On Jan 2, 9:29*pm, "Bob F" wrote:
"mcp6453" wrote in message

...

My house was built in 1988. As far as I know, the windows were bought from
Lowe's. Today, my son's dog chewed up a window ledge or sill (inside). It
appears that the piece that needs to be replaced was installed as a complete
unit. It appears that the entire window has to come out. My guess is that it
will be impossible to match the style of the wood.

In trying to understand how the window frame is assembled, I removed the
"skirt" beneath an identical window in the bathroom. It had been (poorly)
secured when it was nailed with a nail gun. Some of the nails missed the
underlying wood frame. When I removed the piece, I noticed that the window
seems to be poorly installed. Cold air leaks around the frame. The big
question, though, is how do I back the nails out without splintering the face
of the molding? When I tapped them out, the face splintered, even after I
removed the colored filler putty that was used to fill the nail holes. Should
I have pulled them through?

If you can't pull the nails through as someone else suggested, Brace the face
where the head is firmly against a solid braced piece of wood as you tap the
heads through. Once they'v penetrated the chunk of wood a bit (1/8"?), then lift
it and finish the job.

You have to pull the wood trim off slowly and carefully using multiple
pulling points. I find wide putty knives work fairly well. Then
using pliers you have to pull the nails all the way thru the wood
exiting on the back side. If the back side splinters, you can reglue
using wood glue if it is really bad, otherwise ignore. You can reuse
the holes on the front if you nail at an angle so that most of the
nail is going thru new wood.