Treating old wooden window frames

I've found aluminium primer quite good in the situation.

Sandpaper is your friend...

Jim K

Not an expert painter, but I would have thought that if the paint flakes off then the wood has not been properly cleaned, primed and undercoated.

Paint should stick to wood if the wood is clean and dry when painted.

Is it possible that the frame is hardwood?

In which case I think it will need a different (aluminium?) primer.

You can also get a primer/filler which will fill in the grain - but wood which is not smooth should still take paint, so I suspect that there is another reason that the paint isn't sticking.

Cheers

Dave R

It probably just needs a god sand to get it down to good wood, it sounds like the wood has weathered where it keeps flaking off.

It's the old story of the solvent being sucked into the wood so that the paint cannot form a proper film. IME wood hardener is the answer. If you've done the hard work to get back to bare wood, it really is a no brainer. Not sure about the "new" breed of one pack wood hardeners. They appear to be based on moisture curing resins but I would always have more faith in a 2 pack system