As the ongoing redecoration of the outside of this house continues, latest problem is a rotten sill to a sash window. And also the largest one in the house, at 1.1 metre wide.
My local Travis Perkins had the correct Victorian sill in softwood - but not the best bit of timber I've ever seen. So what would be the best way to protect it from rot before painting?
Ebay did offer the same sill in both redwood and hardwood at about 4 times the price - but I don't want to wait for delivery.
prayer
c'est la vie. Concrete should last better.
NT
This might not work for you then. This is what I did for my facia boards ~12 years ago. I had the timber indoors for a month or two to make sure it was well dried out, and then selected the pices which were still flat and straight, and discarded the banana shaped pieces. Then I cut to size and temporarily fitted just to test, but brought them all back indoors.
I painted all the boards heavily with Cuprinol 5 star wood treatment, and piled the boards on top of each other to allow it to penetrate well rather than the solvent simply evaporating. This was 12 years ago - I don't know if Cuprinol 5 star is still the same, or solvent based. It penetrates much better into drier timber than brand new damp timber.
After that, I primed with aluminium paint, and then a couple of undercoats of Dulex Weathershield, followed by a couple of top coats. Rear surfaces which should remain dry only got one undercoat and no top coat, to allow breathing better.
I took them all down after 10 years and washed them, and refitted them. (Had scaffolding there for another reason, so too good an opportunity to miss.) They all still look brand new - no repainting required yet.
Facia boards are better protected from weather than a window sill, so it might be than some better protection would be advisable in your case. The window sill is normally part of a whole window frame and so some making good and sealing is going to be necessary where you join the new to the old timber.
Brush/soak in some of the resin hardener, of the type you would use to repair it if it *had* gone rotten ... I used some of that on one end of a sill and come the time to replace the whole windows about 20 years later, that end of the sill was still in good shape compared to the rest.
Interesting you should say that. Not had long term success using that rot hardener followed by the two part filler. My guess is putty would last just about as well.
One way might be to get it pressure treated by your local builder that has a suitable tank and the relatively nasty chemicals to do it.
Pretty sure they used CCA when I had it done for bargeboards and other pieces of rotten timber on our newly purchased old Victorian house.
I suspect that has now been banned.
Whatever you do pay particular attention to saturating the end grain with preservative - that is invariably where the rot first gets in.
Yes - idea is to leave it soaking overnight in preservative.
Of course at my age, it likely doesn't have to last that long. ;-)
Soak the timber, notably the bits at the bottom like cills and the vertical bits up to a foor above and allow a few weeks to dry.
The best primer sealer was Dulux Weathershield which was greeny blue, but for VOC 2010 it has become water based so can only be used when the temp is above 15 centigrade.
My technique for using it on existing timber like fascia boards is the fill an old oil can with a flexible spout and use that to saturate a synthetic brush held flat and horizontally then apply to the timber using a rubbing motion. Simply painting onto a vertical surface will result in it running down your arm and the wall and anything below.
Alternatively, take a look at Ron Curries ebay site or Website. they used to sell the stuff they use to protect their own bespoke windows. (Zinsser ?).
I used this on all the exposed, south-facing timber windows in my last house. It might as well have been toilet cleaner for all the good it did. Save the money for uPVC.
some people swear by using fibreglass resin to seal wood.
worked for me.
South and east-facing timber painted with the complete Dulux weathershield system kept its gloss for 10 years and is still sound, but getting a bit dull after 20 years.
Did you remove all the old trade paint crap and get down to clean bare wood ?, or are you living on the South Coast where wind-blown salty spray will defeat any attempt to paint woodwork.
And use the professional paint and undercoat, the latter is solvent based, unlike the amateur version sold in B&Q which is water based.
Fell off after a year. Sanded everything down to bare wood, repeated, all fell off again. Conclusion; completely useless. Replaced with uPVC, spent my summers sitting in a chair with a beer instead of up a ladder with a paint brush.
Yep. Twice.
Nope. North Beds.
Yep. I eschew water based paints, wherever possible.
This is one of those jobs I wish I'd never started. Just shove some filler in and pray.
The sill runs far further to either side than I'd guessed, so the bit I bought isn't long enough.
It's part of a bay window which is wood panelled in the inside, and much of that has had to come off. The rot on the sill also extends up one side of the frame, so that will need repair too.
Was hoping someone made the frame bits (like the sides that take the parting bead and the trap to access the weights) but all I can find is the various beads.
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