Reusing an old upvc door

[ColeyS1]

I've been umming and ahhing a window for the shed for a while. I always thought If I put a window in the shed, people would start gawping through the hole.
Some of you may remember I recently made a rusty planter

Ever since that I thought perhaps a small window might be o.k, cause someone would have to lean over the planters to see in.
I've been keeping an eye open ever since, waiting for a suitable piece of glass.
I found some on Sunday :lol:

Some nice leaded 30mm double glazed units ! For £6 I didn't mind that the lead didn't look quite how I wanted. I decided for extra privacy that I could add some window tint film to the inside. I remember my mates back in the day adding it to their cars and how it always use to peel at the edges. That's when I thought how convenient it'd be if I had a upvc window and easy to remove beads/panes of glass.
The tip wouldn't allow me to just take the glass out on their premises , for health and safety reasons, so I had to take the entire door then take back what I didn't need - there ain't gonna be much left to take back :lol:

This is the centre section of the door. If I ripped it down the middle I could reuse the frame

Cut the bottom of the door off and removed the aluminium strengthening bar's.

Put in an old saw blade and started cutting off the top and middle rail of the door. Something peculiar was happening cause the cut didn't look right. The top section of the door was 20mm out of square!!!!! They can't have even checked it !?

I cut the door in half, surprisingly it cut really well and didn't seem at all brittle.

I trimmed the ends off (had to push the frame square)
Just need to make a simple frame for both of them to sit in, also to add a little strength. The rest of the shed is softwood so I guess idigbo should be a cheap and good enough for this job.

Window tint should come tomorrow. Hopefully make a start on the frame tomorrow night.

Coley

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[lee celtic]

Cool idea.. but... remember you said easy to pop out the beads and remove the glass.. now think the same thing if your trying to nick stuff out of a locked shed.. might want to add a nice fancy grill or something on the outside..

 

[Rorschach]

Nice bit of recycling there.

 

[n0legs]

Cool idea.. but... remember you said easy to pop out the beads and remove the glass.. now think the same thing if your trying to nick stuff out of a locked shed.. might want to add a nice fancy grill or something on the outside..

Install the window with the beads on the inside :wink:




Looking good Coley =D>
The recycling gods must look upon you favourably :lol:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Ideal. My old workshop had windows made from d/g panels from beer fridge doors.

 

[ColeyS1]

Cool idea.. but... remember you said easy to pop out the beads and remove the glass.. now think the same thing if your trying to nick stuff out of a locked shed.. might want to add a nice fancy grill or something on the outside..

Most upvc products have the beads so either a rubber has to be removed first on the inside, then the bead on the outside becomes loose. In this instance, as nolegs mentioned, the beads are on the inside do it shouldn't be an issue.
The tricky bit will be adding drainage for it

Phil it's amazing how much good stuff people consider to be rubbish isn't it. Working with what you can get,more often than not means compromising but at least it means less goes to landfill. Does your shed windows have beer decals/branding aswell ? That'd be kinda cool !
Coley


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[ColeyS1]

The recycling gods must look upon you favourably :lol:

I think it pays to be persistent
I'm wondering if the door would have started off square but over time gradually dropped- that'd be quite a good selling point for wooden windows if over time upvc door joints started to fail.

The panels also had a plywood section that had got damp, swelled and started to degrade. Simple door construction but it's definitely made to a price instead of quality.

Coley

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[skipdiver]

Get yourself a couple of drainage caps to save putting a hole through the lot. Just drill into the upvc chamber from the rebate, drill some (i think from memory) 5mm holes in the front of the frame and pop them in.

 

[ColeyS1]

Get yourself a couple of drainage caps to save putting a hole through the lot. Just drill into the upvc chamber from the rebate, drill some (i think from memory) 5mm holes in the front of the frame and pop them in.

Oh willy's, now that is a good idea! !!!!!!!!! I wonder if the tip have any in stock


Coley

 

[skipdiver]

They don't cost much new.

 

[ColeyS1]

A little more progress

Only butt jointed the frame together.

Drainage slots on the head. Architrave type surround to go on the sides and head

Coley

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[ColeyS1]

Glued the upvc to the frame last night

This morning I cut off the dried glue and drilled some drainage holes - I looked into getting the drainage caps but decided hidden holes might look neater

Acetoned off the upvc and gave everything a lick of zinsser 123.
An hour later after returning from the dog walk I splashed on a coat of bedec barn paint.

I think it looks much better now it's had a lick of something.
It's had 2 bedec coats but I might give it another one tomorrow for good measure.
Just need to fit the window tint film, which I'm really really not looking forward to !!

Coley

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[ColeyS1]

Cleaned off as much grime as I could from the glass.
In hingsight I probably should have cleaned off my bench thoroughly first.

The dust on the film looked tiny tiny tiny but when I started to squuegy out the water I noticed lots of tiny scratches from it. Here's a pic of the tinted glass vs the plain glass

I'm fairly sure it's not quite as dark as I was hoping but will have more idea once it's fitted. I was aiming for the greyest tint possible without being limo black but think this is probably a tad too light.

The tints had a few days to dry, I'm tempted to plop them in the holes just to see how it might look. Don't think I'll attempt to fit it today until the cuts had a few more days to heal.
Coley


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[ColeyS1]

Finally got around to fitting it this afternoon.

Im really pleased with how much light it let's in, despite being able to see hardly anything from the outside.

Studwork and insulate the inside next- hopefully be ready for the summer !!

Coley

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[MattRoberts]

That looks awesome - nice one!

 

[skipdiver]

I loves a bit of recycling. Looks like it grew there.

 

[Woodchips2]

Well done Coley, looks a lovely job as does the shed =D> =D> =D>

One person's rubbish is another's treasure plus it saves a bit of landfill.

Regards Keith

 

[ColeyS1]

Thanks chaps. Not sure why it took almost 4 months to fit it though :lol:
Cheers
Coley

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[Brian18741]

That turned out great Coley, nice work!

 

[MARK.B.]

Good job Coley , looks as though its always been there .