painting rotten wooden windows

frugalsar

Hey, was just looking for a bit of advice, I have old wooden windows the kind with lead and coloured glass in the top half, they are all rotten, the old paint has flaked off in places leaving bare wood which is soggy and on the inside is black mouldy stuff (I do have secondary too) I only bought the house three years ago and havn't touched them all at not knowing much about diy - can I paint them over from the outside? can i just use ordinary gloss or does it need to be special paint? do i need to wait till the weathers dryer? I'm doing it myself and don't have much spare money so I know I shouldn't be painting over rotting windows but it's just to make them ok for a little longer!! thanks for any help!

Suzy_M

Painting over wet and/or rotten wood won't take, i.e. it will fall off within a very short time, but you can get various treatments to treat the wood before painting.

Cuprinol and Ronseal do wood hardeners and special fillers for this type of job. Check out their websites for further info. (but if you get stuck I might still have Cuprinol instruction leaflets somewhere).

frugallass

whatever you do is only going to be a temporary solution

some windows, even if they look to be in terrible condition, just need to be refurbished - much cheaper than full replacements

you need to get some window contractors in to give you quotes / opinions

Yorkshire_Bred

Yes, not ideal painting over rotten soggy windows, but if you have to my advice would be to apply some Dulux Weathershield Preservative Primer to protect the bare wood as much as possible until the spring.

Once the dryer weather is here you can sand and prepare the windows and apply Ronseal Wood Hardener to the affected areas and fill using two pack filler.

I would certainly recommend Dulux Weathershield for exterior work, although more expensive it does last longer than than normal paint systems.

Errata

Suzy_M wrote: »

Painting over wet and/or rotten wood won't take, i.e. it will fall off within a very short time, but you can get various treatments to treat the wood before painting.

Cuprinol and Ronseal do wood hardeners and special fillers for this type of job. Check out their websites for further info. (but if you get stuck I might still have Cuprinol instruction leaflets somewhere).

I used this stuff in my outside glazed veranda - the wood sets like concrete ! Great stuff.

ormus

for a really cheap temp job ive actually used cement. then painted over.
all the ronseal stuff is expensive and you will need to do the job properly at some time.

nickj_2

i would not bother wasting money on dulux weathershield
from the sound of it your window's on it's last legs
just use a normal primer u/c and gloss
make sure it is totally dry 1st tho -
plenty of help here https://www.dulux.co.uk/advice/questions/faq/faq_038.jsp

frugalsar

thanks for all your advice, sounds like its going to be a bigger job then i thought!

never_enough

It's amazing how windows can be renovated though & it's really worth putting the effort in if you have lovely ones in your house. A local carpenter may be able to cut out & replace any very bad bits, or even make-up new frames using your stained glass (not a cheap option though)

misgrace

frugallass wrote: »

whatever you do is only going to be a temporary solution

some windows, even if they look to be in terrible condition, just need to be refurbished - much cheaper than full replacements

you need to get some window contractors in to give you quotes / opinions

I agree, I used to paint exteriors up to a few years ago, (only do interiors now) lol, and once wood is rotten, its gone, no matter how much effort you put it in, it will only be a tempory fix.
You can buy wood hardener, which is supposed knit the fibres together and minimise the rotten of the wood, and of of course do your usual prep and coats of paint, but if your lucky it will last a year, cause as soon as the winter weather hits it, it will rot again.

Like Op says, you can get pieces made for the worst ones, but you might have to seriously consider new windows.