I have about a dozen window frames plus 3 doors to seal and looking at screwfix the named sealants are in excess of £4.50 each. They do sell a "No Nonsense" acrylic sealer for £2.99 and a water-based "weather resistant" one for £1.35.
Anyone tried the cheaper ones and have any comments to make?
Cheers
Martin
Toolstation have acrylic frame sealers from =A31.16.
A
Or GP silicone at £1.65
My comment would be to know exactly what you are using. If you are intending to use white, make sure you get some tried and tested product with plenty of testimony from this group or elsewhere. The company that fitted our front door have a good local reputation - they used brown sealant on a white frame claiming that it wouldn't discolout like the white alternative. Sounds like a strange choice, but looks OK IMO. Sorry can't give you a specific trade name to use, but I would avoid cheap unless you have a better reason than cost to use it. Scraping out metres of discoloured sealer 2 years hence will certainly make it false economy.
Phil
I've used a variety of sealants over the years - but I think,if it was for something 'structural' I'd err on the side of caution and use a branded product.....
..think of the grief and aggravation if you had to re-do all of the window-frames and doors because the sealant wasn't up to the job !
Might be worth dropping in to your local replacement window place (the workshop, not the showroom (yellow pages) and seeing if they'll sell you a case of the stuff that they use....
Good luck! Adrian
I fitted a UPVC window and patio doors from Screwfix to the kitchen some ten years ago and sealed with white silicone. It may have mellowed slightly but still looks ok. Not that there are great wads of it - I made up some 'shuttering' and used mortar to true up the walls to the side of the opening so there was a nice smooth edge to the opening leaving the required clearance.
I needed this doing, and the bloke used what looks like mortar mix. That's how it's usually done, he explained. And that's probably why it usually needs redoing ;-)
Rob
It's the way the instructions said with mine from Screwfix, IIRC. Fill the gap twixt frame and wall with foam, then run a mortar fillet (a bit like pointing) round the edge, and seal between it and the frame with silicone. That's for a window mounted flush to the outside. I removed some of the foam on the 'outside' to give a reasonable depth for the mortar. But I can imagine a pro wanting a faster method.
Not directly comparable, but I bought some of their "No Nonsense" parcel tape and it was utterly, utterly pathetic. Put me off buying anything else in that range and drove home the point that people will produce things down to a price no matter how useless it makes them.
Our local independent double glazing outfit uses Siroflex Silicone which is a brand that Toolstation sells.
I wouldn't use acrylic outside. But having used it once in a kitchen, I wouldn't use it inside either.
I use No Nonsense grab adhesive and its excellent.
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A mortar fillet can look much neater than gunned sealants and it's really quite durable. It needs a bit of practice to get it looking perfect but the end result looks much better than sealant.
Cic.
Ah, OK, maybe he did that. Actually and in fairness it does look neat and more in keeping with the stone fronted house. He came recommended via a local Sheffield forum as someone who'd done done work on conservation projects. £200 for all the front windows and door, and about a third of the pointing at the front, including scaffold. Pretty happy all told.
Rob
Are the frames plastic or timber? - AFAIK the use of a polysulphide sealant is recommended for timber. PeterK
Can you get "textured acrylic" in cartridges? Beige/grey sealant with added sand that looked like cement could be useful for minor repointing and other small jobs, would have an indefinite shelf-life, and would need so much practice to get right. The few times I've tried to use mortar fillets they've shrunk or cracked and fallen out.
Then you're not doing it right since it's just like pointing.
Greed but it does leak and lead to rot of the frame and it cracks as the wood "breathes". I've had good results in the past with a mortar fillet sealed with transparent silicone.
Other than that, Sikaflex for the expensive route, MSP sealants (grey or white only) for fcheapskates like me.
But it shouldn't actually touch the wood - just the bricks. I used some thin wood strip as a spacer to give a nice neat gap - actually a venetian blind blade. ;-) And then seal between it and the frame with silicone or a paintable sealer if the frame is to be painted.
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