Don Wiss wrote:
I had new windows installed on my row house. Being landmarked the window
frames had to be wood. I hired a fellow to paint them. He did not fill the
nail head holes with putty. Half way through the job I asked him about it,
and he replied that he didn't have any putty. Besides seeing the white dots
where the nails are, is there any wood preservation reason that they should
have been filled?

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

He didn't putty the nailheads because you didn't
include that prep work in the paint contract. No
you don't need to putty the nail heads (assuming
the installers used the right kind of nails) since
putty is just cosmetic. Others may argue that
you need putty for weathering, but that isn't true
if you have a good paint job. Why don't you do it
yourself and then put a dab of the paint over the
putty?