Windows painted shut. Help!

[EveryDayImHustlin]

A few weeks ago the outside of our building was painted and our sash windows were painted shut We managed to stop our bedroom windows getting stuck in the process, but unfortunately the windows in our spare room now just don’t budge (probably because we haven’t been in that room much since, so the windows haven’t been opened very often).

I’ve googled but all the suggestions seem to involve cutting the paint from the outside and unfortunately we can’t access the outside of the windows. The painting was done by an abseiler so not very easy to ask him to just come back! The works were arranged by our building and we weren’t given any warning, and nobody seems to have thought about how the windows might end up stuck.

Any ideas for how we can get our windows open again with summer fast approaching?!

Complain to whoever organised it. It's a fire risk if you can't get out.

Well as googling has revealed, the only way to free up the windows is externally. So whatever numpty organised this, will need to pay the abseiler to come back, free up your windows, then re-prepare and paint properly. Their cock up, they will have to sort it.

Thank you both. We managed to get one of the windows in the spare room open with a bit of brute force last night but the other one is definitely sealed completely shut, it doesn’t budge at all. So we will have to ask our building management to get it sorted externally!

It’s a relief to have one window open at least as we have a friend staying in there tonight and she’d be boiling if she couldn’t open a window!

It may be possible to loosen the windows from outside by removing the parting bead. Wooden sash windows are made of numerous wooden parts so a skilled joiner who is quite old might know how to do it.

Inform the painting company or whoever organised this. Everyone will have the same problem, they'll HAVE to come back. If they refuse, say you will be employing a glazier to remove the glass and unstick the window, and then replace the glass after, and you will be sending whoever caused the damage the bill.