Repairing Double Hung Sash Cords

A typical problem in older  houses is that eventually, even with continuing fine care, the sash cords that hold the invisible weights that equalize the balance between both the top and bottom windows (called more precisely the upper and lower sashes) eventually wear out. Apart from the unattractiveness of a clearly broken cord on a sash window is the supremely dangerous and painful prospect of the window coming crashing down because there is very little support to keep it in place.

As happens in most instances of repair in houses, these cords wear out at inconvenient times and the task of repairing the cords is delayed until a more opportune moment – good weather, no hot water boiler on, no air conditioning, no breeze into the house, no preponderance of leaves or birds, ample time to run to the hardware store to grab a small but crucial component. etc. and so on.

Our sash cord broke in the winter, first one side, then the other and we needed a decent late spring day to tackle this. Actually I waited until the end of the summer because during the summer  we held the window open with a small screen at the bottom and didn’t bother opening and closing the window and were able to further ignore the problem. However a cold snap in late August got our attention which roused me to action.

Incidentally, all the of the parts of the window and its trim have very specific names. Rails, stiles, jambs, pulleys, stop, stool, aprons, sask lifts, locks, parting beads (imo – the most important part of this project) and all the casing and trim you can imagine. The good news is that it all comes apart quite logically and with the the right tools and some patience it all goes back together quite nicely. A splash of paint and you are set.

This is a truly terrible looking sash cord and we knew for several years that eventually it would break and that we would need to fix it. Its probably an old natural fibre cord – presumably made from cotton although there are other types i’ve seen – manila pops up from time to time (manila is terrible if thin and prone to rotting in general)   – i’d call the one seen here a “real” sash cord. Definitely not original to the 1870 start of the house – more likely the last in a series of replacements from the 50s or 60s.  The window and trim are probably original to the house but the cord would have worn out many times between the building of the house and now.

You can still get old cotton sash cord/rope – there are  some good sources on the web – but its a little more difficult to handle – particularly during the nailing to the sash weights.  Artificial fibres abound: polyester, nylon and others and you’ll be tempted to use them because they are so easy to source. For me, I’ve found a mix of cotton and artificial fibre that works for my applications.