The top windows

View out over the front garden

For what should have been quite an easy job this turned out to be really quite hard work. The top of the chateau has beautiful cast iron windows set into the roof. As far as I can estimate these date from the mid 1700's. We know that the chateau was renovated around 1740 and a new roof added. The style of the roof is Louis XIV and the style of the windows is Louis XV which goes nicely with a date in the mid 1700's for the cast iron windows. This style and construction of window came into fashion around this time so I think we have a good estimation of their age. The windows themselves fit into the frames with two pins for each window and should therefore just lift off. 

The two front windows refitted

Many years of rust and a lack of maintenance meant that not only did they not lift off, they took a lot of work to take off. One of the frames also cracked when we were removing it so this had to be repaired. As you will have seen in a previous post we repainted the frames and sent the actual windows away to be cleaned and then coated with a polymer  that made them look like new. 

So today we refitted the windows into the frames or at least attempted to. We assumed that as the windows were cast they would all be the same - WRONG! As they were no doubt produced in quite large numbers there must have been several different castings and these of course differed slightly. So we then had the task of trying to find by trial and error which window went into which frame - not easy when the windows are very heavy and also set high up from the floor. The other problem we had is that out of 4 windows only one of the closing catches actually lined up perfectly and closed properly! The other three did not, it really was becoming a pain in the ass! 

I think the problem is threefold. We have not had time to clean all of the old paint and rust from the inside of the frames, the new coating has added a millimetre or two to the fames and the combination of these two factors is pushing the frames just away from the latch location holes. Eventually we got them all in and secure except for the top locating holes, this at least keeps the wind and rain out over the winter months and we can spend some time in Spring getting the fitting exact. As you can see they look nice.