bosstone75
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- Jul 12, 2008
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Hello all. I'm hoping there's a few of you out there who can help me with my problem(s).
I have a 1992 house with all wood casement windows. Every winter, a big patch of frost/ice forms at the bottom of most of my windows running about 4 inches up from the bottom and is about 1/8 of an inch think in the worst spots. This frost/ice over time has caused the wood at the bottom to loose it's finish and gray (see picture(s)) - basically rotting. The rot is not soft (it's hard to the touch).
I've never tested the humidity in our house, but we have forced air heating (which I thought dried the air out) AND I make sure to turn off the humidifier that is combined with our furnace.
The only thing I've found to do to stop the frost and ice from forming is to seal the outside AND the inside of the window with 3M film AND to seal a tray full of DAMP RID in between the inside film and the window itself to dry the space out.
So... my questions are...
1) Is there any other ideas out there for keeping the ice from taking over my windows?
2) Should (Can) I repair the damage done so far, or should I just replace the silly things?
3) Should I remove the entire window (not the frame just the window) to repair it? Or can I repair it while the window is still in place?
4) I've tried sanding the windows a bit and haven't gotten rid of the gray color in the wood. How do I get rid of the gray color?
5) Am I going to have to end up sanding the ENTIRE wood frame in order to get the color to match up when staining?
6) What steps (other than keeping the windows dry) can I take to make sure the wood doesn't just rot again this winter?
7) (Picture in the next post) - Do I need to worry about the piece circled in red. (it's on the outside of the window and is the "floor" of the place where the crank mechanism goes when the window is closed.
Thanks all for you ideas and help! If you have any more questions, let me know!
Bill
I have a 1992 house with all wood casement windows. Every winter, a big patch of frost/ice forms at the bottom of most of my windows running about 4 inches up from the bottom and is about 1/8 of an inch think in the worst spots. This frost/ice over time has caused the wood at the bottom to loose it's finish and gray (see picture(s)) - basically rotting. The rot is not soft (it's hard to the touch).
I've never tested the humidity in our house, but we have forced air heating (which I thought dried the air out) AND I make sure to turn off the humidifier that is combined with our furnace.
The only thing I've found to do to stop the frost and ice from forming is to seal the outside AND the inside of the window with 3M film AND to seal a tray full of DAMP RID in between the inside film and the window itself to dry the space out.
So... my questions are...
1) Is there any other ideas out there for keeping the ice from taking over my windows?
2) Should (Can) I repair the damage done so far, or should I just replace the silly things?
3) Should I remove the entire window (not the frame just the window) to repair it? Or can I repair it while the window is still in place?
4) I've tried sanding the windows a bit and haven't gotten rid of the gray color in the wood. How do I get rid of the gray color?
5) Am I going to have to end up sanding the ENTIRE wood frame in order to get the color to match up when staining?
6) What steps (other than keeping the windows dry) can I take to make sure the wood doesn't just rot again this winter?
7) (Picture in the next post) - Do I need to worry about the piece circled in red. (it's on the outside of the window and is the "floor" of the place where the crank mechanism goes when the window is closed.
Thanks all for you ideas and help! If you have any more questions, let me know!
Bill