er sash­es are tilt­ed in and pulled from the lin­er tracks. 
2. The exist­ing lin­er tracks are pried loose and pulled from their frame pockets.
3. New lin­er tracks sup­plied in the kit are installed in their frame pockets.
4. New upper and low­er sash­es are installed in their respec­tive loca­tions with­in the opening.