Double Glazing Repair

[blacklion1725]

Hello all – my bathroom window has a fanlight at the top and the inside frosted pane is broken (Smashed). There’s a local bloke who does repairs, but it is a lot cheaper if I take the unit to his workshop rather than have him come here.

The fanlight hinges are riveted in to the side of the frame rather than screwed – which is a pain in the @rse. Drilling out the rivets doesn’t look too bad (youtube), and a riveting tool and rivets is not expensive.

Wondering if anyone has any experience of this, particularly putting new rivets where the old ones were – not sure if this is even viable.

Worst case I’ll have to get it fixed in-place but as I say a lot dearer.

Ta.

[dwynnehugh]

Just a thought but COULD there be a steel plate behind the rivets?  I ask this quite simply because many years ago on CID I came across a double glazed burgled property where the windows were riveted into the frames and the burglar only needed very little effort to pry to window out of the frame. Basically popping the rivets out of the plastic.

Later one had steel plates set into the frame where the rivets were inserted so that the whole had to be prised out thus making it a safer and secure joint.

 

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[JayCeeDee]

If you’re lucky, the rivets will drill out and you should be able to replace them with self tappers. They’ll need to have a shallow head, ie not deeper than the rivet heads.

[blacklion1725]

Thank you both – I might try one (rivet) and then see what is behind it.

[wasbit]

I must be missing something here. Every double glazed window I have seen you remove the trim that keeps the glass in place, make note of any packers/spacers then remove the sealed unit (glass) & replace – no need to remove the frame.

--
Regards
wasbit

Rig 1: Optiplex 3050 SFF
Rig 2: Asus ROG G20CB (rebuilt wreck)
Rig 3: HP Elitebook 8440P

Dear Starfleet, hate you, hate the Federation, taking Voyager. - Janeway

[Ed P]

wasbit wrote:

I must be missing something here. Every double glazed window I have seen you remove the trim that keeps the glass in place, make note of any packers/spacers then remove the sealed unit (glass) & replace – no need to remove the frame.

BLs problem is that he can reduce costs if he takes the whole unit to a glazier rather than calling the glazier in to fix it while it is in place. Personally I think I’d swallow the extra cost as any accidental distortion of the frame during all these moves risks future rain/snow leaks.

[blacklion1725]

Actually Wasbit is right – I can remove the glass unit (the double glazed bit) and leave the actual fanlight frame in place – no need to remove the rivets. Been to see the local bloke again who will bake me up a new glass unit to slot back in to the frame. Me making it more complicated than it needed to be – he’s got a bit of matching glass (amazingly) and reckons £25 – result!

[Bob Williams]

Hope it doesn’t rain or snow until you get the glass back in place BL!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[blacklion1725]

Haha yes been better if it happened in a heatwave but…..plan is remove the current unit (with the one remaining pane of glass), take it to the local repair man down the road who will measure it accurately on the spot, then I’ll bring it (the old one) back and reinstall, wait for the new one to be made up, go and pick that up and install that in place of the old one – so should only be windowless for an hour or so….that’s the plan anyway!

[wasbit]

In fact, you didn’t need to remove the glass, just give the measurements to your repair man. However, wise move to get him to measure it.

You could fill the hole temporarily with a piece of thin ply or hardboard just to stop the cold & rain getting in.

--
Regards
wasbit

Rig 1: Optiplex 3050 SFF
Rig 2: Asus ROG G20CB (rebuilt wreck)
Rig 3: HP Elitebook 8440P

Dear Starfleet, hate you, hate the Federation, taking Voyager. - Janeway

[blacklion1725]

Yeah I thought it best to give the bloke the actual unit to measure up himself – and no need to board up, the unit was out less than an hour and is now back in until the new one is made. So all in all looks like I lot less fuss than I was expecting! Cheers.

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