Repairing a Deteriorating Attic Dormer Window

There’s a single third-story window in the attic. It’s charming. As in, I think dormers are cute.

But from a curb appeal standpoint, the paned glass window itself looked creepy – it was painted black and then covered with a screen. For no obvious reason, when the windows on the house were updated, the attic window was ignored.

That top dormer window; creepy as can be.

The window appeared to be fixed in place with no opening mechanism. It was also heavily painted, reinforcing its seal around the edges. It wasn’t until a recent windstorm that I heard a crash and noticed it had been blown inwards to the attic floor. Impressive gusts! I’m glad I checked on the noise right away, because I was able to fix the situation quickly before I lost too much in the sense of heat efficiency.

The attic in this house is a creepy place, still filled with many objects left by the previous owners. The fear factor isn’t helped by the huge snowsuit or work suit or something that my boyfriend hung up that looks similar to a dark-shaded body next to the window. I scare easily. It looks like something out of Criminal Minds. Body bags. Creepy attic folk. Ax murderers.

That’s not a person standing there.

When the window blew inward during the storm, the quickest solution was to attach a wooden block to the inside frame to pin the loosened window in place. You can see it right at the top in the previous photo, and again in this next one. It worked well enough; there’s no easy way for the window to come free now.

A board is attached to the window frame to hold the broken pane in place.

When the window had blown free, I also noticed how filthy it was. Covered with chipping paint and weakened glazing, and desperately needed some love.

The screen was messed up too. It was torn in one corner, and it’s not actually a formal screen – just a piece of mesh stretched and stapled to the window opening. I’m not even sure what purpose it served, but indicates to me that the window wasn’t always permanently fixed. It must have opened at some point.

A damaged window screen needs to be replaced.

I waited until the weather was warmer to disassemble the window again.

I left the screen in place for the time being so that I could try and keep bugs out of the house while I was repairing the paned glass.

The window came out easily once I loosened its temporary blockade installed after the wind storm. Then, I spent an hour sanding and scraping most of the loose paint and glazing.

I was able to apply new glazing putty to the windows on the same day.

Reglazing an old paned glass window.

When it came to painting, I ended up doing something that I wasn’t planning on. While the painted chipping side was getting repaired, it was heavily weathered. Instead of spending more time hand-sanding and carefully scraping, I decided to flip the pane so the previous interior could serve as the new exterior. This surface was then painted with white exterior paint.

I’m not sure if you’re allowed to do that or not, but I’ll tell you, it worked for me.

Once it had been painted and dried, I insulated the inside of the window with a shrink foam window kit. I also lined the window sill with self-stick vinyl foam weatherstrip. These products were actually something I had gotten for free at the Buffalo Home Show that I visited and wrote about earlier in the year.

Window film shrink-wraps the inside of the window to eliminate airflow.

The reinstall was a snap. I removed the dirty screen from the window, along with as many staples as I could detect, and secured the window against the new weather seal. I reinstalled the original wood block and a secondary one along the bottom to hold the window in the frame.

The change from the curb is still quite minimal and probably only noticed on a day-to-day basis by yours truly, but I’m quite happy with the dormer now that it doesn’t look like a creepy Criminal Minds hideaway.

The updated, insulated dormer window in the attic.