whats the best way to repair a rotted exterior wooden window sill. would you have to take out the window?
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It depends on how bad it is and the ease of repair in place v. taking it out.
Just like most other "alterations". You reach a spot of diminishing returns.....too much time farting around, should have taken it out.
AND, sometimes the end result is better by #### canning the whole works and installing new.
Just have to know when to draw the line..........
or pull the pin.
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It can depend ho bad it is. Small spots I do with Git-Rot epoxy and fill with minwax wood filler right in place. The wood has to have some soundness to it and be dry though. If too much rot, it is cheaper to just replace the sill. With hundred year old DH windows, I have pulled them right out and built new ones to slip back in, but modern types mean it can be easier to take the whole thing out.
Asses whether it is really a window worth saving in the first place too. like Cal said, ther comes a time when it is only good for dumpster fodder.
And recognizing that is a matter of experience.
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Your last sentence is PRICELESS, truthfully. A testers business card (he tested EVERYTHING) said it all. "One Test is Worth One Thousand Expert Opinions". So is experience.
Edited 12/2/2008 8:38 pm ET by Pelipeth
Some windows like circa 1986 WeatherShield DH had finger jointed sill material primed well enough so you could not detect it. On the plus side you could pull out the outermost portion of the sill which was pinned in with just 3-4 long 18 gauge pins. I found out by having a sill so far gone that once I poked through the skin of paint on the front built up over 16 years I found the bottom of the rot was solid smooth material. That turned out to be the real sill and the rot was an extension of the sill.