who remembers rope and pulley windows?

[CTyankee]

Our house was built in early 1940 when these windows were still installed. It didn't take long for me to realize this old technology was out of step with life (we bought it in 1980). The rope had deteriorated and broke, sending the window down and out of commission. And there are still people who have them and revere them as somehow lovely!

I don't get it. Just thought I'd ask why here at DU...

[duncang]

1. Been a while

But I have worked on them. Took out the little insert on the side, fished out the weight, and replaced the rope.

[CTyankee]

2. why? what is the point?

they were an old technology but our windows now are so much better and efficient at saving heat?

Also, where do you get the replacement weights? I remember their being cylindrical. Has that changed?

[duncang]

5. Like I said it has been a while

As in a real long time ago. So that was part of it. Say 30 years ago. We bought a old house on blocks with knob and tubing wiring. Replaced the wiring and had it moved to a lot near a lake. It had all the old original gingerbread wood spindle stuff on it. On the weight I fished it out with a piece of wire with a hook on the end. Also I live in a temperate zone. If I still had that house I'd probably do the same thing again. All the bubbles and waves in the glass were really neat. I really liked having it as close to original as possible.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. I think you can still get sashweights at hardware stores.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

11. Dad had a window cleaning business

He used to replace the rope with sash chain.

[Sherman A1]

14. The point would be to repair as opposed to replace

the weights would be inside the window frame, the only thing needing replacement would be the rope.

[gratuitous]

3. Had some in the house I grew up in

Yes, the little ropes tended to disintegrate after a while, but until then they could be raised and lowered with minimal effort, and the pane would stay exactly where you left it. Once the rope went, though, the moving part of the window would come crashing down unless it was propped. It was a real chore to remove the panes, disassemble the window casement, and replace the rope.

It's a quaint look but obsolete.

[BlueSpot]

8. I had them in a rented apartment

I also had to prop them open but I figured out a neat trick. I propped mine open with the cardboard tubes from the inside of gift wrap rolls. They were sturdy enough to hold the windows open but, if it started to rain, getting wet very quickly made them unable to hold the weight of the window. So my windows were weather sensitive. I could leave for work with them open but they would close by themselves if it started to rain. I thought it was pretty sweet. That was back in the mid-80's. If the same landlord still owns the building, my history with him would suggest the same windows are still there.

[PasadenaTrudy]

4. I still have them

My place was built in 1915.

[Kali]

6. I have two windows like that

good wood frames and the rope is easy to replace. my favorites of the four kinds in this old house. there are also to wood framed slide to the side into the wall windows that are kind of cool. Most are steel frame with those damn cranks you have to turn to open and close, and then there are the "modern" newest ones that were installed in a couple of locations in the late 70s - nasty aluminum sliders. HATE I will trade you all of those for your wood ones!

energy efficiency and weatherproof? what is that?

[CBGLuthier]

7. Every window in every house I have owned has been like that.

Pretty damned easy to replace the rope.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. Used to have them in my 130-year-old house.

The kind with sashweights. I finally replaced all the windows because they let in a lot of drafts and rattled in the wind.

[Special Prosciuto]

12. My first house was built in 1930

All of the windows had iron weights hanging inside from rotting rope and painted over so many times nothing could be done with them.

[Sherman A1]

13. I did at a house I previously owned.

Took them apart and re-roped everyone of them. It was a dirty, messy job, but I was happy to have done it and restored them all to working order.

[mulsh]

15. 1930 house, nearly every window is like that. The second owner of our house did very little

maintenance on it so many had deteriorated. Especially on the weather side. We hired a local Wooden Window company to refurbish and replace all of our windows. It was costly but worth it.

Around the same time our next door neighbor in a similar house replaced his windows with double paned vinyl frame windows. About half of them have already failed. The vinyl is bucking on the weather side windows. They hate those windows and are slowly replacing them with wooden windows similar to what was there originally.

Ours are fine. They will probably last at least another 80 years, more if we paint the exterior occasionally. It's a mission revival style house, the wooden window are in keeping with that style.

A further benefit is that now that all the movable windows are working depending on how we open them the house cools down even with out much of breeze. I suspect the architects knew a but about ventilation.

[DebJ]

16. My parents bought a post WWII brick home with those windows in 1962.

8 large windows in four small rooms on the first floor. Large windows were good, since hardly anyone in our neighborhood had AC back in that time.

We moved in, in July, typical DC summer day: hot, humid, tropical weather.

That's when my parents discovered that every single window cord was broken, and not one window would open.

I've purchased 2 homes and 2 condos over the course of my life.

I have opened every single window during walk-throughs. The agents think I'm whacky, LOL.

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. I remember them. Pain in the ass