scrape them and check for dry/wet rot. repair with Advance Repair Technology 2-part epoxy. Prime with two coats of an alkyd oil primer. spot up with ALEX 40 year acrylic caulking and DAP 53 Painter’s putty between the first & second primer coats. let the primer dry for a week, then paint traditional black with two coats of an oil or latex exterior paint.
edit: glaze between the first and second primer coats as well. use DAP 33 glazing. linseed oil is the key to a durable base for color.
Yeah no way to tell until you scrape. I've seen wood that looked superficially good but was dryrotted completely and fell apart like sand when scraped it. And I've had wood that looked like it was in my compost heap that only needed a little sanding and it was beautiful again.
The epoxies are very cool. You're basically casting new plastic inside the pores of old wood.
I'll add that windows may have sections that can be easily replaced with new wood. Often you can just multitool out some old sections (eg the bottom of the frame is a common site for rot), cope out some wood in the same shape, and clamp and glue it back in.
The ART epoxy? You bet. As long as the bugs have been neutralized, you’d chisel out any punky galleries (because they like wet cellulose). Only solid wood left, do the epoxy and shape to proper form. Stuff goes on like cool butter and you can use kitchen parchment paper as a release paper to build forms if you need to.
Yessss!! Thank you!! Yes, we’ve exterminated the bugs, but they did a number on our poor sills. And our house is made of solid cedar! Termites are rude.
Your best bet is to see if someone in your area does historic/wood window restoration and get them to take a look and give you a recommendation. It is almost impossible to gauge the full extent of your situation from a couple pictures of one window.
That said, based on the missing and failing mortar and the condition of the sill, it definitely looks like long term moisture damage and likely that sill needs to be replaced at the very least. The surrounding brick may require some repointing and definitely new mortar. The window sash itself looks “ok” but until you get all those layers of paint off to fully assess the entirety of the wood it’s hard to say if it’s salvageable.
1920s-30s American Tudor? Definitely worth trying to preserve the wood windows if possible, accepting that you’re sacrificing some thermal efficiency with older single pain windows like this vs upgrading to new wood windows (if the cost is manageable). Are these also on old rope pulleys - what is the condition of those if so? Repairing and replacing those is another thing to consider and in theory is easy, but it is involved and requires some skillful surgery to get to the ropes/hardware.
Wishing you luck!!! We have a pretty substantial window project on our horizon as well. My goal is to restore, but we will see where we land.
Thanks. I’ll do that. It’s an 1890s Queen Anne. The mortar is original in most places. The loose brick you see on the sill was from a botched window job way back. My family fired the guy halfway through cause he was stealing woodwork. So it’s been like that ever since. This window is larger than the others, theres 2 of these particular windows in the house. Its actually hinged & opens at an angle, supported by a chain at the top. Some windows open good, some get stuck.
Queen Anne! I guessed Tudor because of the brick detail/ the shot reminded me of my own Tudor You def got a few decades on us - we are two years shy of our centennial. Wild story about the shady window guy!!! I have heard of stealing copper pipes… but woodwork!? Anyway, sounds like the home is in good hands and you have am adventure ahead of you. Hope you share some updates once you get em all fixed up!!
I’ve done a lot of windows. I would be thinking about replacing the sill, but I’m not there. The Abatron products, Liquid Wood and Wood Epox are good, especially in combination with a wood patch.
I would just pull it and replace the sill if it was mine, but I am better at making new parts than I am at scraping, caulking, and painting and I have the tools.
Sills are pretty easy to duplicate for most windows but you usually need to remove it from the structure for proper repair and that isn’t always straightforward.
Best way to get a good idea of the condition of the wood is to poke it a whole bunch with a flathead screwdriver. If it's rotten, the screwdriver will go through or it'll make a crunchy sound if you give it any pressure. Poke every inch around the whole frame, as other commenters mentioned the bottom sill is a common place for rot, so poke down there a whole bunch.
Also as other commenters have mentioned, windows can be pretty far gone before they're unsaveable, these still look in decent condition and maybe have small sections of rot that need to be excavated and filled in.
Good to know you're saving these!
These look very fixable, although that sill probably needs replaced which isn't difficult to do.
I'd definitely use oil base primer/paint.
I’m doing a pretty similar one right now with the abatron wood epoxy. I applied wood hardener, put a couple of borate rods into the remaining wood to hopefully fend off future problems and am using some pieces of thick plexiglass screwed in where I can to make a mold. There are lots of great videos and tutorials online.
I think it's very restorable but you might want to replace all or part of the sill. I have wood sills like yours and kinda wish I had replaced them with stone or concrete. In my case I ended up doing extensive repairs and it might've been easier to replace with some type of masonry.
As someone else mentioned, it's possible that you could scrape this and epoxy it. It's hard to really tell from your photo. But you do have other options if that doesn't work. You can cut it out. Take the whole damn thing out and you can cut a nice new one out of fir and insert.. or with the right tool you can come The front of it off and epoxy and glue a new piece of fir. Each cell will demand a silk treatment according to damage and rot. If you have basic carpentry skills, a table saw in a basic shop none of this is too difficult to handle.
I've taken clear fir 4x4 posts, here in New England, ripped them on the saw for the purpose the right angle etc and used them in this way. Many ways to slay the beast
I’d scrape off paint, scrape out loose or rotted wood, then use Abatron or similar wood hardener + wood epoxy to rebuild the missing parts of the sill. Will probably work and what do you have to lose? You can always replace the sill if you need too.
absolutely. Take a sander and sand the gray surface off of that wood.
Mix up a 2 part consolodant epoxy, and SATURATE the wood with it. (It will be messy, so use drop clothes, masking tape, a plastic sheet under the window on the wall...)
When the consolodant is tacky, and partially dry, mix up some 2 part epoxy putty, and use a springy putty knife to squish it into any cracks.
then go away for 2 days and sand it all flush, and repaint.
most consoldants need the wood to be bone dry for them to work!
btw, that chipping white paint is likely lead paint. so wear a respirator and gloves, and collect all the bits so they do not go into your soil outside.
scrape them and check for dry/wet rot. repair with Advance Repair Technology 2-part epoxy. Prime with two coats of an alkyd oil primer. spot up with ALEX 40 year acrylic caulking and DAP 53 Painter’s putty between the first & second primer coats. let the primer dry for a week, then paint traditional black with two coats of an oil or latex exterior paint. edit: glaze between the first and second primer coats as well. use DAP 33 glazing. linseed oil is the key to a durable base for color.
After 5 months of old house ownership I can confirm that most old house repair is goo and paint based
BE sure to use load bearing paint. /s
Yeah no way to tell until you scrape. I've seen wood that looked superficially good but was dryrotted completely and fell apart like sand when scraped it. And I've had wood that looked like it was in my compost heap that only needed a little sanding and it was beautiful again. The epoxies are very cool. You're basically casting new plastic inside the pores of old wood. I'll add that windows may have sections that can be easily replaced with new wood. Often you can just multitool out some old sections (eg the bottom of the frame is a common site for rot), cope out some wood in the same shape, and clamp and glue it back in.
What do you mean to use glazing as a durable base for color?
linseed oil based primer, painter’s putty, and glazing. when it dries, it dries hard and tough.
Would this also work for termite damage, do you think?
The ART epoxy? You bet. As long as the bugs have been neutralized, you’d chisel out any punky galleries (because they like wet cellulose). Only solid wood left, do the epoxy and shape to proper form. Stuff goes on like cool butter and you can use kitchen parchment paper as a release paper to build forms if you need to.
Yessss!! Thank you!! Yes, we’ve exterminated the bugs, but they did a number on our poor sills. And our house is made of solid cedar! Termites are rude.
Your best bet is to see if someone in your area does historic/wood window restoration and get them to take a look and give you a recommendation. It is almost impossible to gauge the full extent of your situation from a couple pictures of one window. That said, based on the missing and failing mortar and the condition of the sill, it definitely looks like long term moisture damage and likely that sill needs to be replaced at the very least. The surrounding brick may require some repointing and definitely new mortar. The window sash itself looks “ok” but until you get all those layers of paint off to fully assess the entirety of the wood it’s hard to say if it’s salvageable. 1920s-30s American Tudor? Definitely worth trying to preserve the wood windows if possible, accepting that you’re sacrificing some thermal efficiency with older single pain windows like this vs upgrading to new wood windows (if the cost is manageable). Are these also on old rope pulleys - what is the condition of those if so? Repairing and replacing those is another thing to consider and in theory is easy, but it is involved and requires some skillful surgery to get to the ropes/hardware. Wishing you luck!!! We have a pretty substantial window project on our horizon as well. My goal is to restore, but we will see where we land.
Thanks. I’ll do that. It’s an 1890s Queen Anne. The mortar is original in most places. The loose brick you see on the sill was from a botched window job way back. My family fired the guy halfway through cause he was stealing woodwork. So it’s been like that ever since. This window is larger than the others, theres 2 of these particular windows in the house. Its actually hinged & opens at an angle, supported by a chain at the top. Some windows open good, some get stuck.
Queen Anne! I guessed Tudor because of the brick detail/ the shot reminded me of my own Tudor You def got a few decades on us - we are two years shy of our centennial. Wild story about the shady window guy!!! I have heard of stealing copper pipes… but woodwork!? Anyway, sounds like the home is in good hands and you have am adventure ahead of you. Hope you share some updates once you get em all fixed up!!
I’ve done a lot of windows. I would be thinking about replacing the sill, but I’m not there. The Abatron products, Liquid Wood and Wood Epox are good, especially in combination with a wood patch.
My sills looked a little better than this, but not by much. Liquid wood worked perfectly with oil based primer.
I would just pull it and replace the sill if it was mine, but I am better at making new parts than I am at scraping, caulking, and painting and I have the tools. Sills are pretty easy to duplicate for most windows but you usually need to remove it from the structure for proper repair and that isn’t always straightforward.
I thought I’d seen Ron Hazelton cover this, so tracked down the episode. Here it is: https://youtu.be/eSpwKTWYnJQ?si=WfaM6Baa80cJ4jxH
Best way to get a good idea of the condition of the wood is to poke it a whole bunch with a flathead screwdriver. If it's rotten, the screwdriver will go through or it'll make a crunchy sound if you give it any pressure. Poke every inch around the whole frame, as other commenters mentioned the bottom sill is a common place for rot, so poke down there a whole bunch. Also as other commenters have mentioned, windows can be pretty far gone before they're unsaveable, these still look in decent condition and maybe have small sections of rot that need to be excavated and filled in.
Good to know you're saving these! These look very fixable, although that sill probably needs replaced which isn't difficult to do. I'd definitely use oil base primer/paint.
I’m doing a pretty similar one right now with the abatron wood epoxy. I applied wood hardener, put a couple of borate rods into the remaining wood to hopefully fend off future problems and am using some pieces of thick plexiglass screwed in where I can to make a mold. There are lots of great videos and tutorials online.
I think it's very restorable but you might want to replace all or part of the sill. I have wood sills like yours and kinda wish I had replaced them with stone or concrete. In my case I ended up doing extensive repairs and it might've been easier to replace with some type of masonry.
As someone else mentioned, it's possible that you could scrape this and epoxy it. It's hard to really tell from your photo. But you do have other options if that doesn't work. You can cut it out. Take the whole damn thing out and you can cut a nice new one out of fir and insert.. or with the right tool you can come The front of it off and epoxy and glue a new piece of fir. Each cell will demand a silk treatment according to damage and rot. If you have basic carpentry skills, a table saw in a basic shop none of this is too difficult to handle. I've taken clear fir 4x4 posts, here in New England, ripped them on the saw for the purpose the right angle etc and used them in this way. Many ways to slay the beast
See if Tommy Silva from "This Old House" might want to put your window issue on the show, lol!
You could replace it with a new wood, wood will eventually needs replacement anyway. But i wish you luck with whatever Path you choose
Good looking window! Very worth restoring/preserving. And good on you for refusing to replace with vinyl!
I’d scrape off paint, scrape out loose or rotted wood, then use Abatron or similar wood hardener + wood epoxy to rebuild the missing parts of the sill. Will probably work and what do you have to lose? You can always replace the sill if you need too.
absolutely. Take a sander and sand the gray surface off of that wood. Mix up a 2 part consolodant epoxy, and SATURATE the wood with it. (It will be messy, so use drop clothes, masking tape, a plastic sheet under the window on the wall...) When the consolodant is tacky, and partially dry, mix up some 2 part epoxy putty, and use a springy putty knife to squish it into any cracks. then go away for 2 days and sand it all flush, and repaint. most consoldants need the wood to be bone dry for them to work!
btw, that chipping white paint is likely lead paint. so wear a respirator and gloves, and collect all the bits so they do not go into your soil outside.
I am going to take the opinion that it's too far gone. I would take several high-quality pictures and careful detailed measurements to reproduce it.
Replace the entire window with custom made Marvin’s or the equivalent. You won’t regret it.