Using glass blocks to make a window is not hard, but it is tedious work. I just made up my mind that it was going to be a bit time consuming; besides, I kind of like doing tedious work. It is also very rewarding when I can do-it-myself. A few years ago my husband and I bought a small 2-bedroom house to use as rental property. It was really cute, and we never had any trouble, but one complaint that all of our tenants had, was it was always dark back where the closet was. The bedroom was a very large room, in the shape of an L. The small part of the L was where the closet and dressing are were. With no window in that area, it was always kind of dark no matter how light the bedroom got.
Our original plan was, when the last tenants left, we would hire an electrician and have a nice light fixture installed in that area.
My husband just happened to be out of town when the last tenants left, and instead of hiring an electrician like we had planned; I got the bright idea to use these glass blocks to make a window for that area. We had no plans for them, so I knew that it would be okay.
I set aside the next week-end; and the boys came over to help as there was quite a bit of preparation work to do, and still get it done in a week-end.
The glass blocks that I had were 12-inch square, and I wanted to window area to be about the size of a person; we measured for an opening that would allow 4 glass blocks across and 6 blocks up. I had just 24 glass blocks, so I had no room for an accident.
My son took his saws-all and made an opening through the entire outside wall of the house. The opening then had to be framed as if we had slid an existing window out. With that done, we were ready to start on our window.
With a project such as this I knew that I would have to have all of my materials at my side, or I was going to be wasting a lot of time and energy getting up and down. I stacked my glass blocks and morter on one side of the opening, and the tools that I needed on the other. My son and I would work in the middle.
The first thing we did was go about half way up the opening and ran a level line. It was kind of a guide for us to make sure that we were working ‘on square.’ We then marked on both sides where each row should be. This, with the help of a ‘level’ kept us right on track.
With a trowel we put a bed of mortar on the bottom of the opening. I put a spacer on the bottom of the first block before setting it down, then I took a rubber mallet and tapped it into the corner. After I made sure the fit was snug, I put spacers on the top.
Since I was using 1/2 inch spacers, I made sure to ‘butter’ the side of the next block with about 1/2 inch of mortar. I put the spacers on and then tapped this block into place the same way as the last block. After this step, I took my small, hand held level; called a ‘torpedo level’ and made sure that each block was level. After each block, I also made sure that there were no gaps in the joints.
After each row was completed I put a ‘bed’ of mortar on the top of each row in preparation for the next row of glass blocks. On the last row of course I didn’t have to put any mortar on the top, but I did put panel anchors on the top frame to hold everything in place.
Taking the time to put spacers between each glass block, and making sure that each block was level was real important because I didn’t have to take any part of my work apart and re-do any of the work. I was so proud; it looked so nice.
After I was all done with the window; I stayed on the inside and my son went on the outside, and we took damp sponges and wiped off the face of the blocks. After it sat for about an hour we the joints with mortar making sure the spacers were covered. We then, took our cleaned, damp sponges and cleaned the glass blocks off again; and then wiped the window down with a soft cloth.
Our last step was to take caulk and applied it in the corners to fill it in; making sure not to get any on our nice new glass block window. The next morning we sealed the window with silicone sealant.
Afterward we put frame-work around the window, and we were done.
Our new window gave the desired amount of light and was still private; and it was definitely a lot cheaper than hiring an electrician to have a new light fixture put in. The best thing was, my husband was really happy with the job that we had done. That made it all worth it.
