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Home Repair Windows Exterior

Repairing rotted window sill/frame

4 years ago

I wanted to try to repair this window myself. I looked at this sill replacement video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8iu9dLrV-E ) and it looks to be within my skills, but the window in question looks a bit more complicated (pic below), as it is the wood between the hung window. Is this repairable without replacing the glass?

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PRO

Joseph Corlett, LLC

4 years ago

Take it apart and use Abatron.

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Comments (11)

doug_ b
4 years ago
The rotten wood between the upper and lower window is an integral part of the window. You need new windows.
Paul F thanked doug_ b
PRO
User
4 years ago
New windows. And proper flashing on all of your windows. Or all will continue to rot.
Paul F thanked User
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I'm doing that this week! Please try some of the ideas suggested on the brief Housekeeping included. I have been following their suggestions and am very pleased with the outcome. Last week we replaced a header above one window and will replace one exterior sill and rebuild a window frame for it as well. We used the same dimensions as the original, but replaced all exterior wood with Spanish Cedar. I am priming everything with oil-based primer before reinstalling the parts. It may be to your advantage to hire a carpenter for a day to help with repairs you are not familiar with. If the wood can be stabalized, you may not have to replace it. Try stripping the paint and sanding, carefully, with 60 grit sand paper to see what wood you reveal. We have used a wood hardener on some of our exterior sills with very good one year results. I have found that taking the job on a few windows at a time helps me to retain my sanity. If you have storm windows, you can leave those up while you work on the sash. I then remove the storm during the day while I work on the exterior frame and sill. Make sure you seal the openings at night....I had a bat in my dining room last year! Plan on breaking a few panes of glass while cleaning out the old glazing compound. Good luck and let us know how things are going.
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I have repaired rotted sills using an epoxy wood consolidant called Liquid Wood. See http://www.abatron.com/cms/ First, I dug out the worst of the rotted wood, then mixed up some epoxy and applied it liberally to the remaining wood that still had some soundness. The epoxy mixture penetrates the spongy wood and when it hardens, restores it to nearly its original durability. Abatron sells a white epoxy putty for filling in voids, but I prefer to use the Liquid Wood epoxy described above, mixed with fine sawdust. I mix up a batch of epoxy per instructions, then add sawdust and continue to stir, until a stiff paste is achieved. The paste is used to fill in the voids, and finished by smoothing with a putty knife or trowel. After it hardens, it can be sanded using an orbital power sander. A local woodworker let me sweep up all the sawdust from his shop that I wanted. I sifted it using a piece of fine window screen, to filter out the larger pieces. You want the sawdust to be as fine a powder as possible. Dust collected from a power sander would be better still. After hardening, the repaired spots are nearly invisible, and if well sanded, will be completely hidden after painting.
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The answer to your question depends on where you are financially and what the house is like. I'm thinking this is not a colonial mansion in Moorestown, NJ. The vinyl siding gave it away. With that in mind, there is no way I would spend that much money on those particular windows. I would replace the rotted parts of the sills. This is most likely only the outer 2 inches or so, where moisture has been trapped under the ext trim. I would also replace the brickmolding (ext trim). I would then have these openings wrapped with the aluminum of your color choice, making sure that that is sealed properly, and also installed behind whatever drip cap is above. What I'm describing is not expensive work, perhaps app $200 per opening, including material. It is also not time consuming work, and fairly straight forward. I would then choose a quality replacement window with an insert installation, preserving all your interior trim. I would think you could have all this done for less than $1k per window or so. It could be argued that the technically correct way to do this right is to gut the openings and go with full frame methods, all new everything in and out. But replacement windows are called replacement windows for a reason. It is not always desirable to replace everything. For instance, if those wood windows of yours have a rope and weight balance system, then there is a large weight pocket behind the jambs. It's just not worth it to take all that apart unless you're wealthy or doing it yourself. Just get the best window you can. I suggest fiberglass framed so that you won't lose glass space. If that doesn't bother you, high end vinyl will work as well. But don't skimp on the window. If you do, you will be back in the same boat in less than 10 years. One more thing. The aluminum wrap on the outside can be bent in such a way to have a brickmold profile. This is much more professional and attractive, and shouldn't cost any extra if you have true professionals doing the work. Good luck!
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Well, I spoke with Pella customer service today. They said I cannot do a sash replacement with the particular window I have. I have a circa-1991 Pella Pro-line window. Ugh - don't blame me, these awful windows came with the house. Anyway, Pella told me that their Pro-lines today use screws, while Pro-lines in 1991 were glued. So it won't be possible to get a replacement sash for my existing window. They said perhaps I could get a handyman-carpenter to replace the rotted part of the sash, but it will always look "repaired". Their recommendation was to replace the window with the current Pella Pro-line in order to match the rest of the windows. Although the Pro-lines' construction is different now from 1991, on the outside it looks identical. The contractor who came by yesterday is going to email me an estimate. He said he recommends I go to the next level up in Pella from the Pro-lines due to the lower quality of the Pro-lines. So ballpark he said that to replace one window would be "just under $1000", but if I replaced all 5 windows I'd get economies of scale. I am going to get a few more quotes just for the one-window replacement, as I thought $1000 sounded very high. This post was edited by Mrs_Nyefnyef on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 20:16
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millworkman
4 years ago
Unfortunately by the time you source out just about every part for the window and replaced it you could have bought a new window several times over. That window is toast.
Paul F thanked millworkman
Paul F
Original Author
4 years ago
OK, thanks for the advice!
PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
4 years ago
+1 to Millworkman's feedback. There isn't much worth saving there, sadly.
cat_ky
4 years ago
Are you sure its all rot and not termites?? I dont think I have ever seen a window look like that.
Paul F
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
I finally dug into this project.

As a primer, these windows (as well as the siding in this part of the house) were not properly flashed, which also resulted in rotting portions of the osb next to/underneath the windows. so what was a ”I’ll fabricate new frame portions and replace those” became ”I have to pull of a lot of the siding off around the windows as well, replace/repair the osb (I used plywood), and put on proper housewrap and gap between the siding wood and the wrap”

This house was constructed right before the mass availability of superior housewrap, and the siding ”logs” were nailed directly to the tar paper wrap with no gap . Definately a learning process for me about proper construction.

So to summarize, there were several sins of construction done on the walls and windows, which resulted in this problem and increased the time of this project,

After addressing and repairing the rotted area of the walls and putting on housewrap and vertical furring strips to allow drainage/ breathing betweeen the siding and the wrapped wall, I removed the rotted fronts of the frames (the middle sections), stabilised the remaining good wood, constructed new frame peices, used flashing tape to seal the stabilized remaining wood, and added the frame sections in. On the worse side that i repared sections of the wall, i also added flashing to the top and bottom of the window, and made sure to have weep holes and paths for water to run outside.

The side of the house that wasnt as bad (pictured above) I will address the wall/siding next year. the Frame area was the most critical, so at least i got that done before the weather gets bad here.

I do plan on redoing this whole side sometime in the future, but this should give me a few years to plan that out (and save up) .

I’ll add an after pic, later today if i can get home before it’s dark .
Paul F
Original Author
last year
Paul F
Original Author
last year
You can also see the leaky pane on the upper right window too. It was since i bought the place in 2020, but has gotten worse over time .

The plan is to eventeventually redo the whole side and put in a single big window here (instead of the 4 panes), a sliding glass door replacing the mirror image of this on the other side, and a covered porch on the whole side here. This repair will get me by a few years until i decide to do that . The rot on that middle section was pretty bad and i didnt want the window to collapse.
elunia
last year
Fantastic job! Thank you for coming back with an update.

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