Saving a rotten bay window sill in East Molesey
From the path, this bay window looked fine. The black gloss on the sill was still shiny. But underneath, water had been getting in for years, and the timber had gone soft right through. In places you could pull it away by hand.
The usual answer is a new window. We repaired it instead, at a fraction of the cost, and kept the original leaded window.
What we found
What we did
- Cut out every bit of rot. Soft timber was removed back to sound wood, so nothing rotten was left behind to spread.
- Spliced in new timber. New sections were fitted to the front of the sill and the bottom of the frame where too much had been lost to fill.
- Rebuilt the corner in resin. The badly damaged corner was supported and rebuilt with a two-part resin repair, then shaped back to the sill's original profile.
- Sanded and primed. The whole sill was sanded smooth so the repairs disappear under the paint.
- Painted. The sill was finished in black gloss to match, with the frames cut in crisp and clean in white.
The result
A solid sill, sealed against the weather, and a window that looks as good as the day it went in. No one walking past would know how close it came to being replaced.
