Ft. Dalles, New Sash and Sill Repair

One of the openings had a pair of sash that were not original and had been cut down at some point. So after making a new sash plane and a detailed drawing of some of the existing sash I set out to build a pair to replace them. The original sash had a very unique (for Oregon) meeting rail joint, it is a dove-tailed mortise and tenon joint. I ran across this joint last year when I was working on some sash from Iowa, see this previous post.

Here is the mortise for the joint.

This is the pair done and fitted to the opening. The folks at the fort were pleased to see this pair go in as it provides light for the gift shop.

This is the pair next to the existing windows.

The last sash that I had to build was a casement sash that had the same proportions as the pair I just discussed. The opening for this casement is in the office but originally it was the woodshed and privy. The opening was covered by a shutter which has long since disappeared. The fort has some old photos showing the shutter opened. I thought that a casement would be appropriate since it opens in the same direction as the old shutter and the building has casement windows in it already.

Here are some photos of the completed casement.

The casement is the one on the right.

The rotten sill. Once I removed the rot about 2/3 of the sill remained intact. My general rule is at 50% rot then replacement of the element should be considered. In some cases I would argue that even if just the smallest amount original material is sound it should be saved. It depends upon the historical significance of the structure.

The sill repaired with a salvaged beam from Aurora Mills and some epoxy.

Ft. Dalles, Sill Patch

Some of the interesting putty techniques that I ran across during the restoration of the sash.

I also found a lot of glazing rabbet modifications.

The only sill that I found to be rotten was this one on the weather side of the building. Pretty good for a 150 year old building that has been painted only twice in its lifetime. But The Dalles only gets about 14 inches of rain a year (Portland gets around 35-40 inches per year).

Unfortunately the rot went all the way into the beam below the sill.

This is the beam after I cleaned out all the rot.

The D-8 ripping down a salvage beam that Eric donated to the project.

The patch glued and screwed to the existing beam.

The patch hewed down and epoxied.

Ft. Dalles, Round 1

The first set of sash that I tackled were the 11 upstairs casements. They were fairly simple to remove since they had lift-off hinges and there was really no paint on the exterior to fight with.

The building has only been painted twice since its construction in 1856-7. The first time was when it was first built and then again in 1865. After this point the building was periodically "oiled". With what kind of oil I am not sure of but there is a lot of evidence of it on the first floor sash and glass.

So the result is what you see today. Here is a current photo from a previous post.

This photo shows what kinds of problems that I have run across with these first batch of sash. The first thing I noticed was the variety of glazing putties that had been used over the years. Only one of the types was every painted, the first. Every subsequent re-glaze was not painted and all of it has cracked. Every type also showed how proficient or lack of proficiency the craftsman was at the application.

The second problem that I have run into is that a lot of the muntin tongues have been either worn completely away or have been scalped off so a larger piece of glass can be fit into the opening.

The following two photos shows some of the repairs to the muntin tongues.

This close-up shows the angled glue joint I used when only a partial segment of the muntin was missing. Also the new sections were glued down into a small dado that I made with an 1/8" chisel. I left the new tongues higher than what they should be and once the glue was set-up I then planed them flush with the existing tongues.

These last two photos show the sash done and installed back in their openings. The exterior finish paint has not been applied yet because some decisions have to be made concerning color and whether or not the faux graining will be re-applied.

Next Project

My current project is the Fort Dalles in the Dalles, Oregon. The fort complex was built in the years 1856-57. This location is where the travelers on the Oregon Trail either could choose to float their belongings down the Columbia River to the Willamette Valley or they could go overland. Both routes had their perils. My relations in the 1850's took the overland route which proved to be eventful. The only building left is the Surgeon's Quarters. Quartermaster Captain Jordon and Louis Scholls drew up the plans based upon buildings found in Andrew Jackson Downing"s book, Cottage Residences. More information can be found at this link.

My work will be on the 23 windows in this building, involving two re-builds which entail another custom plane similar to the one I built for my job in Iowa. See this previous post on how I made that plane.

Some interesting things I have discovered about these sash are amazing old glass, hand-cut glazing points, and the original faux exterior paint scheme.

More pictures of these details will be posted soon.