Repair of conservatory sill

[Airsource Ltd]

My conservatory is a normal dwarf wall with hardwood frame. The shape of the conservatory is half of an octagon butting onto the main house wall. (ascii art below)

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The exterior sill has joins at each 45 degree corner. On two of those corners, the wood has rotted, and the damage has been compounded by ants over the last two summers.

I've cut back to good wood, which means there's something like a 4" gap now. I'm proposing to

a) pack out with filler until I get a reasonably square profile on the cut edges. b) Insert a suitable piece of wood, which I'll cut and plane down to fill the gap (I know I need to preserve the drip groove) c) Use filler to finish off.

What I'm worried about is

a) Preventing the ants from making a return. b) The corners used to have connecting bolts (much like worktop connectors) joining each piece of sill. Obviously, I've removed these because they are sitting in rotten wood doing nothing. Is this a problem?

[Stuart Noble]

I'd do the whole thing with car body filler, using formers to get a flat surface. The piece of wood you plan to insert probably won't last

[RubberBiker]

a) If they're electric ants,

should be able to come up with an amazingly ingenious trap for them.

b) If all the sections of the bottom plate are fixed to the dwarf wall, then connectors between the sections may now be more or less redundant (but kept everything together *until* it was fixed down)

c) I've had your 16th ed. tester since forever, so if you'd like me to run you off a bit of profile, it's the least I could do.

[The Medway Handyman]

This stuff is good, does what it says on the tin etc.

> a) pack out with filler until I get a reasonably square profile on the > cut edges.

Thats what I'd do, using this stuff

> What I'm worried about is

Prolly won't like th efiller, but ants don't eat wood anyway - do they?

Filler will hold everything in place I reckon.

[js.b1]

Um, I know this is D-I-Y, but is it not simpler to replace the external cill ?

- Take a piece of Larch / Mahogony / Oak / Iroko

- Cut to size, plaster fingers

- Plane a profile on it, put plasters back on

- Round the edge of, and the cill also

- Swear your tools are not sharp enough (or aren't now)

- Cut a drip groove with a tenon saw & small chisel

- Fit into place

Or am I think of external *sub-cill* which are simple to replace.

Filler needs to 1) bond to the wood 2) expand/contract with the wood re moisture/seasons - you often get fine cracks forming where filler & wood meet. Wet Rot Wood Hardener should be good for getting a good "base". Good filler is expensive, although I admit probably not as much as a window cill - depends on the size and whether the profile matches.

Got a few cracking sub-cills and lack of suppliers :-(

[Airsource Ltd]

New moniker? I'm sure you weren't RubberBiker last time I saw you. So what bike have you got?

Ridgeons have probably got something suitable - it looks like a pretty standard profile, and I can rip it down with the circular saw - I'm pretty nifty now at cutting small sections, though I am tempted to get a table saw sometime.... Do drop in if you're ever in around - I've been sprogging...

Have you actually got any of the wiring done yet?!

[Airsource Ltd]

Why not? Surely this is the sort of thing wood filler is supposed to be good for - not to mention that I could always treat the end grain first?

[Airsource Ltd]

They like this stuff!!

[Chris George]

Dear Airsource Ltd We do this sort of repair professionally. The only product that we recommend and we have been doing it for 30 years is one invented by a Dutch firm called Window Care (not to be confused with the firm Windowcare) Some examples of the sort of firm that uses the product is

it is franchised and difficult to locate the normal franchisees. If you decide you want it I will hunt for a local distributor if you tell me where you are

We have not found satisfactory resins with any other products and have tried an awful lot.

Car body filler did not work long term

My advice is get some profile made up of a naturally resistant grade 5 hard wood - teak iroko etc using your offer from another correspondent cut the edges of the old wood exactly vertically using a Fein multimaster or the like treat to exhaustion (ie repeatedly) with an organic solvent based fungicide and allow all solvent to evaporate If you fancy it get some solid boron rods, drill a hole or holes in the end grain and leave solid boron in the residual timbers make the accurate join in the two 45 angled replacement timbers on a compound saw and glue together with a slip of timber across the join as in a secret tenon use a decent epoxy resin glue to do this which is viscous and penetrates the grain but has some limited gap filing capacity and preferably do it at a raised temperature once the joint is done make sure it is finished properly in the workshop and there are no missing bits of glued joint to act as a rain trap (should not be necessary if joint done right) cut to fit old sill snugly insert slips if you fancy it but not necessary use the Window care primer and filler to finish off the repair wait the necessary time to get it hard use the surface filler if you have to paint and you are done

Chris

[Stuart Noble]

The only problem I've found with car body filler is that the wood adjoining the filler may dry out and shrink, leaving cracks between wood and filler. If these are filled, the repair is pretty much permanent (I have some touching up to do after 25 years)

[The Natural Philosopher]

That's why you treat any wood that's left with e.g. a good layer of polyester resin before slapping down the old filler.

[Man at B&Q]

A new DIY use for Viagra?

MBQ