How To Remove Burglar Bars From Brick

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Hey hey! Happy Friday!!

I am going to jump right in and say I experience like we've been purging money lately. 🙁

Yous know, just walking out into the street and throwing my hands up in the air and letting loose handfuls of cash. And then just watching it blow away into the universe.

Ugh, I can feel my heart rate increasing as I think about.

There aren't many things less highly-seasoned than spending money to this thriftress.

But it is inevitable.

We're trying to resurrect a neglected old Key West Conch firm. And we'd like to actually get information technology to a phase where nosotros can motion our furniture into the house at some signal.

What? Your furniture isn't piled upwards in your carport with a dainty carpeting draped over it? How modern of you lot. 😉

And luckily nosotros took all of the large expenses into consideration when we decided to buy this firm. Only the reality of actually writing the checks and watching the hard-earned savings change hands is still painful.

So, we didn't brand the conclusion lightly when we decided that we are leaving our new window installation to the professionals. This is another ane of those 'been there, washed that' projects, like this i. Virtually 7 years ago we installed a whole business firm full of replacement windows at our firm in Maryland.

One window at a time, slow and steady as the budget would let. It was the perfect mode for us to practice it then.

And at present, after negotiating a deal with the professionals for basically a 'rough in' window installation (we will exercise all the work upwards to removing the quondam windows, they will come in and set the new windows and then we will complete all of the trim and finishing work), nosotros'll be able to salvage a bunch of coin on labor costs and as well salve ourselves a agglomeration of time by having a crew come in and make quick piece of work of the installation procedure.

I'm thinking "avoiding any mishaps of mis-measurements" and "10 hands are better than four" and "they have exactly all the right tools and know-how for a quick installation" and "we're ready to use our new Air conditioning already" which we haven't all the same considering of our rickety old windows. And then let's get to this already. 🙂

Every bit a bonus, our negotiated price for simply a rough in installation nevertheless leaves us with some DIY to tackle on our own. Winning!

And first upwards is what we're calling our "get out of jail free" work.

Otherwise known as removing window bars, because what says jail more than than window bars? And since nosotros're tackling this project on our own it's Gratuitous.

Is it normal that the middle charge per unit immediately slows when I write nearly free projects?

And dorsum up information technology goes remembering the not free projects …

So let's not recall nearly that correct now. 🙂

Allow'south talk window bars.

Do yous have any? Have you ever? The matter with these bars is that they were meant for security, so information technology wouldn't really make sense to accept them installed with screws that could hands be unscrewed, right?

But, a handful of our screws just needed a simple piffling foursquare drill bit to get them out.
And it was when we had those babies removed that all of the super uncomplicated parts of this project were complete.

This turned into an afternoon of blood, sweat and struggle. Luckily no tears. But, because we are wacky DIYers that can get the giggles when all we actually want to do is give up, there were a few laughs.

Me to Joel with a smirk "that one is really kicking your a$$". He merely laughs to avert the initial reaction to smack me upside the caput.

I'm a keeper. 😉

But seriously, they kicked our a$$. But we were finally able to manhandle them to death.

Here'due south how it went down.

We first realized the screws looked similar this … see how you tin easily screw them in but there is nothing for the drill bit to grab onto if you're turning counter-clockwise.

So we did a little online searching and asking around and gathered our repertoire of tools.

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• big pliers
• nail pulling tool we phone call a true cat'due south mitt
• locking pliers chosen Vice Grips
• heavy-duty hammer
• reciprocating saw, affectionately referred to every bit the sawzall … because it saws all except window bar screws
• metal sawzall blades
• safety spectacles
• leather gloves wouldn't have been a bad thought either  🙂

Now, I did see a suggestion to use tile nippers to loosen the screws, but we bought a pair and immediately returned them because they didn't open upwards enough to fit around our screws. 🙁

Removal Option #ane: Sawzall the top of the screw off and then unscrew the nub of the spiral with the vice grips.
We had high hopes for this approach.

And it did work. And all those saw marks are no issue to us since the exterior of the house will be getting a makeover sometime soon. Only we wore downwards the two metal blades we had on hand in no time at all. And it took For. Ev. Er. And yous really had to put your torso into it, if you know what I hateful.
That'south the look of hard work right there.

And, y'all actually need an open work area for this technique to piece of work. See how you take to have the sawzall hugged right up to the house, with any obstructions information technology was really hard to get the right angle, and the windows on the other side of the business firm were in tighter quarters and so in lieu of heading out to buy more than metal blades we opted for an updated approach.

I will say, if you lot're going to stick with this option, cut the screw in front of the window bar (like in the film higher up) and not backside, like this picture below.
That fashion you'll accept more of a nub for your vice grips to hold onto when it comes times to unscrew. Which will in a bajillion minutes from when you start. You'll think you're making skillful progress, and exist sweating, and your arms will be aching from all of the vibrating of the reciprocating saw. And then you'll take a look at the screw and see yous've cut through about i millionth of a millimeter. 🙂

Which brings us to …

Removal Selection #ii: Loosen the screw with the cat's mitt, vanquish the crap out of it with the hammer, unscrew a bit with the large pliers until you can carve up the window bars from the connector slice and finish her off with the vice grips.

Yes, this actually worked.

And since information technology was multiple steps with unlike tools Joel and I could work pretty practiced in tandem. And then this is besides where the activeness shots came to a halt for the most part. Nosotros were working difficult here people. 🙂

Joel was in accuse of getting started with the cat'south paw and then the beating upward part.
In his words he only 'whacked it a bunch of times with the hammer' until he could become a grip on information technology with the pliers to get the unscrewing started. The objective is really but to loosen the screw tip from its expiry grip on the window bar slice.

This is where I would come in to take over the unscrewing. It's easier at this bespeak to utilise the pliers than the vice grips because yous can only unscrew about a quarter of a turn at a fourth dimension until yous tin get it loose plenty to pull out the bars.

Yous can't really tell from the pictures, but the corner pieces of the bars slipped correct out of the bodily front part of the bars when they were loose enough.

At that point information technology worked swell to lock the vice grips onto the screw and just unscrew information technology.
How'southward that for an action shot? 🙂

Overall, information technology took more than time than nosotros had anticipated like pretty much every other DIY project we've ever done. And was more tiring than expected like pretty much every other DIY project. And nosotros found ourselves finding pleasance in bending and breaking metal and screws. Minor victories.

But when we were done nosotros felt super exhausted accomplished. And this is the kind of project that is nice to have behind us.

Yes, we run into the chipping and dirty paint on the outside of our firm, too. In that location is still a lot to tackle on the outside. Only this is one large stride in the right management.

There is no dramatic 'after' shot here since our exterior is still a hot mess piece of work in progress … just we were super excited to get these architectural drawings that are necessary as function of the permit procedure.

I know they don't look like much, just they hateful a new roof line and debate and windows and firm color and so much more to us.

They hateful progress. Real, substantial, changes you lot tin can come across kind of 'progress'.

Then let'southward not talk about how much that little drawing cost me, m? 😉

If you want to encounter where we stand with the current budget breakdown information technology's right here. And to check in on the other projects we've tackled effectually this identify, they're right hither.

Source: https://thespacebetweenblog.net/removing-window-bars/

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