The need to replace glass in an interior door is often encountered. Transparent, matte or colored inserts are additional decorative elements that make blank canvases interesting and beautiful. To repair a damaged sash, there is no need to invite specialists and pay a lot of money for their services. It is quite possible to change the glass in the door yourself, using the minimum set of tools from the pantry. This work is not difficult, but there are a number of nuances that need to be taken into account.
Reasons for replacing glass in an interior door
There are many factors that make the owners of houses, dachas and apartments decide to change the transparent element in the door leaf.
- Crack or break. They occur when bulky objects are skidded, children play or careless replacement of a lock or handle.
- Deterioration in performance. The sheet becomes cloudy, scuffed, it is impossible to wash it off the old paint.
- Moral aging or non-compliance with the new interior after the renovation of furniture, flooring or wall coverings.
In all cases, you first need to conduct a survey of the object, draw up a plan for its restoration, prepare the tools and equipment necessary for work.
Types of glasses
If there is a need to repair an interior door, you need to decide what material to replace the worn out or outdated fragment with.
Glass types:
- The usual. The sheet is completely transparent and has a thickness of 3-8 mm. It is widely available for sale and in workshops in every area. If there is a risk of breaking it in the future, it is better to stay with a more expensive, but durable hardened or glued version. If necessary, transparent glass can be decorated with foil.
- Organic. Differs in high shock and pressure resistance. It is prone to scratching and discoloration from white to yellow. Monolithic or cellular polycarbonate, the hardness of which is an order of magnitude higher, can serve as a replacement.
- Stained glass. It combines qualities such as beauty, style and transparency. Image distortion and blurring occurs. The products are expensive, but the investment pays off.
When choosing a material for installation, one should focus not so much on its price as on technical characteristics, compliance with the style and design of the room.
Required tools and materials
The restoration of a damaged interior element can be started when all the necessary equipment and equipment have been prepared.
To insert glass into an interior door, you will need the following tools and materials:
- level, tape measure, square;
- chisel;
- hammer, mallet;
- glass cutter;
- file:
- silicone;
- nails or screws;
- glue;
- screwdriver;
- rubber compressor;
- scissors;
- masking tape;
- garbage bag;
- broom and scoop.
Taking into account the specifics of the work, you should dismantle and install the glass in goggles and gloves.
Instructions for replacing glass in an interior door
It is necessary to remove the canvas from the mounts and place it on a flat and solid surface. It is advisable to place cardboard so as not to spoil the finish with fragments if they fall out of the opening.The sheet itself must be fastened with masking tape. If the damage is so severe that the glass breaks into several fragments, they are removed one by one, starting from the top of the frame.
- Shield. Such designs are most common in houses built in the 50-90s of the last century. The insert is held by glazing beads and several layers of paint. In most cases, the tree has already served its life, so you should immediately prepare new fasteners. The old one is removed first from the bottom, then from the sides and lastly from the top. Before inserting a new glass, you should walk around the perimeter with a sealant, and then fix the glass with glazing beads.
- Paneled. The canvas consists of many parts. To gain access to the decorative elements, you need to separate the upper crossbar and push apart the posts. After that, glasses are removed from the canvas, new ones are cut out according to their shape and size and installed in the same place. If the thorn-groove connection is fixed with glue, the joints must be tapped with a hammer, preferably with a rubber one. After all the fragments are installed, they must be fixed with a rubber seal, silicone or liquid nails.
- Tsargovye. These structures have lateral reinforcements that stiffen the entire structure. Replacing glass in such products is somewhat more difficult, but it is quite affordable with your own hands. First, the plugs are removed, then the canvas is removed. Then the bolts of the inner side of the hinges are unscrewed. The door panel is laid on a flat horizontal surface. The plugs located at the edges of the canvas are removed. It is detached from the bottom to the top of the drawer side along the entire perimeter of the removed canvas. Then it is separated and the defective sheet is taken out. It remains to insert a new glass and carry out the installation in the reverse order.
With a sliding system, the actions are similar. The main thing is to figure out how to remove the movable element from the suspensions.
Possible glass restoration and repair
It is not always necessary to apply radical solutions to replace glass in the door. Sometimes you can limit yourself to local methods.
- Go over the cracks with a colored sealant. If there are not enough of them, apply additional ones - you get interesting graphics.
- Close the sheet with a continuous dense film that will absorb all existing cracks. The material must be dense enough.
- If the glass rattles, use a sealant, acrylic putty, and if there is no time and money - ordinary matches in the cracks.
- Laminated fiberboard or sheet plastic panels, cut to fit the opening.
The choice is made based on the availability of time, finances and personal priorities.
