How to tint windows with wet, dirty, wooden frames

  Method 1: Clients should be advised beforehand that these types of windows have their limitations. If the edge of a frame is very uneven, it’s not always possible to avoid light gaps. Generally speaking, the best approach is to cut around the putty’d edge first, and then scrape the glass all the way to the frame. Then you can brush off all the loose gunk with a coarse nylon brush before vacuuming up the finer pieces on the glass and the surrounding areas. Next, wet scrape the glass and take a squeegee and a paper towel to dry it. This should give you the cleanest possible surface for an install. From here on, you can install as normal, most likely freehanding the trim around the edges. Because of the higher attention to detail and labor-intensive prep work, tinters will usually charge more for dirtier, old wood windows.