DIYbanter - View Single Post - Can we replace our windows and retain the marble windowsills?

wrote:
We have a house that was built in the 50's and has marble windowsills
throughout. We would like to replace the old aluminum windows, but we
would like to keep the marble sills. We've talked to a couple of
contractors and a window dealer, and it's 2:1 against the sills so far.

The problems I can think of are (1) possibly breaking the sills during
window removal; and (2) the new window frames will probably be thicker,
which might cause the sills to jut out into the room more (assuming
they butt up against the frame rather than go under it).

Has anyone done something like this? We'd really like to keep the
sills...

Thanks!!

I had the same problem with nonreplacable mouldings, crowns etc. I did
not get anyone who would guarentee the mouldings would not break upon
removal. These are 100 years old and could not me matched up without a
custom job, which I was not prepared to do. Have you considered window
inserts? If your frames are solid and you know you have insullation
around the frames this might be an alternative. I went this route on
single hung inserts. They look fine, 0 loss of window size, 0 draft
issues and 0 noise issues. Not only did I save on the mouldings the
inserts were less expensive.