How to Paint Windows and Trim
Painting Windows is a pain – and nothing I can say will change that. But I can offer you a perfected procedure that will keep the pain to a minimum and produce a faster, neater, more durable job, one that will hold up longer until it’s time to repaint.
The first step is preparing the window properly. Start by removing all the hardware, such as locks, latches and lifts. It’s faster and neater to remove and replace these than it is to paint around them Then check for cracked and peeling paint. This problem is common on windows; it’s caused by condensation on the glass. All loose paint should be carefully chipped away. Then sand the rough edges of the bare spots to feather them out.
Spot-prime any bare spots with the primer recommended on the label of the enamel you’ll be using to paint the window. That enamel can be either latex or alkyd (oil base), but I prefer the alkyd. Reason? Latex enamels get better all the time, but they are still not as tough and don’t dry as hard as a good alkyd. And they are more prone to ”blocking” or sticking. That can make the window balky and hard to open.
Putting on the paint: There’s a logical sequence to follow when painting a window. It speeds the job, keeps the window from sticking shut, and helps prevent accidental contact with wet paint as you work.
- Slide the upper sash down, and the lower sash up. This will expose the inside face of the upper meeting rail.
- Using a 2-inch sash brush, paint that face, the top of that rail and a couple of inches up the stiles and muntins of that same sash.
- To prevent messy dripping, dip your brush only 2 inches into the paint. The easiest way to do this is to pour 2 inches of paint into a coffee can and dip out of that. This creates an automatic depth gauge.
- Now raise the upper sash and drop the lower, but don’t close the window all the way. Leave it open about an inch top and bottom. This will give you access to the rest of the window, and also prevent the fresh paint you have applied to the upper meeting rail from sticking to the back of the lower meeting rail.
- Finish off the rest of the upper sash. Work from the inside out, doing the muntins first, the stiles and rails of the frame last.
I used to be fussy about keeping paint off the glass when I painted windows. This is a waste of time. Now I just paint the muntins and frames as quickly as I can and forget about the glass.
The next day I spend about two minutes with a window scraper, cleaning the glass. But I don’t scrape off all the paint. I leave a border about 1/16th of an inch wide all around each pane. This helps seal the window and keeps moisture away from the wood. Most window scrapers are designed to leave this tiny border automatically if you hold them properly.
Next, the bottom sash. Like the upper sash, paint this from the inside out. Next, paint the inside of the groove the lower sash rides in – but only that part that is accessible. If you raise the lower sash and paint the bottom of its track, you’ll probably just glue things together.
Last parts of the window to receive paint are the casing, then the stool and the apron. After the paint has set up enough to allow handling, slide each sash up and down a few times to avoid any sticking problems.
Wait a day or two before scraping the glass. Timing is important. If you wait too long, especially on a window exposed to the sun, the paint becomes hard and difficult to scrape. But if you scrape too soon, the paint scrapings may be tacky. They’ll stick to whatever they touch, and they’re the very devil to remove.
That’s it. Reattach your hardware and the job is finished.
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