I went to do a bid this morning on a residential cleaning and the customer has all french pane windows on the outside, and they have two piece storms on the inside. I was able to remove the interior bottom sash that tilted out, but I see no way to slide of remove the top sash. Anybody ever seen these two piece storms?
burn the house down and run
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Got pics?
They look kind of familiar⌠I assume the top ones have pins on the sides that fit into tracks?
If so, the bottom pins may be nested inside a sort of âlock,â thatâs offset from the rest of the track.
Did you try raising the top pane? If it lifts even a little, try either pulling the bottom edge towards you, or pushing it away from you (gently! It shouldnât take much if this is the case).
Doing either may release the bottom pins from their âlock,â (think of how a train track junction can be âswitchedâ and changes the trainâs course) and they will be able to slide freely. Then, itâs just a matter of finding where you can pull the pane out of the track (a gap in the track for the pins to slide out of).
Or thatâs not it, try to look/feel for a latch underneath or behind the bottom edge of the top pane. It may have spring-loaded pins that lock it into place, similar to the bottom pane, but they will be harder to see. If it does, simply pull the pins inwards and the pane should freely slide down. From there, you may have the same thing with the top pins or some other mechanism - or you just tilt it like the bottom pane.
Either way, it definitely looks like it can be removed.
Hopefully the bottom pins arenât inserted into a spring-loaded weight-bearing lever. In that case: youâll have to pull the top pane down (against the weight of the spring, but you wonât have to pull very hard), release the top pins which may be retractable, and tilt the pane sideways to free the bottom pins. Be careful, though, if this is the case - the spring will retract violently if you canât catch it. And, to put it back together, youâll have to pull the spring down, fit the pin into itâs housing, and do the same with the other side, all while trying to hold the pane level and fighting the spring. Then, the top of the pane will fit back into the track. (I hate these kindsâŚ)
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Donât waste your time, I donât even give bids on storm windows anymore. Not worth the time I would spend if they arenât fully functioning.
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To be fair, theyâre a nice way to double to triple your income from a job. To each his own, though.
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I would ask the customer if they know how the top part opens / if it opens.
Usually if I canât figure it out I ask the customer if they know lol.
If youâre unable to open it Iâd just say looks like we canât open the top window so the top wouldnât be cleaned in and out
And double or triple how annoyed you are⌠I turn down at least one storm inquiry a week⌠my stress level is nice and low.
Iâd rather wash a few houses, not have to go inside and deal with storm windows and make that low stress money.
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Double is where I aim when the âdoes that include tracksâ which means you could piss on the glass and they wouldnt care, they see their filth in the tracks and want us to make them white.
Storms? Man, Im a good 4x to 5x normal pricing, these days, because most everyone else in town will flat out say âNO.â
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But you chose to show an image, to help solve the issue⌠of the bottom, that you got out. ?
And did it tilt âout?â or in/towards you
Either way, I can walk you thru this situation, and Iâd actually leave the top storm IN.
(too many want to completely break down storms, clean both sides, and try to fight with them to fit back in⌠only to have to re-detail after their own fingerprints are all over them.
Never worry about the side that faces you (inside) that can/should be cleaned last, after the storms are back in place.
[another thing, dont confuse in with out⌠keep a precedent "in(ward) is towards the interior of the house, towards you. Outside/outward is the exterior of the house/window)
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In your case, you remove that bottom, set it aside (clean the exterior side, dont worry about the inside face right now.
-
slide the top storm down, and clean top side of cutup window
-
raise the lower cutup window up
-
clean the inside face of the âcutup windowâ
â have your partner clean the outer face of that storm that is now accessible -
slide the storm back to top position - close outter window (cutup side)
âpartner cleans outside of cutup windows -
replace storm bottom (outter side already clean, so touch inside only to adjust/fight with.)
NOW YOU HAVE COMPLETE WINDOW BACK IN PLACEâŚ
- clean inside of both top and bottom interior storm windows = done
The bottom piece pulled inwards towards you if you are on inside. I basically doubled my price on the bid. The customer got back to me and said they wouldnât be able to spend what I was askingâŚ
The windows are old and the customer mentioned they may end up replacing them.
Thanks for the tips. It looked like it was going to be a major PITA.
I ran into another interesting one this morning. Customer had screens and they were screwed into the frames AND had bead of silicon around the edges.
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Yeah, I caught that, thats why I clarified/asked.
- You made an attempt to service, and can hold your head high that you werent price gouging.
- truth told, it may be cheaper for the cust to replace than to have cleaned. lol
And that makes you life just that much easier!
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Letâs hear it. What did you charge.
Donât be shy 
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The top comes out the same way as the bottomâŚcould be in backwards so that those sliding tabs are facing out and you cant see them.
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With the uncertainty of storms, along with a couple of indiscernable pics⌠you figured it out!
Nice catch, man!!!
Was going to charge about $650.
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lol. This is my favorite thing Ive seen in a long time!!!
- I keep coming back to it!
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That was freakin hilarious! It was a ton of french panes too. Last time I did a house sight unseen for $225 and got stuck doing french panes all day in the Texas heat in August. Never again!
