New House Problem #489372 - rotten window sills

[Tip]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to this forum and I was wondering if someone could help me with a probelm I have ( if you saw the state of the house my partner and I bought last year you would see we have several problems, but this is one of many);


The window sills of the three west facing fixed/awning windows are rotted out as some bright spark faced the watering system to the sill of the window. There is no chance of just digging out the rot and back filling it, the damage is too deep. I have removed the glass from the lower fixed pane to see if the damage has spread up the jamb, and to what i can see there is no damage (although i suspect it could have creeped up).

So is there a possibility i could remove the sill of the window in situ and replace it with another piece? the exterior of the window is a painted finish and the interior is a stain.

This leads me on to the next problem, the skirting boards and architraves of our home are stained in a walnut finish (and have been painted red elsewhere), would it be easier to paint the whole lot a white gloss or to finish it in a 2 pack poly? ( the floor finish is a very smelly old carpet & cork tiles )

Also (and i promise i'll stop soon) as mentioned above, the carpet STINKS!!!! we have put about 50 man hours into wet/dry vaccuming and steam cleaning and it's improved by about 3 shades but it still smells on hot days (have checked, no water damage). I want to rip it up and polish the 40mm cover perfect radiata pine boards underneath, but my partner insists that this is a waste of time as we will rent out the property in 5 years and they will get too damaged. Does anyone know if the boards will sustain too much damage over 5 years & renting to be presentable to sell in a decade or so?

I would really appreciate some advice on this. Thanks!

P.S sorry for the really long post

[journeyman Mick]

.......So is there a possibility i could remove the sill of the window in situ and replace it with another piece? the exterior of the window is a painted finish and the interior is a stain..........

It's possible, but pretty hard to do without wrecking everything that's attached to it. I'd start by removing the architrave, cutting through the sill on either side, just next to the jamb, then try to lever of the bulk of the sill (you may have to use a recipro saw to cut through the nails). When this is complete I'd split the remaining bit of sill off the nails holding it and the jambs together. If you managed to do all this then you'd need to match the new sill profile with the old so that the jamb would mate to the new sill.

This leads me on to the next problem, the skirting boards and architraves of our home are stained in a walnut finish (and have been painted red elsewhere), would it be easier to paint the whole lot a white gloss or to finish it in a 2 pack poly? ( the floor finish is a very smelly old carpet & cork tiles )............... [/FONT]

White gloss enamel, two or three coats.

Also (and i promise i'll stop soon) as mentioned above, the carpet STINKS!!!! we have put about 50 man hours into wet/dry vaccuming and steam cleaning and it's improved by about 3 shades but it still smells on hot days (have checked, no water damage). I want to rip it up and polish the 40mm cover perfect radiata pine boards underneath, but my partner insists that this is a waste of time as we will rent out the property in 5 years and they will get too damaged. Does anyone know if the boards will sustain too much damage over 5 years & renting to be presentable to sell in a decade or so?...............

My guess would be yes, but if you're carfeful and you have careful tenants then you could probably get them resanded and finished prior to selling.


Mick

[Tip]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

Do you have any advice on how to paint skirting boards without removing them & not giving the carpet 2-3 coats aswell?

[Ashore]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

Do you have any advice on how to paint skirting boards without removing them & not giving the carpet 2-3 coats aswell?

Before you paint check paint supplier as there are sealers designed to go over stained boards so you only need 1 finishing coat , (Bunnies stock it ) make sure you get the correct sealer for either acrylic or enamel , whatever you intend to use as a finish coat , as for not getting paint on the carpet either use extreem care , hold some cardboard along the edge of the board and the carpet as you go , or rip the carpet out and sand and polish.
You will get wear ant tear on the polished floors but there only floors, if you leave the carpet it will need cleaning after every tenant and will be harder to rent with old and smelly carpet than with polished floors.

Rgds

[Tip]

I will try my best to nag until the carpets are gone, and then paint the architraves ( & probably replace the skirts). I'll give the windows a crack when the weather warms up.

Does anyone have any suggestions for removing cork floor tiles? they should be down on cement sheeting which should be tacked down every 150mm so there will be holes galore in the kitchen area.

any suggestions for disgusing nail holes?

Thank you for your help!

[Krazee]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

Do you have any advice on how to paint skirting boards without removing them & not giving the carpet 2-3 coats aswell?

I use a piece of aluminium approx 300mm long and 200mm wide with a slight curve along one long side edge. It is strong enough to push the curved bit down between the architrave and the carpet, lever away from the architrave to enable you to paint while the aluminium protects the carpet from the paint brush, then just move to the next bit.

[markharrison]

So is there a possibility i could remove the sill of the window in situ and replace it with another piece?

Yes it can be done, and I have done it.

1. Remove the architrave.
2. I had to cut the jambs about 250mm above the sill as the jambs were rotten too where they met the sill. So bad I could put a fist through them.
3. Fabricated new jamb material and created a half lap join to mate them to the old jamb.
4. I used a pre-fabricated sill I found at the timber yard which is Kwila. Don't forget to add new flashing.
5. Glued all joins using West Systems Epoxy.
6. Reinstalled the architrave.
7. Filled around the half lap join.
8. Then painted.

It looks so good nobody will ever know what I did, nor will it ever be a problem ever again for the life time of that house. I no longer own it though.

[Tip]

My partners parents renovated and they have all these spare windows lying around that i could pull apart (none of them fit the existing hole, already checked (not that stupid)) and use the framing to replace it.

Thank you so much. I'm going to give that a crack on sunday. May fail horribly, but thats why i'm friends with builders.

Thanks everyone for your help, I'll post pictures if i ever figure out how!

wish me luck!!!!