Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyler
So I'm building a new house, and our front doorway is basically 3 giant sheets of see-through glass.
Anyone ever frost their glass with vinyl or something else or get someone to come in and do that? Kinda want to avoid people being able to see right into our living room from the street
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Frosted window film is pretty easy to install yourself. You might wreck the first piece or two, but the price for window film is like $30-40 bucks for 3 feet x 6 feet of nice film. Pull off a failed piece and try again with a newly cut piece. It's way cheaper than what someone will charge. You'll usually figure it out by the 3rd or 4th try and then when you realize how easy it is, you might consider doing more windows later.
Gila film kits are reasonably priced on Amazon or hardware stores. A quality utility knife is also recommended to ensure you can slice the film easily at the edge of the window instead of ripping the film with a crappy blade. Olfa blades are highly recommended for such a job. Also, don't buy window applicator stuff. Just buy baby shampoo and make your own to use in a spray bottle.
The gist of what you're trying to do is:
1. Cut a piece of film slightly larger than the window by about half an inch on all sides.
2. Spray the window in the shampoo/water mix so that the window is slippery (don't be stingy, the window should essentially be soaked)
3. Expose sticky side of film and stick on soaked window covering all the glass. (you can spray the sticky side a little bit if you didn't spray the window enough)
4. Spray the film with the shampoo/water mix so you don't scratch the inside and squeegee the air bubbles to the side. Keep the film centered to cover all the glass.
5. Using razor blade/utility knife and a plastic ruler to keep pressure on the film as you go, slice the excess film to match the size of the glass
The only benefit I can tell in getting someone to install film for you is that they have a nice machine that cuts the film into nice pieces for them to install and you don't have to do it. I've had windows film professionally installed and they still end up doing things like trapping dust/cloth/thread in the film etc. due to poor job of cleaning windows before they start.
If you want to go full on ghetto though, you can do something similar with just a spray bottle and paper.
1. spray the window
2. place the paper on the glass
3. spray the paper to soak it
A variation of this can be done with super thin plastic table covering (plastic bag level stuff)