Glazing Windows

One of our projects for this summer, and a project that has been ongoing for many summers, is re-glazing the windows in the main lodge artist's studio, and farm here at Santanoni. This summer we are focusing on the windows in the main lodge and the farm.

A window muntin is a piece of wood that separates the panes of glass in a window. In older windows, these muntins are lined with putty in order to hold the glass in place and keep the window weather-tight. The windows in the main lodge were glazed (aka putty was applied to them) when the house was first built in 1893. Since then, the putty has rotted away in some spots.

Our job is to chip out the old putty, sand the windows down, replace the putty, and repaint the windows. This is a relatively slow process that requires lots of time to let the putty dry. It was also a little difficult to learn to glaze (I had never done it before). The putty is a rather fickle material, and it is important to get it to be as thin and smooth as possible so that it matches the original putty that has remained on the windows.

Here is the putty being thinned out on the muntin.