Oh those rusty window grilles
Our 3-story house on 6th st came with decorative iron grilles over the windows and doors of the parlor and garden floors. They have not been cared for in at least 50 years and are caked with brittle paint and pock marked with rust. We are replacing the windows soon which means that the contractor…
Our 3-story house on 6th st came with decorative iron grilles over the windows and doors of the parlor and garden floors. They have not been cared for in at least 50 years and are caked with brittle paint and pock marked with rust. We are replacing the windows soon which means that the contractor will cut off the grilles to pop out the windows. (Does this sound right?) He said if we want to keep the grilles, he will weld them back on (Does THAT sound right?). It seems to me that there is a brief window of opportunity in between to fix up the grilles assuming we want them back on. Here’s where you can help: 1) VOTE – do you like or hate the round, curved decorative grilles? 2) How would you clean, rust proof, and paint them most efficiently? DIY or pro? Thanks a lot.
I agree with all the previous posters. Don’t remove the grilles; they are an integral part of the house and I think they look very nice anyway. Assuming your house and window-surrounds are all brownstone, new windows are installed from the inside, and your contracter might want to do it from the outside to save time/money, but I certainly can’t figure out why. At the very least, I would think you risk damaging the brownstone that way. Don’t listen to him; do it right, you’ll be glad you did. My house had the ground floor grilles removed by the previous owner, and we had a new one reproduced when the (empty but furnished) house next door was broken into through the “grille-less” ground floor window. In order to comply with fire codes, however, my new grille was installed with a padlock which is nearly invisible from the street, and the grille is almost indistinguishable from the original (Italian Ironworks on Bergen St did the work for me). Nevertheless, I still wish the original grille were intact. As for the old paint, it can be scraped off, the iron treated with a rust-preventer (Rustoleum?), and then painted, best two coats of a good sturdy paint. It’s certainly a DIY job if you have the time, but it will take time to do the job correctly, certainly more than a weekend.
Oh please keep them and don’t let them cut them off! They are usually gorgeous work and contractors can put the windows in from the inside. They were actually built into the building when it was built way back when and are, in my humble opinion, a critical component to the beauty of all our brownstones. That’s just my vote.
Best,
amy
Pietro is right – they should be able to install new windows on those floors from the inside. Every other window contractor I’ve seen does that. I have never seen anyone remove the bars. I also wouldn’t want to chance the impact resistant windows here. They may be sturdy enough to foil all but the most determined thief, but I would think that more of them would try to get in, and eventually someone will. Local thieves know that traditional brownstone bars are not going to be able to be easily removed, so they won’t even try to get in that way. Lack of window bars is going to be too tempting.
The paint can be scraped or knocked off pretty easily, it’s just time consuming. I would try that, and repaint and not remove them. Besides, no one is going to be able to strip them and get them back on in a day. You know Murphy’s Law – something always goes wrong. I would be pretty nervous about a ground floor window with no bars, even if you plywood it over.
If they are the original iron grilles, I would keep them. I kept them on my ground floor windows. They are actually really pretty and I’ve had people comment on them, so it doesn’t feel prison-like to me. When our contractor was refinishing them, he suggested cutting them off, taking them to get dipped and welding them back on. Maybe it’s standard procedure, but I got a little concerned and said no. We ended up scraping and painting them. They look fine. I also had new windows put in and they put them in from the inside of the house, so I don’t know why they’d have to take the grilles off?
I have done a couple of jobs in which my clients chose to install impact resistant (think huricanes/florida) glass in their new windows while getting rid of the iron bars over the windows. This glass can be broken but it is difficult to break through so it has some burglar resistant qualities. In addition to using this glass my clients installed alarms on their windows. While this type of glass means someone can’t easily break through the window pane they could still pry open the window with a pry bar or tire iron or something like that so this works best when the windows are strong and have strong locking mechanisms.
At least it looks like you aren’t living in a prison anymore.
Before you let your contractor touch them, I would suggest you see what an ironworker would do. It might be less money for them to take them to the shop and redo them, than to have them done onsite. Plus the job will be “cleaner” since the paint is not going near your stoop…