Window Painting
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Window Painting.
When it comes to exterior window painting, wooden window frames and wooden sills are common requests. Often, these surfaces can unveil rotting wood, a problem that we are equipped to handle. Window frames are vertical surfaces, and typically don’t suffer from this problem. The horizontal part under the window, the window sill, does often see prolonged exposure to moisture from rainfall or snow, which can linger for days. While frames typically don’t need the same attention, wooden sills and other horizontal surfaces do need more regular maintenance.
At Chatham Pro Painters, we specialize in minor wood rot repair before it escalates. To see an overview of all we offer, you can get back to our home page by clicking here on building painters. What we often see when called for repainting window frames, is painting that has been left unmaintained for too long, where some of the paint has flaked off and bare wood is exposed. It may seem minor when looking at it from several feet away. However, in outdoor environments, exposed bare wood unprotected by paint will start to degrade after 3-5 years and will go completely soft and rot through like the first pictures below. Which then leads to your mild dilemma. Do you need to replace your windows if there’s a bit of wood rot?
Should you Take on painting window frames, or replace with vinyl Or ALUMINUM?
Several factors come into play when deciding on continuing with wood windows, or vinyl. Durability, maintenance, aesthetic looks, insulating comfort, and costs.
Durability: Wood will chip, crack, and can rot but can last up to 30+ years if maintained. Vinyl generally will not chip or crack. Depending on direct sun, and with our cold winter climates, vinyl will expand and contract and tend to warp eventually so you can expect your basic vinyl windows to last 15-20 years.
Maintenance: Wood needs painting. Expect every 4-5 years on horizontal surfaces such as wooden sills. Otherwise mother nature begins to gobble up that wood, as you’ll see in our rotted window sill pictures! Vinyl on the other hand does not need any painting, unless you’re completely determined on changing the colour. Another alternative still, is aluminum capping on wooden window frames. It presents a different look from wood, but a result that provides for a long lasting and maintenance free option.
Looks: Wood windows can be pine, cedar, oak, mahogany, fir, and can retain that wood grain look even with protective and decorative staining, with a whole assortment of colours, creating a beautiful and even rustic look. Vinyl, however, traditionally comes in very few colour choices. While a couple of companies DO offer custom colours, a super high portion of windows come in the super exciting colour of white. Or white. (More recently, sometimes now black.) Exhilarating options right?
Insulating comfort: Wood is a lower transmitter of heat and cold. It insulates better, whereas your standard vinyl window has a hollow core. A premium can be paid to get vinyl windows with some insulation in the core.
Costs: Wood is a more expensive resource, and vinyl plastic windows have become a common, budget friendly choice. Mass produced in factory automation with injection molds vs the hand assembly and workmanship of wood windows.
But maybe instead of replacing, we maintain what we’ve got with some window painting.
Traditional windows of decades past have been all wood. Even with degraded paint, and a couple broken or missing window panes like in the picture with the red siding, this is still repairable. While it would look strange to replace only 1 or 2 wood windows with the completely different look of a vinyl window, it may be enlightening to know that individual window panes can be replaced, and re-set in place using window glazing putty, followed by priming and painting. As rough as this window looks, it is fixable! Repairing and maintaining is almost always cheaper than replacing.
Here are before and after pictures where these basement windows we knew were somewhat rotted because this window sill was mushy-soft to the touch. What was initially just a few inches of soft spots on the sill, turned out to be quite extensive wood rot beneath the surface, because the wood surface had been exposed. With water and snow, paint eventually deteriorates. Since the wood was exposed for several years before we were called for the window painting, the sill took damage. As seen in the picture, more than half the sill crumbled out and scraped out! The good news is that minor wood rotting in sills is easily repairable, a relatively straightforward process with using a product called Bondo, ensuring the continued longevity of your windows. This is an epoxy and resin combination filler that becomes so hard, that within 10 minutes of applying it, you can chisel it. The second white window picture below shows the same window sill, 1 year later after Bondo repair. A durable, and practical wood rot repair solution!
There is no denying that vinyl plastic windows have taken a huge lead with new home construction in Ontario, namely because of their affordability, and low maintenance. Question is, do you want the look of wood windows, are willing to spend more in upfront costs for a better chance at longer lasting windows, and will upkeep the window painting every few years?
If your wood windows are still intact, even if in rough shape like our window shown with broken panes, it still is often more economical to do maintenance window painting, than to replace.
A thorough prep of the surface, including a top quality paint applied with 2 coats will provide ample protection on the wood surfaces for closer to 10 years. Keep in mind horizontal surfaces such as the sills should be given attention before that, to keep the windows and sills in good shape.
