Paint for wet internal windowsills

[IngeJones]

We get condensation on our aluminium bedroom windows in colder weather at night which runs down onto our internal window sills.

The water-based eggshell paint we used on the timber window sills is sadly not able to withstand the condensation pooling on it for more than a few months. The idea of using oil-based gloss has occurred to me, but is there something even hardier I could try, just in this location? Any sort of plastic coatings?

Please, no suggestions for stopping the condensation by ventilating/heating/dehumidifying (which we have already explored). This is very much a question *only* about decorating materials and not about how to stop the condensation from occurring.

 

[Zampa]

Eggshell (oil based) is normally a little more durable in those circumstances.

Failing that your look at two pack polyurethanes and epoxy paints...not worth the expense IMO

 

[IngeJones]

Thanks. Of course this is the type of situation a uPVC window installation does so much better at In fact I have not had a uPVC window get condensation at all, and if it did, the water would sit harmlessly on a plastic cill till you could dry it off.

 

[confidentincompetent]

Have you concidered Getting some upvc 'cover' board (b&q) jewson etc. The facia boards have a lip which might cover the thicknes of your cills.. I've done several, some outside, they come up well with a tube of silicone.

good luck..

 

[IngeJones]

I think these window frames were an incompetent DIY job and they're a funny sort of stepped frame within a frame if you see what I mean. It would be very fiddly indeed cutting through any thickness to match the resulting cross-section, though if there was some sort of plastic material like fablon but thicker (so it didn't all crease up when applied) that might suit. I wondered if there was anything that applied as a liquid but was thick enough to create a shaped shell when dry - which if it lifted from the timber at all would lift as one shape, which could be stuck back down lol!

 

[JohnD]

can you show us some pics?

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=99672

 

[IngeJones]

Bleagh I don't know if I can face relearning how to use the camera - I only get it out about once a year and each time I have to sit there reading it for ages. I am not sure photos are really going to add much because I have taken the suggestion on board of using plastic mouldings, and I can see it would be sort of doable, but because of the complexity of cutting needed would probably end up looking a mess cosmetically. Therefore it's not my favourite plan at the moment.

Still, I could limit the use of this to the very first horizontal plane of the timber frame below the aluminium, and that would certainly cover the area which is experiencing most of the breakdown!

I will check for suitable plastic extrusions available, and in the meantime I still welcome information about durable brush-on coatings.