A customer in Walton-on-Thames had recently moved into a new home and found that one of the windows would not open, even though it appeared to be a fairly recent installation.
I tried several normal opening methods but got nowhere.
What made the fault confusing was that I could feel the locking mechanism releasing and engaging correctly. Everything suggested the mechanism itself was doing what it should, yet the sash still refused to move.
After spending around 15 minutes trying to work out what was holding it shut, I decided to deglaze the neighbouring window so I could inspect the blocked sash from the outside.
That finally revealed the problem.
A screw had been driven through the frame and straight into the blocked window, physically fixing the sash in place. To everyone’s surprise, there was then a second screw further up doing exactly the same thing.
Once both screws were removed, the mystery disappeared and the window opened and operated normally.
Why somebody had screwed the window shut in the first place was one question the repair could not answer. 😄
