Huachuca House window rehab at Empire Ranch 2013
   

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This project consisted of rehabbing six double-hung wood windows on the Huachuca House.

This house was purchased by the Boice Family and moved from Fort Huachuca to the Ranch in the 1940s via a flatbed truck and placed on a concrete perimeter stemwall, with the floor supported by a series of posts set on concrete piers. Sometime later, the three-room addition with casement windows was added to the north side, doubling the size of the house. Bob and Miriam Boice moved into the house in 1950. Back then, the house was known as "Bob's Casita".

These are the six windows, West and South Walls, prior to the start of the project:

West-facing wall

South-facing wall

Bathroom window

Close-ups of typical damage: many types of putty used for glazing, missing glazing, missing muntins, damage by vine creeping into window casing, no maintenance, wood failure/bowing/cracking/weathering.
Process

A hazardous materials company came in prior to my work, and removed all loose paint from the windows and casing. This allowed me to paint over any existing (and possibly lead-containing) paint. The company also removed the glass from the sash and stripped the old paint and putty from the glass. The hazmat team boarded up the window openings with 4x8 OSB sheets.

The sash were removed and taken to my workplace over several months. Each sash was then disassembled, removing steel pins at joints and center sash bars. Also removed the spring locks from stiles.
Every sash used lap joints in the top and bottom to join the rails and stiles. However, thru-tenon joints were used in the bottom joints of the lower sash.
Several rails, stiles, sash bars and muntins had to be repaired by using two methods: A liquid wood epoxy stabilizer was used to stabilize soft/spongy wood, especially in the lower rails and lower parts of the stiles. Secondly, a putty-like epoxy was used to fill weather-damaged checked/split wood.
Most muntins (horizontal lite dividers) and sashbars (vertical lite dividers) were in pretty good shape. Some needed work to fix their profile (the interior side ogee) and window rabbet (the exterior glass channel). Three missing muntins were fabricated to replace those that were missing. Several muntins needed new channel bars for the glass panes.
All but one of the stiles (vertical sash frame members) were OK. However, as seen the photos above, several rails (horizontal sash frame members) needed replacing, due to sag and weathering.
Restoration also included the replacement/fabrication of external casing surrounding the window opening.

Much time was spent to rehab the sills, several of them had voids and severe checking:

Items that needed to be fabricated:
	2 lower rails, bottom sash 5 lower rails, top sash 4 external casing 2 sash bars 3 muntins 1 sash stile 3 sash guides (one shown)

All new wood material is Prime Douglas Fir, purchased at Grant Road Lumber. This lumber is straight-grained and dimensionally stable, and resists bugs, termites and warpage.
Windows were re-assembled, using exterior Tite-Bond III glue at all joints. and steel pins were re-used for the upper and lower rail/stile joints. Center sash bars were secured with toe-nailed brads. A dab of glue was applied to muntin and sash-bar ends.
All surfaces were primed with a high-quality primer. Inside window and sill surfaces were finished with 2 coats of Behr Latex Enamel. Outside surfaces were finished with 2 coats of exterior flat reflective latex.
Glazed all window panes with Sarco Glazing putty. The putty cures at different rates, depending on humidity, heat, and linseed oil content. This was a major pacing factor in the latter part of the project.
The spring locks were chemically stripped and re-installed.
On Sept 1, 2013, I completed the install of all of the windows.

South Wall	West Wall	Baño con mampara
Telco Wire at SouthEast Window (antes)	Cleaned up wire (después)