The Ladies Guide to Replacing a Broken Window Pane

There comes a time when a lady just has to put aside being a lady and get down and dirty...lol

Yesterday was just one of those days...we have had a broken window pane in Niqi's 'old' bedroom for years now, so long in fact that NiQi was doing home schooling at the time, and she finished with her A levels in 2009!!!!!  What happened was she was in her room trying very hard to study -  and not be distracted at the same time- when Jazza, her aunt's dog kept howling at the gate waiting for them to return and in desperation after shouting at the poor dog for the umpteenth time, she hit her fist against the window pane breaking it at the same time....

There has been many a mention of fixing the window over the years, but sadly it never makes the list when we go to town and only because we forget.  So finally when I went to town earlier in the week, I happened to put glass and putty on my shopping list.  The next step was to find the time to fit it.  Every week I have a list of things to be done and rarely do I finish the list but at least I mange to achieve some things on it.  Yesterday made the cut for window repairs...

Any 'first time ladies' wanting to try their hand at this, here are a few tips for you:

Remove the broken glass and old putty - wear goggles if you have them because if you become quite energetic and enthusiastic in your mission, there may just be pieces that fly up towards your eyes...hehe

Clean the inside of the frame with a wire brush,completely removing any tough pieces of dried, old putty. Wipe down with a damp cloth and dry it off.

Open the putty pack and work a piece in your hands until it is soft and pliable.

Pack the inside of the frame with a thin layer of putty.

Clean the piece of glass and place it inside the frame, pushing gently against the putty.

Take more putty and place over the top of the glass around the edges.  Work it evenly with fingers, pushing it in to keep the glass firmly in place.

Using the putty knife, make a smooth edge and mould the putty out towards the very edge of the frame.

On the inside of the window, fill in the crack between the glass and the frame with putty, neatening it off and removing any excess.

Clean up the window sills, both inside and out of  broken glass, old putty, dirt and excess putty that was worked off.

Now you have replaced one pane of glass you will notice that there will be more putty on the rest of the window that may need to be replaced - because it too is cracked and breaking off, the window frame also needs to be scraped down and re-painted as well as the burglar guard.  Once that window is done, every other window on the house will need to have the same treatment and then the exterior of the house will have to be painted...  The moral of this story - if you don't see your way to completing the 'full job',then leave the broken pane as is....BWAHAHAHA