I bought a house with a window in a bathroom. Now that I'm here the wall has been covered with that sheet of tile stuff. How can I locate the window - which can be seen from the outside - and restore it without taking all this tile down? I don't have money for a contractor. It's me and grown son. THanks
You can start by measuring from a corner on the outside of the house. Take that measurement and and transfer that to the inside wall of the house to get an approximate location. Be sure to measure to the center of the window on the outside and allow about 4 1/2 inches for the thickness of the outside wall. You can then take a small size drill bit and drill a hole in the interior wall. Use a bit big enough so you can see daylight but small enough that you are able to patch it if you miss the window.Use caution that you don't go thru the wall too deep as to hit the glass with the bit. For this, try wrapping some tape aroung the bit about 1" from the tip. Only drill deep enough to touch the tape. If you find the window with this meathod, drill a series of holes up, down, left and right to find the frame of it. Procede from there. I hope you find this helpful.
The response of 12/26 will allow you to start the project you have requested. But the devvil is in the details, as they say.
Why did someone tile over the window ??
Is there a problem which is being sealed up in the wall; is there rot or some other structural problem which you will uncover ??
Any structural issue you uncover will have to be addressed before you proceed with your intended window project and may entail tearing out the entire tile wall to repair.
Once you CUT open the tile, you will have to finish ALL the intersecting surfaces to seal out all moisture or you will surely create a timebomb for deterioration, rot, etc.
I recently found my wall to have been originally tiled simply over regular wallboard which was not watertight and resulted in rot in the sill and wall framing. I used this situation to upgrade the window to a double-pane vinyl unit which required cutting the stucco wall from the outside as part of the repair of the wall framing.
You should seek more information from the person who built the tile wall and find out why the window was covered. This may also become a legal issue if it was built to hide damage during a sale.
Posts: 1 | Location: Sacramento County, CA | Registered: 01 January 2007
Believe it or not I also have a bathroom window tiled over. However, I DO know who and why it was done. My ex-hubby figured that since the window was in the shower it would eliminate rot to the surrounding wood and sil. He installed plexi glass to replace the storm and painted the inside of it white so that is what you see from the outside! This has been driving me nuts! (I have owned and maintained the house by myself for 10 years now) I always wondered how I could get the window back (with the possiblity of selling) Is this procedure of cutting the tile out from the center just asking for problems? As far as I know there was no damage to the inside of the wall when the window was in the shower, we just remodeled the bath and decided to eliminate the possiblity of water damage. I would be interested to learn about the rest of the process.Thanks
I'm not an expert on this but once you get the window uncovered, the best way to have a window in a shower is to get a replacement window such as a vinal frame insulated glass window. Many suppliers will install these for a nominal cost. If there is no damage to the surrounding wood, the installation is a couple hour job.
Thanks for all the input. I'll keep your comments. Gives me a lot to consider, esp. the "why" of the window being covered. I will tackle this in the spring and post the results...hopefully good.
