ransley wrote:
On Nov 16, 8:58 pm, Peter H wrote:
I hope that someone from the excellent group can help me with this
one.

We've bought a 22 year-old house in the greater Toronto area. The
window frames on the western side of the house are beginning to rot
out. We had a home inspection done and the inspector suggested that
the windows should be replaced next year or the year after at the
very latest.

I'm wondering if there isn't some way to save the windows, or at
least delay the work. The windows are thermapane (sp?) and the
seals are all still good.

Could we not have the frames injected with a resin or something and
then seal them. It seems such a waste to trash the whole set of
windows because of this problem... not to mention the expense.

Thanks for all replies.

Peter H

Why did they rot, the west side has enough sun to dry things out, is
it the whole frame. First dig out whats loose and kill the rot with
bleach. Minwax has a liqued hardener to be used on soft wood, you
drill holes and inject the liqued. I think a syringe would be best.
For holes ive used Bondo as that is the cheapest. A few other products
mentioned might cost you 2-5x as much and do no more. Covering it all
in aluminum will only hide the problem and cure nothing. But a
question remains, what caused them to rot?

What caused them to rot. That is a good question. I have a similar problem
on south facing windows. It appears that the window company used a very
susceptible piece of wood. The wood next to it and touching it is fine. The
windows are aluminum clad at the factory. There is nothing on the outside to
paint, however, aluminum venetian blinds on the inside can cause
considerable condensation in winter. This soaks into seams and swells the
wood which causes the paint to crack allowing more water to penetrate. The
bad piece of wood over the years retains the water for months and has
started to rot in spots after 25 years. I have soaked in epoxy penetrant and
used epoxy putty to level the lower frame and it is still quite sturdy and
useable. The window next to this one, made by the same manufacturer, facing
east is fine. Sometimes a bad piece of wood is used when making the frame.
It looks OK when new, but just does not hold up over time.