How to open a painted shut window: How to Open Painted-Shut Windows

How to Open Painted-Shut Windows

Photo: istockphoto.com

When you move into an older home, it’s not uncommon to find at least one window painted shut. Wood windows add plenty of historic character to a home, but when their frames and sashes get covered in coats of paint, they can be nearly impossible to open. While professional painters will use techniques to avoid this, DIYers may accidentally paint windows shut when trying to get the job done quickly. Luckily, there’s no need to replace the windows entirely—you can unstick them yourself using some basic tools.

Continue reading to learn how to open painted-shut windows using a technique that doesn’t take long or require any specialty supplies.

Tools & Materials

• N100-rated respirator mask
• Window zipper
• Putty knife
• Utility knife
• Bar soap

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Photo: amazon.com

This task requires either a putty knife and utility knife or a window zipper. While many people already have putty knives and box cutters in their toolboxes, investing in a window zipper—which is designed for windows that are painted shut—will make the job easier and is recommended if opening more than one window in your home. For the purposes of this article, we’ll describe how to unstick painted windows using a window zipper, though the process is similar when using a putty knife.

RELATED: How to Paint Your Window Trim

STEP 1: Protect yourself from lead paint. 

When working with painted-shut windows in an older home, there’s a strong possibility that they were painted with paint containing lead. In order to prevent potential lead exposure when removing the paint, it’s important to protect yourself. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends using a disposable N100-rated respirator mask when working with lead paint to prevent inadvertent inhalation. Wearing protective clothing like disposable coveralls, shoe covers, and a painter’s hat provides further protection.

STEP 2: Remove the latch. 

Windows usually become stuck when paint dries between the window’s sash and its jamb stops and parting stops. The sash is the part of the window that moves up and down, and the stops help direct the sash. Before tackling either of those elements, however, it’s important to address the latch.

If the window latch has been covered with paint, it’s best to unscrew it and remove it completely rather than attempting to chip off the paint. The process of opening the window will be easier when the latch is no longer in the way, and it can be reinstalled at the end of the process.

STEP 3: Use the window zipper to cut along the seams.

Slide the window zipper between the stop bead (the piece of wood covering the top and sides of the window) and the window sash (the frame containing the glass). If you intend to maintain rather than remove the paint, it’s important to be careful not to damage any paint on the sash or around the edges of the stop bead. The idea is to use just enough force to cut through any sealant or old paint that’s preventing your sash from moving. After completing this step, the window should open using a bit of force.

STEP 4: Pry open the window from the outside. 

If the window is still stuck, it’s possible that the window is painted shut from the outside. Head outside in order to access the exterior side of the window. Perform the same action you used inside, using the window zipper to cut along the edge of the sash. Then, carefully use a pry bar to lift open the bottom sash.

STEP 5: Lubricate the window to prevent it from sticking again.

At this point, the paint seal has been broken, and the window should open and close with relative ease. In order to prevent it from sticking again, however, it’s best to provide some lubrication. Using a standard bar of soap, rub along the edges of the channel in which the sash travels. This will allow the sash to move more smoothly.

Final Thoughts

Photo: istockphoto.com

After reading this article, you should have a clearer idea of how to open windows that are painted shut. By investing in a simple tool—or using the ones you already have on hand—your stuck window can be fixed in just a few minutes. Follow these steps on how to unstick a painted window and take particular note of the safety instructions for dealing with windows that may be coated in lead paint.

RELATED: How to Remove Paint from Glass

How to Open Painted Shut Windows

How to Open Painted Shut Windows

Wiggle your windows loose

Photo: Westend61 / Getty Images

Difficulty

No experience? No problem.

Time to complete

1 hour

Need professional help with your project?

Get quotes from top-rated pros.

What you’ll need:

TOOLS

• Putty knife
• Pry bar
• Hammer
• Screw gun
• Paint scraper
• Utility knife or razor blade
• Ladder
• Window opener

SUPPLIES

• Primer
• Paint
• Paint brush
• Sandpaper
• Dust mask
• Gloves

There are few things as frustrating as wanting to open a window on a fresh spring day only to find the window won’t budge. The likely culprit? Your stuck window is painted shut. Fortunately, it’s a simple problem with a simple solution — follow these steps and you’ll know how to open painted shut windows in no time.

Prepping to Open a Window That’s Painted Shut

There’s an inexpensive tool on the market, aptly called a window opener (makes sense, right?). This handy device makes opening old windows painted shut a lot quicker than the traditional method of sliding a putty knife in between the sash and window frame. You can purchase this stainless steel blade—essentially a paper-thin, serrated, wedge-shaped saw—from most hardware stores. Be sure to wear gloves when using this tool as it is very sharp and also fragile; it will snap if you try to work it too quickly or use it as a pry bar.

Before you start, make sure the window is unlocked. Plan on working on the window from the outside, so get your ladder set up if the window is on the second floor or out of reach. Working on a window from the inside is a lot more work that will require cleanup and mildly destructive removal of the interior window frame.

The last prep step to take is checking for the presence of lead-based paint. If you live in an old house built before 1978, it’s likely there is lead paint on the outside and inside. You’ll want to follow best lead-safety practices and test using a commonly available swab. If lead is there, you should take basic precautions like wearing a dust mask, vacuuming with a HEPA filter, and thoroughly washing your clothing after the job is complete to prevent exposure to others, especially children.

6 Steps to Opening a Painted Shut Window

1. Verify the Window Is Painted Shut, Not Nailed Shut

   Photo: Tsuneo Yamashita / Photodisc / Getty Images

   Before you start chipping away at the paint sealing the window down, you’ll need to ensure it is actually painted shut and not just nailed. If the latter, you can start by removing the screw or nail that is preventing the window from opening with a screw gun or hammer and pry bar, respectively, before attempting to break the window free.

2. Separate the Paint From the Window

   The thin blade of the window opener is specifically designed to easily slice through a paint seal from the window edge to the frame. Work it like a saw with short back-and-forth motions and don’t force the tool or it will break. It’s made to get in deep and cut the years of old paint away from the window frame like a razor saw. If you don’t have access to a window opener, you can use a putty knife instead, but for excessively painted cracks, you’ll have a hard time making this work.

3. Check Between the Top and Bottom Sash

   Photo: jansmarc / iStock / Getty Images Plus

   Both sides of the window will need to be free of the gluing effects of excessive paint buildup, but you’ll also need to check the tops and bottom edges of the sash to ensure they are free and clear. Homeowners sometimes caulk or otherwise seal up these exposed joints in an effort to prevent water intrusion so, using the same window opener tool, work the blade between the cracks to create a clean break between them.

4. Crack the Seal

   Now for the big hurrah. Once you feel like you’ve broken the seal and created a clear separation between the window sash and the frame, give the window a quick tug upwards. You might have to wiggle the sash or deliver sharp blows to the upper edge of the window to make the separation complete. If these tricks don’t work, take a pry bar to the bottom edge and gently work the window up until you’ve got movement.

5. Sand the Exposed Rails

   Photo: Paul Maguire / Adobe Stock

   Once you’ve freed the window from its previously painted shut situation, you can ensure smooth movement of the sash in the future by taking rough, 50-to-80-grit sandpaper to the slide rails. This will remove all the old material and create a clean channel for the sash to work the way it was intended.

6. Touch Up the Paint

   The process of breaking a window free from decades of excessive painting will generate a host of chips and scratches on the exterior of the frame. You’ll want to sand down obvious sections and, if there is raw wood, prime with a high-quality exterior primer. Keeping the window all the way open while you apply the topcoat is a smart move to prevent the windows from sticking back together again. Paint the entire window, sash, and frame with fresh paint to complete the job.

DIY Opening a Painted Window vs. Hiring a Pro

While jimmying open painted windows is easily something you can learn to do yourself, if the entire house has issues with excessive, dried paint on the window edges, you might want to hire a professional painter to save you the time and elbow grease.

Need professional help with your project?

Get quotes from top-rated pros.

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How to Reopen a Closed Browser Window in Chrome – Network Administration

by adminPosted on

Most web browsers come with options to restore accidentally closed tabs or even browser windows. This can be useful if you find out later that you want to revisit a website you visited earlier, or a browser window if you need to access its content again. This can also be useful if you accidentally close a tab or browser window.

Reopening a tab is easy in Chrome. Web browser users can simply right-click on a browser tab or an empty space in the tab bar and select the Reopen Closed Tab option from the context menu that opens, or use the Ctrl-Shift keyboard shortcut. -T do the same.

Note that Chrome reopens tabs in chronological order, starting with the last tab that was closed in the browser.

By the way, you can use the Closed Tab Reopen feature to reopen a closed window. Chrome seems to be mixing tabs and windows here, so you can reopen a closed tab until the window you closed earlier reopens. This is a bit confusing as Chrome displays “reopen closed tab” or “reopen closed window” in the context menu, but not both options at the same time.

While necessary, this is usually not the best solution when it comes to opening a closed tab that was closed some time ago.

Chrome provides another way to reopen closed browser tabs. Simply select Menu > History to display the last eight tabs or windows closed in the browser.

Individual tabs are listed with the page title, and windows are listed with the number of tabs they contain. Clicking reopens the specified tab or window in the Chrome browser.

Complete Chrome History, available by clicking Menu > History > History or by loading chrome://history/ directly in the browser, does not display a list of closed windows.

There appears to be no way to restore closed windows in Chrome if the closed window is no longer shown in the Recently Closed section of the History menu.

The only option in this case is to view the history to open the tabs that were displayed in this browser window.

Old info below

Update : Google changed the new tab page to no longer display the options to restore tabs. You can restore the old tab by following the link in this paragraph. Clicking the menu button in Chrome displays a new recovery tab menu which you can also use instead.

But how do you open a closed window in Chrome? As a Firefox user, I jumped straight to the browser history, thinking that Google would display recently closed windows there, just like Mozilla does in their Firefox browser. But the history simply lists all the websites and services that have been visited in the past, regardless of which browser window they were opened in.

So how do you reopen a closed browser window in Google Chrome? You’ll find the answer to this question on the Chrome New Tab page. Press Ctrl-T to open a new blank tab page and find the menu bar at the bottom. Here you will find links to the most visited websites and apps that you can switch between.

To the right of it is the menu that was recently closed, and this is where you can restore the closed browser window, provided it is still displayed here.

Google Chrome windows are numbered here followed by tabs. Clicking on an entry opens a window with all the tabs listed there so you can work with it again.

Since only ten entries are listed here, it is important to reopen the window as soon as possible before it is moved from the top ten of the list to the recently closed menu.

So, either press Ctrl-Shift-T until the window reopens, or use the recently closed menu to do so.

Posted in System

How to open a closed browser window in Chrome

Most web browsers come with options to restore tabs or even browser windows that you have accidentally closed. This can be useful if you later find yourself wanting to revisit a website you visited earlier, or a browser window in case you need to access its content again. This can also be useful if you accidentally close a tab or browser window.

Reopening a tab is not a big problem in Chrome. Web browser users can simply right-click on a browser tab or an empty space in the tab bar and select the Reopen Closed Tab option from the context menu that opens, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift -T to do the same.

Note that Chrome opens tabs in chronological order, starting with the last tab closed in the browser.

Note: You can use the Open Open Tab feature to open a closed window. It appears that Chrome mixes tabs and windows together so that you can use reopening closed tabs until the window you closed before reopens. This is a little confusing, as Chrome displays “reopen a closed tab” or “reopen a closed window” in the context menu, but not both options at the same time.

Although required, this is usually not the best solution when it comes to opening a closed tab that was closed some time ago.

Chrome supports another option to reopen closed browser tabs. Simply select Menu > History to display the last eight tabs or windows closed in the browser.

Individual tabs are listed with the title of the page and window with the number of tabs they contained. Clicking reopens the listed tab or window in the Chrome browser.

Full Chrome history, accessible by clicking Menu > History > History or loading chrome://history/ directly in the browser, does not display closed windows.

There doesn’t seem to be a way to restore closed windows in Chrome if the closed window is no longer shown in the Recently Closed section of the History menu.

The only option in this case is to view the history to open the tabs that were displayed in this browser window.

Old info below

Update : Google changed the new tabs page, which no longer displays options to restore tabs there. You can restore the old tab by following the link in this paragraph. Clicking the menu button in Chrome displays a new recovery tab menu that you can also use instead.

But how do you open a closed window in Chrome? As a Firefox user, I jumped straight to the browser history, thinking that Google would display recently closed windows there in much the same way that Mozilla did in their Firefox browser. But history simply lists all the websites and services that have been visited in the past, regardless of which browser window they were opened in.

So how do you reopen a closed browser window in Google Chrome? You can find the answer to this question in a new tab in Chrome. Press Ctrl-T to open a new blank tab and find the menu bar at the bottom. Here you will find links to the most visited sites and applications between which you can switch.

To the right of this is the menu that was recently closed, and this is where you can restore your closed browser window, provided it’s still listed here.

Google Chrome windows are identified by a number followed by tabs.