Reddit mentions: The best historic architecture preservation books

As an old house lover (and fellow old house owner), I'm begging you to please restore those windows! It can be done!

I'm making this response extra long and detailed since this question comes up from time to time. Hopefully it can be a resource for others.

But I say this as a guy who bought a real wreck of a house where the previous owner had let everything go. We needed to fix all 45 openings at once as part of a major rehab, and after 6 weeks of effort, about $3000 of experimentation (including taking a week off work and hiring two people to help me), I finally gave up and put in vinyl windows. It completely broke my heart, and my house is uglier because of it. But sometimes, an old window is just too far gone to save. But in that process I learned a lot and I'd like to share a few things.

1. Old windows were designed to be maintained. That's why after almost 150 years your windows are still in pretty good shape. Modern vinyl windows are designed to be disposable. Once the seals break, they start to stick in their channels, etc., your only option is to put them in a landfill.
   
   
2. Properly maintained old windows with properly installed weather stripping and properly installed/maintained storm windows are every bit as energy efficient as modern vinyl windows. This article goes into detail and has a huge list of references including links to primary research on the topic for the people who don't believe me.
   
   
3. If you are at all handy, you can figure out how to maintain your old windows.
   
   
4. If you live in a place where old houses are common, there may well be a local shop that specializes in this kind of thing. Here in Boston, we have two great resources. The nonprofit Boston Building Resources does classes on window restoration and sells all the stuff you'll need. And Olde Bostonian will do it all for you if you have the cash. This isn't Home Depot level stuff, so look for specialists.
   
   
5. Old windows are a big source of lead paint dust, especially from the two sashes (the two actual window parts that move up and down) rubbing in the frames. If you have kids or are planning on having them, removing the lead paint from the windows is the biggest lead paint improvement you can make in your home. Even if you aren't planning on having kids, work safely. Grownups can get lead poisoning, too. Or, like us, you might have an unplanned pregnancy. Or you might have friends who have kids. Or want to sell it to a nice family someday. Get a lead-safe respirator (not cheap dust masks), do as little dry sanding as possible, and take the windows to a spot outside of your house (garage, shed, outside on a nice day) to do work on them so you don't spread lead dust all over your house. If you can set up a little containment zone with some plastic sheeting on the ground, that's good practice. EPA would have you go nuts with plastic and tyvek suits and so on. That may be overkill, but common sense tells you to minimize spreading lead dust around your house and keep it out of your body. Also, if it's possible to pull off the old trim and the old window sills and replace that with new trim while you've got the sashes out, that will get rid of another huge source of lead paint. If not, consider repainting those pieces with encapsulating paint after you put it all back together.
   
   
6. The biggest lesson I learned is DON'T DO THEM ALL AT ONCE! We had to because we needed to renovate the whole house. But it sounds like you don't have to. Pick a room where you can live without a window for a little while, like the attic or a rarely used guest bedroom. Pull ONE window apart and figure out how it works. Repair and replace that one window. Then do a second window in that room, and so on. As you get better at it, you might move up to pulling all of the windows in a single room out at the same time.
   
   
7. Steam is your friend. Buy a steamer. The size and type depend on how much work you will be doing. I tried a couple and found this one to be the most ideal. Steam will soften up paint and putty so that you can easily scrape it right off.
   
   
8. You'll want some good specialty tools. I really like these scrapers. One. Two. Three. I also found this set of small prybars (especially the very smallest one) to be invaluable in getting old windows apart.
   
   
9. If you're going to be doing a bunch of windows, set yourself up with a really comfortable work zone including a big flat work surface (plywood over sawhorses) and a place to put all your scrapers, glazing tools, etc. Hopefully you have a garage or shed where you can leave stuff for a while.
   
   
10. And last but not least...don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. These windows are 150 years old. You can go insane building steam stripping boxes and trying to make the paint perfect and trying to get everything functioning the way it did the day the house was built. But you don't have to. Just get them to the point where they open and close, the glass is not broken or rattling, and they are reasonably weatherstripped. Let the exterior storms do more of the work on energy efficiency. I would definitely NOT recommend putting each sash into a steam box and stripping all of the glazing and paint and starting from scratch. That way lies madness.
    
    OK, on to your questions.
    
    

• Here's a great video about disassembling a window. I found all sorts of amazing things done to the windows in my house that made them hard to disassemble. Generally speaking, first cut the paint between the sash and the frame with a utility knife and see if that works. If not, look for nails and screws that might be holding the window sash in place. Often these are painted over and are hard to find.
  
  
• It seems you might have single sash windows. That's unusual for an 1870s house but not completely unheard of. I had some of those in my house. After you've taken all the trim off and removed the lower sash, you will be able to pull the top sash out. There will be something holding it in place. Figure out what that thing is and remove it. As for the lower sashes, previous owners might have gotten frustrated with broken sash cords and covered up the pocket holes. When you disassemble the window you will hopefully be able to figure out what they did and undo it.
  
  
• There are plenty of good guides on how to weatherize old windows. The DOE has a great page on the topic with links to detailed instructions on a variety of methods. The video series linked below is also good.
  
  General resources and tools I found useful:
  
  
• The Save America's Windows forum, organized by topic, is a gem (if not always easy to find what you're looking for).
  
  
• This 4-part window rehab workshop youtube video series is pretty good.
  
  
• Book 1: Save America's Windows: Caring for older and historic wood windows.
  
  
• Book 2: The Window Sash Bible: a A Guide to Maintaining and Restoring Old Wood Windows

Vanishing Vancouver. Beautiful coffee table book. Watercolours. Explores Vancouver housing architecture. Makes walks more enjoyable when you understand the history.


Available at the library for anyone else whose interested.



https://www.amazon.ca/Vanishing-Vancouver-Last-25-Years/dp/1770500677

What it seems like to me, and IDK nothin', is that the purlin or joist was 1/4" too long and so it was quicker to adjust with square cuts on the girt or rafter than it was to re-cut the depth of the dovetail. I'm halfway through The Timber Framing Book and they mention boxing joints, but I'm unclear on what it means and all the internet want to show me is boxed heartwood centers or box joint jigs. The book defines the term as making adjustments for inconsistent joinery. Seems like what I describe above.

Any input on the matter would be appreciated. Thank you.

Some that I love:

• The World That Made New Orleans by Ned Sublette
  
• Gumbo Ya-Ya: A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales by Robert Tallant, Lyle Saxon, Edward Dreyer
  
• New Orleans Then and Now by Richard and Marina Campanella
  
• Eat Dat New Orleans: A Guide to the Unique Food Culture of the Crescent City by Michael Murphy

Very interesting topic. If you're attracted to these ideas, I'd re comes reading "the future of the past"

I really enjoyed this book.

Here is the desktop version of your link

BTW this book helped to shift my views toward recycling and reuse.

Or this one

We literally quote from the Bible over and over again. We even tell you in some cases which book its from. How is that not Bible based?

Yes, we include a bit of Shakespeare and quotes from a famous book of classical architecture too.

But to deny the Biblical origins of the very words used in our degrees? That's some incredible mental gymnastics you're attempting, and failing at.