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Southampton Carpenter

southamptoncarpenter

Traditional standards. Traditional tradesman. Traditional service. I have been a carpenter for over 40 years, 5 year apprenticeship as a boat builder, 2 years as a wood machinist, then a spell repairing furniture and manufacturing reproduction antique clocks. I spent a further 15 years working in a therapeutic environment passing on my skills, before setting myself up as a self-employed carpenter/joiner. As you will appreciate, I undertake a wide range of projects, so scrolling through the site map may well direct you to past work that may be similar to your requirements. The preferred way to contact me is by using the contact page on this site. However you can always ring me during normal working hours. Lead times vary depending on the time of year; small jobs I can often do promptly. I cover Southampton and I am also happy to visit Winchester and Salisbury areas, but a small fee will be charged.

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Browsing Tags window repairs

Jobs involving windows , repairs and renovations

A stained glass window in Southampton.

July 28, 2020 · by southamptoncarpenter

A particularly tricky project with possible issues arising from the stained glass segments falling out or worse still breaking.
The stained glass itself is in a very ‘tired’ condition with the lead cames shot and the cement between the cames and glass cracked or missing. This is in addition to the rotten timber windows.
Normally I would take out the windows and glass and rebuild but that would entail something in the region of 200 hours labour. The windows also have not been opened for at least 30years and I was not going to attempt opening them.After some thought I decided to tape up the glass inside and out and then tackle the repair of the timber. Taking my time using specialist cutting blades set on a very high speed to reduce vibration I replaced the rotten timber with new. Thankfully it worked.

Stained glass window southampton before repairs

Stained glass window southampton repairs

On a separate note I advised the customer to insure these as an extra on their household insurance as the replacement costs would be somewhere in the region of £20,000 if the worst was to happen and a house fire destroyed the whole lot. Lead has a low melting point.

Southampton, UK

50.909700 -1.404351

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Yorkshire lights

January 6, 2020 · by southamptoncarpenter

A popular choice in late 19th and early 20th century buildings in the North of the UK, it is uncommon to see an example of the Yorkshire Light window in the South.
My understanding is that the design originated as the name suggests in and around Yorkshire. Openings for windows were often wider than their height due to dwellings in the North often being squat in comparison to dwellings further South. This no doubt was due to being exposed to the elements particularly on hill sides. A traditional sliding sash window requires height to be able to accommodate the weights and pully wheels to operate up and down.
This example required new shoes -the sliding windows run along Oak or metal runners fixed to the cill and housed in a rebate cut to the underside of the bottom rail, known as a plough groove . I also added draught brush seals set into carriers that eliminated draughts and reduced outside traffic noise.
In an edition of The Practical Woodworker dated 1929 it describes this style of window as being ‘very satisfactory in every sense’
I agree. They are a pleasure to operate pleasing to the eye and function without fuss. The customer had no idea of their rarity in the city of Southampton and was pleased with the end result. My only other experience of Yorkshire Lights in this part of the world would be a row of farm cottages that I worked on many years ago north of Winchester.

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An opener extensively damaged by wet rot.

January 6, 2020 · by southamptoncarpenter

An opener extensively damaged by wet rot. The bottom one third of the window was completely rotten due to wet rot.

The window although under a thatch overhang so set back by around 2ft (600mm) from the rain had suffered. I couldn’t work out why this was the case.

When I visited the customer to look at the job I thought perhaps there was a damp problem with the wall a traditional lath or perhaps an issue with rain from above through the thatch but if that was the case then the rot would occur at the top of the window not at the bottom.

I rebuilt the bottom 30% of the window and then refitted.

It was then that it became apparent why it had rotted. A wheelie Bin was placed in front of the window which was removed on my initial visit. When I finished the job it was replaced and the customer informed me that that’s where it always lives. The thatch overhang which has no gutter was immediately above, in heavy rain the water pours off the roof and continues to drip long after it has stopped raining the water was hitting the bin lid and splashing back onto the window. The bin had to be found a new home.

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New lease of life for a neglected window

January 6, 2020 · by southamptoncarpenter

Having been advised by a local council listed building department that they had received a number of complaints about a run down property the customer finally took action.
I was advised that these windows had not been touched or opened since the 1970s. As you can see they are in a pretty poor state although surprisingly little rot was present.
All the glass had to be removed, and rebates raked out. The joints required gluing up and clamping. The glazing beads needed replacement partings -that’s the timber between the glass and putty that forms part of the glazing bead. All the various layers of paint had to be stripped, a tedious task.
In total 120hours were spent on this one box sash window and frame.

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Major rebuild of a bay window.

October 16, 2019 · by southamptoncarpenter

This bay required extensive refurbishment. Cutting out of most of the bottom 20% , new windows, removal and repair of all the leaded glass before re-fitting.
and the introduction of secondary glazing into the leaded windows – the lead came had perished. New cills.
Was it worth it? well an 8 light timber bay made to measure worked out at over £12.000 this project came to under £7.000

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Leaded windows repairs

October 1, 2019 · by southamptoncarpenter

This was a challenging project. The leaded windows had extensive rot to the bottom rail and both the left and right hand stiles. New windows were made.
Because of the long term exposure to high moisture laden timber frames the lead cames around the edge of the glass had deteriorated and fell apart when they were removed. New edge came had to be soldered and each piece of glass recemented as these were leaking.
On top of that the bottom 20% of the actual frames and all the cills were very rotten.

I did at one point question if I had taken on too much! 10 days later I stood back and felt pleased with the outcome. All in all this still worked out cheaper than replacement.
So this character property in Bitterne – Southampton built in 1912 managed to keep its original windows.

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Repairing leaded windows in Southampton

August 28, 2019 · by southamptoncarpenter

An inevitable problem when removing leaded glass from a rotten window is that the solder can break at the joints and/or the edge came breaks away. Generally the longer the glass has been in place the more likely this will be the case. Repairing and in some cases replacing sections is a time consuming job.
Once the glass is out repairs can commence.

stained glass window repairs in southampton

Edge came that has broken

Step1. is to remove all the old putty from the lead with the glass laid flat on a board which has two pieces of wood screwed down. One so that the base or top of the glass can be laid tight against it and the other piece of wood along one of the edges.

Breaks in solder joints

Step 2.is to inspect each joint and to arrow these so that I know which joints need to be re-soldered

joins of a leaded window to be resoldered in southampton

Wire brush the solder joint and the adjacent lead

Step 3.is to wire brush the solder joint and the adjacent lead clean of all dirt so that the lead is shiny this allows the solder to fuse with the lead.

solder repaired on windows in southampton
Step 4. If required I need to hold tight the glass against the screwed down wood by either tapping in some hoarse shoe nails or by screwing down further battens. This is so that the whole piece remains static during soldering.

Soldering now commences.

Step 5. Soldering now commences.

Edges now need to be inspected and re-puttied

Step 6. All the joints along the edges now need to be inspected and re-puttied using a special putty cement and chalk dust.

Brushing and darkening the new solder with grate polish

Step7. Involves brushing in the putty and darkening the new solder with grate polish.
The whole process then needs to be repeated on the other side of the unit.
With replacement of lead came along the edges the above takes place once the old lead has been removed and the joints prepared to accept the new came.
There are numerous sizes of came so I have to measure carefully the width and profile, profiles are usually rounded or flat to match the original.

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Oak Slips in Southampton

June 7, 2019 · by southamptoncarpenter

Often it is the case that the mitre joint on a cill opens up. This happens a result of shrinkage usually after a prolonged spell of dry weather. The joint will remain open and this will allow moisture to penetrate over the winter months. Wet rot will follow.
A simple cost effective remedy is to insert Oak Slips. In this case 3.5mm thickness, Oak being a superb weather resistant material will remain in place without rotting for many years to come. By doing this the mitre joint always a weak spot will remain intact preventing wet rot to get a hold.

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Circular windows

May 25, 2019 · by southamptoncarpenter

A opportunity arose for me to undertake some circular work. The window in question had been re-glazed approximately 10years ago.
Unfortunately the glazier did not measure the bend correctly and had to fit the glass ‘off centre of the bend’. This resulted in the glass having to be forced against the rebate and pinned.In turn this meant that the glass was under pressure to spring back to its original form. There is a certain amount of give in curved glass but it will always want to return, just like a spring.
This pressure to spring back resulted in the glazing bead between the two pieces of glass to break at the joints. I suspect when the glazier formed a mould for the replacement glass he/she took measurements from the inside and did not include the depth of the rebate. The piece was 24mm short on the length, the precise depth of both rebates.
I fashioned a new mould by taking out the second piece of glass which fitted correctly and transferred this shape to a piece of plywood.
The glazing bead between the two pieces was repaired using Oak tenons that were slipped into mortices that I cut out and glued.
Once I had the replacement piece back from the manufactures’ it was a simple case of fitting.
There is always a moment of anxiety when offering up a bend but this one fitted like a glove.

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Window cill replacement

May 6, 2019 · by southamptoncarpenter

This started as a small area of rot in one of the corners. But once I started It became apparent that the whole cill had perished.
The exterior walls had been rendered and the interior walls plastered after the window had been fitted. It would have meant either a re- rendered exterior wall or a re-plastered interior wall if any attempt was made to remove the window frame, so replacement was not an option.
The property which is a grade 2 is situated 100meters from the beach. All new work was finished in a marine primer and marine grade paint will be used.

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