How to remove aluminium window surrounds?

[mrsrobbo2610]

Hi Workshop community,

I was wondering if anyone may be able to help me with a way to get off the Aluminium Window surrounds. I have had the local window place around but they could not figure it (not sure how that works). They are usually pot riveted on, but the windows on the front and side of our house are not. I have taken out screws that I thought were holding them on, but they still do not come off. We are recladding our house in colorbond and having these removed would make this job 100 times easier.

Just thought some brains may be able to help or give some ideas.

Thanks

(This is our first home reno)

[StevieB]

Welcome @mrsrobbo2610. It's great to have you join us.

You may find the tips in this discussion helpful: I need to replace this aluminium window.

Let me tag @JumBuck, @JDE, @ProjectPete and @EricL to see if they can share any thoughts.

Look forward to hearing more about your home renovation.

Stevie

[MitchellMc]

Hi @mrsrobbo2610,

I apologise for the delay in my reply. Have you had any success as yet?

Is there an obvious seam between the surrounds and frame? It would be odd, but could they be all one unit? If you remove that plywood and have a look up from underneath, does that give you any clues? If you work around the surround, does it flex or feel like it is solidly attached?

I'm leaning towards these surrounds could actually be permanently attached to the frame, especially if a professional wasn't able to remove them.

Mitchell

[mrsrobbo2610]

Hi @MitchellMc, 

We are thinking that it could be all in one, but once unscrewed they bend heaps, so are very flexible, so that's why I was thinking they could be removed. We have 2 windows on the side and back of the house that have pot rivets but these do not. Maybe the previous owner attached them differently. 

Its going to be alot harder to attach our colourbond if they can not be removed.

Thanks

[MitchellMc]

That's a tricky one, @mrsrobbo2610.

I presume you are removing the weatherboards before installing the Colorbond? Perhaps all will be revealed once you have better access and are able to view the side of the frames.

Let me mention the knowledgeable @TedBear to see if he's ever dealt with something like this before.

Mitchell

[TedBear]

Hi @mrsrobbo2610 , without seeing the actual frames, I tend to agree that they may be a single unit - i.e. each of the four sections has been made with the outer frame lip moulded to it.   Do you see any screws in the side of the frame when you open the window. They could be behind a liner (cover) that slips out, but may require levering at the ends. Other places such screws hide are behind rubber buffers that the window slides into.  Once the sliding window is lifted out, you may see where the screws are. If they are in the sides of the frame, the other side's  screws will be revealed when you then remove the fixed glass frame.

Alternatively, if you think those outer frames surrounds are separate from the main frame pieces (and are therefore hiding the fixing screws), then they will be held together by corner pieces inside the surrounds, which the screws you removed would have been holding in place. You should be able to see joins if they are separate pieces.

The trick will be, in this scenario to remove that lower in-fill board and then start tapping the bottom surround downwards to disengage it from the internal  corner supports.  I have included a picture of what the idea is, even though yours probably won't be plastic and would be more substantially made. (The pictured ones will likely be for a fly-screen frame.)

You may also have to lever the bottom surround out a bit if the ends are caught by the wall cladding.  Once you get one off, the two sides should then be able to be slid out and the top pulled down.

(That's my two blind-guesses from afar.)

example only

[mrsrobbo2610]

Yes @MitchellMc, all old weatherboards will be removed, we removed some of the vinyl cladding in hopes that I could re use the old weatherboards underneath, they are not usable, so it will now be pulled back to the frame and started again.

@TedBear, I have removed screws from the corners of the surrounds and also screws up underneath the surrounds that attached to the frame but nothing. They bend when you push on them, all 4 surrounds are not joined and are separate to one another. We put that infill panel there due to the previous owner having nothing over the insulation, just the vinyl cladding, hence why we have now stopped pulling that off until we have our colorbond arrive.

[mrsrobbo2610]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I will keep you updated with how we go.

[TedBear]

Hi again @mrsrobbo2610 , it sounds like the frame is made from extruded aluminium pieces which includes the outer surrounds, so they will be held in place either from screws through the sides or some sort of brackets on the inside. Are there removable surrounds inside the room that could be hiding the anchoring points?

[mrsrobbo2610]

Hi all, finally worked out how to remove the surrounds. As soon as we got one off, the rest just slid off. They were held on with a lip.