Rigging up ventilation for spray booth

First off, to the forums!

Ah! The joys of older houses! I've lived in, and extensively remodeled (read, in many instances, "rebuilt") a house originally constructed in 1910 for the last twenty-six years. If you find a right angle, it wasn't originally!

What you need is a heat gun. You should be able to find one at a local hardware store. These are not hair dryers, but they look sort of like one on steroids. They blow a blast of very hot air out the nozzle, hot enough to burn things, including you. So watch where you point them! They often come with a scraper that can be attached to the nozzle, but I wouldn't bother with that—just use a stiff-bladed putty knife.

Because paint and caulk are polymeric, they soften when heated. Window glazing compound is the same. To remove the glass from the window, heat the glazing compound with the heat gun until it softens, then scrape it away. Once that is gone, you should find glazing points holding the glass in place. These are about 1/4 inch sized, either triangular or sometimes rectangular pieces of flat metal driven in parallel to the pane of glass. Pry them out by pushing sideways with a screwdriver. The glass can then be removed.

To remove the entire window panel, heat the paint/caulk and scrape it away. Then heat any caulk that was forced between the frame and the window panel, and rake it out with the putty knife and a piece of stiff wire. When you have gotten all that you can remove out, proceed to the next step.

If you discovered nails between the window panel and the frame, the best solution is to cut them by inserting a short-handled hacksaw (also at the hardware store, looks like a keyhole saw but with a metal-cutting blade) into the seam between the window panel and the frame.

Next you will need a woodworker's crowbar. It looks almost like an ordinary crowbar, but it's only about a foot long, 2 inches wide at the widest, and about 3/16 inch thick. Both ends have very thin tapers so they can be worked into thin seams and joints. Insert the crowbar into the space between window panel and frame. You may have to drive it in in places with a hammer or mallet. When fully inserted, pry firmly at intervals of no more than 2 inches until the frame comes loose and you can work it out gradually.

All that being said, don't be surprised if you break a pane of glass at some point. Old glass can get quite brittle and fragile. To replace, just proceed as first described. Wear gloves while handling broken glass! If the glass breaks, as part of your cleanup, wipe down the floor area below the window with a wet rag or bundle of paper towels to pick up the tiny splinters and fragments you can't see. If it is over carpet, you should put down a drop cloth before starting any work.

Good luck! 

Hi,

Just my two cts: Does the finished basement have a bathroom? If so, the bathroom might have an air duct with a fan to the exterior. I'm doing most of my painting in the basement bathroom, with the dryer-type duct hanging with some hooks from the fan intake.

You could, of course, disregard Ross's detailed "deconstruction" methods , and simply use a glass cutter to cut out the proper diameter for your duct, and seal it where it passes through.

Gip

Pablete wrote:

Hi, Just my two cts: Does the finished basement have a bathroom? If so, the bathroom might have an air duct with a fan to the exterior. I'm doing most of my painting in the basement bathroom, with the dryer-type duct hanging with some hooks from the fan intake.

Pablete,

I honestly think that what you describe is completely inefficient (and more than likely non-functional).  You're trying to exhaust heavier-than-air vapors upwards through a duct that is not sealed to a fan designed to remove rising water vapor.  A bathroom fan, pulling at a decent 200-300 fpm into an unsealed duct will simply not generate enough velocity pressure to move the vapors outside.  It's doubtful that would happen in a sealed system, either.  You should consider some other alternatives to the one you are using now.  If you need some help, yell.  We're here!

Gip Winecoff

Thanks for the welcome, everyone! I've been away from the hobby far too long. I'm a plane modeler with occasional SF forays. I just build whatever looks like fun.

There is a bathroom, but alas, no fan.

I'll be taking a closer look at the basement windows tomorrow from the outside, as last weekend the weather was very IFR here and I wasn't in the mood to get wet. I'm hoping to find some more clues as to what these folks did to this house. We guess that it was built in the mid-1950's, considering the two inch plus thick oak floor joists and solid concrete foundation, among other things. I swear I could hold off a Panzer from my basement!

I'm hoping not to have to cut glass, because I was never good at it. I do have good health insurance, though! If I can be sure that it's puttied and painted in, I'll invest in a heat gun and have at it.

If the joists are over 2 inches thick, it is very unlikely that it is 1950's. Early 40's, maybe. Thirties, possible. 1920's or earlier, likely.

Ross,

You have to admit, in those days they built houses to last (with care of course).  We live in a house (ok a bungalow) built in the 1923. The joists in the basement are 2.5 to 3 inches thick and are the hardest wood I've ever seen.  It's close to impossible to drive a nail w/o bending it and if you don't predrill, forget about getting a screw driven - you can't get a screw started by hand and if you use a powered screwdriver, the screw goes about 1/2 way, stops and if you keep trying to screw it in, the head snaps off.  I swear it's Hedge.

And the old house across the street is even neater - according to the records the owner has (the house is on the National Historical Record), The origional house and basement was built in the  1790s, with the addition and second story added in the mid 1880s - it's not a small house, even by todays standards, which makes the fact that the house was framed with walnut even more interesting. (and in todays world very, very expensive)

Quincy,

Walnut framing! Very unusual, even for back then. On the other hand, if walnut was abundant and available, and nothing else was… The problem with walnut, in particular, is that it is one of the most dimensionally unstable woods when exposed to variable humidity. I wonder if they treated it, probably with linseed oil or another drying oil, just as was done with walnut furniture (still is, but today they often use a different oil.)

Ours was built in 1911, and has some of the features you describe. Even where the wood is spruce, it is so thoroughly cured it is almost as dense and hard as oak. The house is finished with three coats of plaster, and the plaster is made with a combination of gypsum, lime, and in the finish coat, egg white. (The egg white is something I haven't seen since working on historical materials from Russia that dated from the late 1600's.)

The other nice thing about these old houses is their fire resistance. I was talking to a local firefighter, and he told me that most of the older houses in our neighborhood will take hours to start to burn seriously, even from a furnace fire. They rarely lose one, and usually strike a fire before it gets well started.

The down side is that any right angle you find in one of these places wasn't originally!

Erm…sorry about the thread hijack…

Ross,

After reading your reply, I saw Mr Day in his yard and went over to ask him about the treatment given to wood in his house - seems I misunderstood him - all the framing is Oak and the built ins and interior trim are walnut - most of which has been painted in the past.  sorry about that. 

Break the glass and replace it.  Use a double pane insulated window that slides open and go with the plywood rig...Tell your wife the Thermal glass will be more effecient and will cut down on the heating bills!   Use terms like "low-e glass" and "argon filled" and she'll think you're a hero and evironmentally conscious !