In the near future I'm going to replace my kitchen but not before sorting the bathroom. So what happens before I start either? The glass door in oven falls through during my wifes cleaning frenzy.

I'm not looking to start on the kitchen for a couple of months, so I don't want to buy a new oven or a new door unit (about £60) as I'll be putting a built in one then. You can technically use your oven, but it'll heat up your kitchen and be horrendously inefficient.

The previous owner of my flat seemed to have used superglue to fix it. I tried the same trick, but no luck.

It's relatively simple to do but I've found very little instructions on the web.

You'll need:

Silcone sealant - has to be high temperature and costs lots more than normal sealant. You can get it online but I'm yet to find a store that sells this over the counter in the UK £10 inc postage. I've seen special kits, but they claim to be glue and you need the actual silcone sealant.
Sealant gun - cheap, about £2.99
Clamps or a brick depending on whether you can remove your whole oven door. If you can, you'll only need a brick!
Screwdrivers - to remove screws.
General cleaning stuff like washing up liquid, scrubbing sponges, cloths etc.

Optional:
Glass scraper for removing baked on grease.

Step 1: First, Locate All Screws!

To locate the screws I had to remove the bottom oven tray drawer. Did that make sense? Good. Ovens are designed by evil men.

Once removed, you need to get down on your knees and get out that screwdriver. I removed two screws under the door by the hinges and the second set down the sides of the oven. Unexpectedly the front of the oven door fell off which was glass. The inner bit was also glass and as this had also fallen through I was juggling for a few minutes. Fortunately I caught both, but be aware.

Generally it's a good idea to remove the screws on the hinges so you can remove the whole door, but one of the screws on my oven is threaded. Bless those oven designers, so I had to do my oven fix in situ (hence the need for clamps).

Step 2: Remove the Sealant

The old silcone sealant has to be removed completely before you can reapply it. I first used an old flat head screwdriver to peel the sealant off. Be very careful when you do this, it takes a little pressure to get the screwdriver under the old sealant and if you slip you'll have a screwdriver in your hand. You could also use a craft knife or similar but whatever you use try not to hurt yourself.

You can pretty much take the stuff off in one go. Once you're done you can carry on using the screwdriver to remove the last bits - any scratches at this point will only give the new sealant extra places to fix into so don't worry too much if you take off any paint. I also used a manky old many times reused sponge to remove the last of the rubbish and clean round the oven.

Step 3: Cleaning the Glass

You'll also need to clean the glass. If you've got old sealant or manky old burnt on oil and stains, you probably want to give it a good clean.

I have a windows scraper - not an ice scraper - it's basically a razor blade on a plastic stick. It takes off all sorts of stuff off windows such as burnt on oil, superglue and sealant. Rather handy really.

Best to do this over a sink really. Put a cloth at the bottom of the sink to rest the glass on so you don't chip or scratch the glass/sink.

The picture looks really disgusting. Sorry.

Step 4: Applying the New Sealant

If you've never used sealant you need to slice off the end of the tube with a sharp knife. I used a kitchen knife because I was too lazy to bother to go find a proper work knife.

My particular sealant came with a warning to wear gloves as the sealant can cause allergic reactions. I read this after I was scrubbing the black goo off my hands. I'm not dead yet, so I assume I'm not sensitive to it. Probably a good idea to wear gloves.

Load the tube into the gun. To do this, press the metal 'safety catch' at the back and the long bit of metal slides easily out. Put the tube in with the beading nozzle on into the gun, then press the catch again and slide the metal into the base of the tube. You're loaded and ready to go.

Practice first to make sure you know how much pressure you're going to use. Ideally with a bit of old card or similar.

It's difficult to take a shot of doing beading, but as you practiced you need to run right round the oven with the sealant so that it is thick enough to form a seal around the glass and the oven. Since I had extra and I never wanted to use the stuff again (plus it dries out) I went round it a second time once the glass was clamped in place to make a full seal.

Step 5: Put the Cleaned Glass Back in Place

There's no need to rush about putting the glass back in place - sealant takes a while to set.

Get it roughly lined up and put it back in place. If you're doing this on a flat surface, something simple like a house brick put gently on the glass will probably do just a good a job for putting pressure on, but I had to use clamps.

As you can see the glass cleaned up nicely. Once in place I ran a second line of beading round the glass to make sure the seal was complete.

The sealant needs to set for 24hrs! Then you can reassemble your oven and you're done!

Step 6: Update 20/4/10

For those who like an update to show that I knew what I was doing, the oven is still in good working order and the glass plate still in place with no obvious degredation of the seal!

I'm now selling the house and the oven goes with it...

Step 7: Update 09/10/13

I never sold the house due to the economy. I now rent it out and the oven is still in situ and working fine. The kitchen wasn't ripped out, but I replaced the floor tiles and the cupboard/draw fronts and handles. It looks like a new kitchen without actually being a new kitchen, so the stove fix was far better than intended!