Rationel - Removing Ali-clad exterior trim

[Triassic]

Unfortunately one of the builders dropped a hammer off the scaffold and it bounced off part of the scaffold on its way down and cracked the glass, in one of my Rationel Ali-clad windows, fortunately it’s one of the small panels of glass.. The question is, how is the Ali-Clad exterior trim removed from the window to get the glass out? Any ideas?

Edited November 14, 2020 by Triassic

[iSelfBuild]

I know my windows aluminium cladding are held on via plastic locking brackets which you can un-lock by inserting a special spanner (which you have to grind down so it's super thin), quarter turning and they disengage. Extremely fiddly job but a nice design feature for this occurrence. From memory I don't think there is room to get a special spanner down and quarter turn them off with Rationals. I don't think they are quarter turn brackets and just lock on ones. Is it a fixed unit or an opener? Our fixed are internally beaded as once fitted you cant get a spanner in due to it being berried in the reveals. Openers you can take it out and take off the cladding easily. Had to do this recently as a joiner walked a scaffold prop into the aluminium cladding on a nice new set of bi-folds, thankfully no smashed glass. Probably have to trash the aluminium cladding to sort this one. 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by iSelfBuild

[Roundtuit]

I took some trim off mine off by prising it off with a wide scraper. It's attached by little plastic clips pinned in to the timber, but that doesn't release the 'glass bead'.  I suspect it's going to be destructive...

[Triassic]

2 hours ago, Roundtuit said:

I took some trim off mine off by prising it off with a wide scraper. It's attached by little plastic clips pinned in to the timber, but that doesn't release the 'glass bead'.  I suspect it's going to be destructive...

I’ve found how to get the glass unit out, but not how the remove the Ali-clad trim. I really don’t want destruction !

[Roundtuit]

Easy then!  This worked for me:  a wide, stiff scraper or similar (I think I used a scraper and a brick bolster, but proper plastic paddles are available), a bit of timber to protect the ali that you lever against, start where you can find a bit of flex in the trim (i.e mid-way between clips) and work towards a clip.  Once you've popped the first couple of clips off, the rest are easier.  Some of my clips broke a leg off as they were 'glued' in with paint but were all re-usable; if you needed new ones they look like they only cost pence.

[Triassic]

44 minutes ago, Roundtuit said:

This worked for me:  a wide, stiff scraper or similar (I think I used a scraper and a brick bolster, but proper plastic paddles are available),

One video I looked at the bloke used what looked like a Large plastic door wedge, I might make something similar out of timber and give it a try.