| Wanamaker Restoration

Does this make any sense to you? Window restorers in Vermont that are working on one of my projects want to dip windows to remove the glaze & paint. I say dipping the windows makes me nervous & that I’d rather have them use steam of a speed heater. They say they’ve never heard of either treatment!

Do you know of a dipping process that doesn’t make you cringe? I though dipping adversely affected the wood if not done correctly, and a lot of people screw up! – Julie Weisgerber

Although we don’t dip sash – too messy and chemicals are expensive – we do use chemicals sometimes. I’ve had doors dip stripped for me for years and never had a paint failure. I think it depends on the cleaning and prep. People have always said that the chemicals react to glue and can encourage structural failure but most old doors and windows are dry assembled with wood pins or wedges so glue shouldn’t be an issue.

The real question is why they never heard of steam or the “silent paint remover”. Also, not seeing the windows I feel that maybe their price is a little low, but I can’t tell. We use a per lite formula that usually covers our worse case scenario’s.

So the short answer is (and I know some disagree) that chemicals are alright if you’re set up for it, just gross and dangerous, and they would need to guarantee the paint job for an extended time.

My opinion,

Ron