WINDOW RESTORATION WORKSHOP IN MINERAL COUNTY, WV

By Frank Roleff, Mineral County Historical Society

The Old Stone House/Traveller’s Rest, along Route 50, was once a tavern and is currently being restored by the Mineral County Historical Foundation with the goal to open a gift shop and visitor’s center within it.

On July 14, 2012, the Mineral County Historical Foundation sponsored a window restoration workshop at Traveller’s Rest (The Old Stone House) with Lynn Stasick of the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia as the instructor/facilitator.  It was attended by one Foundation member and four “Friends of the Stone House.”

The Old Stone House/Traveller’s Rest, along Route 50, was once a tavern and is currently being restored by the Mineral County Historical Foundation with the goal to open a gift shop and visitor’s center within it.

After a short, but informative powerpoint presentation on the value of restoring old wooden sash windows, Lynn introduced the volunteer work crew to the wonders of steam as it relates to the removal of glass and paint from window sashes.  The individual pane steamer is a handy device for removing glass from sashes.  Ten sashes with six panes each were to be worked on.  Of the sixty panes, only three were lost to breakage, and they were broken in the sash before the process started.  All participants were amazed at the efficiency of this device because we had all tried to remove glass with various hand tools.  The steam process is quick, easy, and with  no loss of glass.The steam chest that Lynn brought was used to soften paint on the sashes after glass removal.  With 20 to 30 minutes exposure to steam in the cabinet, paint can be removed with appropriate scrapers with little effort and no paint/lead dust.

Because not all of the paint could be removed on the 14th, Lynn left a steam generator and cabinet for follow-up use.  Progress continues to be made on preparing the sashes for painting and reglazing.

Lynn’s ingenuity with building and use of the steam devices referred to has saved the Foundation’s hard earned dollars for other projects too large for its volunteer force. With information gleaned from this workshop, the Foundation project manager believes that restoration of all of the remaining windows in Traveller’s Rest can be accomplished with little or no money spent on labor. The Mineral County Historical Foundation sincerely thanks the Preservation Alliance for making Lynn Stasick available for this window restoration project.

Three workshop participants rehabbing windows for their restoration project.

Three workshop participants rehabbing windows for their restoration project.

Thank you to our blog contributor, Frank Roleff, for this complimentary article.  For more information about having Lynn at one of your workshops, click HERE. 

Don’t believe how easy it can be to rehab your own windows?  Watch this video and you’ll be convinced! Historic Window Rehabilitation with Lynn Stasick