Hi all, great forum. I ran across this fix totally by accident and necessity, and I thought I would share it with other homeowners who may have the same trouble. I have a 70's brick home with wooden windows and storms. On the north side of my house the bottom outside sill of the window was rotting, I am on a tight budget and could'nt afford a replacement window. I had already reglazed and primered and painted the window sashes, so they were in good shape. I came across pvc brickmold (about $10 per 8' piece at lowes), and I found that if you flip it over it has enough fall on it to make a sill. So i carefully removed the outside portion of the old sill, replaced it with a piece of pvc brickmold flipped over. Mine had a little lip on the bottom sill that the storm set against so I recreated it with 1/4 inch pvc strip run across the seam (small brats or nails and a bead of caulk under). I also replaced the brickmold on the sides and top. I had to drill around the little brats to remove the old wooden brickmold from the window since it was obviously installed at the factory and do this very carefully so as not to damage the window. The piece of wood across the top of the window can be replaced with 3/4" x3-1/2 "pvc (also found at home improvement store) or a piece of vinyl cut to fit, whichever works best. I just covered mine with a piece of vinyl siding cut to fit because it was easier although the pvc is nicer if you can. I ran a bead of good caulk between the pvc and the brick and along the outside edge of the sill where it sits on the brick. When I reinstalled the storm, to my surprise, I realized the storm covers all the remaining wood and I am now maintenance free on the outside of this window. The painted wood covered by the storm (only the sashes and a small lip that the storm sets against don't catch any weather and hardly ever need to be repainted anyway). So I was very pleased. For a few bucks I have a maintenance free window. Anyways I figure if I had this trouble a lot of other people do as well, and with the economy being what it is, it seemed only right to share, since this is diy site.
Hi all, great forum. I ran across this fix totally by accident and necessity, and I thought I would share it with other homeowners who may have the same trouble.
I have a 70's brick home with wooden windows and storms. On the north side of my house the bottom outside sill of the window was rotting, I am on a tight budget and could'nt afford a replacement window.
I had already reglazed and primered and painted the window sashes, so they were in good shape. I came across pvc brickmold (about $10 per 8' piece at lowes), and I found that if you flip it over it has enough fall on it to make a sill.
So i carefully removed the outside portion of the old sill, replaced it with a piece of pvc brickmold flipped over. Mine had a little lip on the bottom sill that the storm set against so I recreated it with 1/4 inch pvc strip run across the seam (small brats or nails and a bead of caulk under).
I also replaced the brickmold on the sides and top. I had to drill around the little brats to remove the old wooden brickmold from the window since it was obviously installed at the factory and do this very carefully so as not to damage the window.
The piece of wood across the top of the window can be replaced with 3/4" x3-1/2 "pvc (also found at home improvement store) or a piece of vinyl cut to fit, whichever works best. I just covered mine with a piece of vinyl siding cut to fit because it was easier although the pvc is nicer if you can. I ran a bead of good caulk between the pvc and the brick and along the outside edge of the sill where it sits on the brick.
When I reinstalled the storm, to my surprise, I realized the storm covers all the remaining wood and I am now maintenance free on the outside of this window. The painted wood covered by the storm (only the sashes and a small lip that the storm sets against don't catch any weather and hardly ever need to be repainted anyway).
So I was very pleased. For a few bucks I have a maintenance free window.
Anyways I figure if I had this trouble a lot of other people do as well, and with the economy being what it is, it seemed only right to share, since this is diy site.
I know, pics would be better and it was hard to explain exactly what I did, step by step, so it got a little lengthy, but it works. Sorry I will try and post pics when I get camera back. For me it was much better then waiting till water got in my wall and created even more problems.
Not sure as to why use the brickmold when there are vinyl replacement window sills out there also. I do quite a bit of window sill replacement in this area and have been using the vinyl pieces for a couple of years. But, ironically some homeowners do not want the vinyl. The want wood put back in just as the old one was. Doesn't matter to me. David
Only the outside part was rotting, not the inside, the vinyl sills I saw were wide and harder to install. I guess it depends on your situation, but usually only the outside part catches weather and needs replacement, it seemed senseless to tear the window apart unnecessarily. At any rate for me this was an easy, very cost-effective fix that a diy'er can do and gives a lot of bang for the buck.
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