Wednesday, July 20, 2011

How To Change A Broken Cord On A Sash Window

By James Trent


After awhile, the cords on your window are going to break. But, with a little time and knowledge, you can figure out how to change a broken cord on a sash window all by yourself. To do the job, you'll need some nails, a flat head screw driver, putty knife, and small pry bar available to you.

You have to take out the interior stop first. This will probably come off by unscrewing it or by prying it off, depending on whether there's screws. Swing out the inner sash and angle it out of the way. You should find that the cords are in a stile groove. These are the vertical pieces inside the frame. Each one is in a knot. Undo the them a set the weights aside. As long as you have it open, you may want to clean this out. Bugs are known to get in here.

The third task is to open the parting strip from one of the jambs. A jamb is an upright support found in the window frame. This may be held in place with nails, so take care when pulling it off. Move the upper piece out of the way and take off the cords.

The next step is to deal with the weight pockets. You can find them by taking off the weather stripping. They're usually behind plates near the bottom of the jambs. If you don't see them here, you may have to look behind the inner casing. Once these are out of the way, you can get to the weights.

Measure out the length of cord the window will need and cut them accordingly. Untie and remove the old ones and begin to feed the new ones into the assembly. Send them over the pulleys and down into the weight pockets. Loop them around a metal bar found in the weight before tying it. It can also be secured with wire.

Hold the weights in place by pulling them to the top of their pockets and putting a nail through them. Fasten it to the frame. Fasten the outer cords to their slots with screws. Next, replace the parting strip and take out the nails and the pulleys and then lift the sash. Tie the cords to the inner sash and then seal up the frame.

It might be easier to change all the strings at one time while the frame is apart. This insures that they are all fresh and shouldn't need to be changed again for some time. It is possible to use chain instead of string, whichever is preferred. It may take some time, but it's much less costly to do it yourself.




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