Softwood window repair advice please

[PilotPete]

My 1990 property has softwood windows, which are regularly painted outside and which are in reasonable condition. However, they probably weren't the best quality when fitted and this is reflected in their age.

As I decorate each room I am planning to renovate the windows 'internally' and to fit new seals. The window in the picture seems to have been sanded at some point and the top edge is not level, at the end you can see the 'dip'.



This means that it only just meets the bottom edge of the seal and hence doesn't fit properly. Not a very good picture below, but shows the problem; I hasten to add that the window is ajar in this picture and not shut!!



I have fitted new hinges purchased from Screwfix, but there is no vertical adjustment and if I could lift the opening window up, it would create a similar problem at the bottom!

Two questions.

1. How could I repair the top of the window? Plane it flush and then add a strip to the correct height to make the seal? Any other method that would work?

2. The seals are like a fabric and there appears to be a rebate into which the seal is attached to the frame. Having never replaced anything like these before I don't know what the seals are called and are they glued in?





Thanks for your time.

PP

 

[mr_mike]

Hi Pete,

1.) Yes, you could add a lipping to the top of the window, bit it should ideally be with the grain. It should be O.K., but generally isn't considered good carpentry practice, where the end of your lipping covers the ends of the stiles of the window, where the grain meets it at 90 degrees. The same applies to lipping the tops and bottoms of doors. The reason being timber shrinkage. Timber shrinks more across the grain that it does longitudinally.

2.) Try www.reddiseals.co.uk for your seals. You'll need to be competent with a router to recess the seals.

Hope this helps a little....

 

[PilotPete]

Thanks Mike

So will I need to rout new recesses? The current seals are fitted into a recess.

 

[mr_mike]

Hi Pete,

You'll have to measure the width & depth of your current recess & see if it matches the recess required for some new seals. You may not be able to replace them exactly like for like......

Reddiseals show the dimensions of the recesses required for their seals on their site. They're quite helpful if you call them.....

(P.S. Hope you understood what I mean't about the lipping.....just read it back, and I probably could've explained in a simpler fashion !)

 

[PilotPete]

Yeah Mike,

Think I get your drift! What would the alternative be? Change the window?

Pete

 

[mr_mike]

Yeah Mike,

Think I get your drift! What would the alternative be? Change the window?

Pete

You have a limited amount of options. I'm afraid they are 'bodges', but short of changing the window, what else can you do ?

1/ Either lip the edges as discussed. Although technically 'a bodge', you will get away with it.

2/ Beading on the inside of the window frame to cover the gap. Will look even 'bodgier', and would probably have to bead all the windows for continuity.

3/ New windows.


If they were my windows & they were to be painted in the long run, I would replace the missing wood with Windowcare Systems Dry Flex Resin. You'll find the product if you google it. Probably not the best DIY option, I wouldn't have thought. It's expensive, and quite involved, and generally only used by trained contractors.

Don't be fooled into thinking you could use Ronseal 2 part filler from BnQ to build out the missing wood. Although a great product for filling holes, it's not designed for this purpose. It would eventually go brittle and crack. The windowcare product flexes with the wood, as it expands / contracts.

If I were you, I'd plane the tops of the windows flush, lip the edges with a suitable seasoned similar wood, glued & pinned. Sink the pin's & fill the holes. Don't forget the pins if you find you need to re-plane the window !
And then treat the repair with a good external paint system as soon as poss.

Then keep them painted....

 

[PilotPete]

Thanks Mike.