Wood window questions

[yanmars]

I have Pella wood windows I wish to install in my lean to attached to my barn. Question 1: The frame wood is not primed on the parts that will be in the wall. Is there a reason for this and would it be OK to prime that area before installation or are they left bare for a reason?
Question 2: A squirrel chewed on the outside sill area or it got damaged in some fashion. Maybe a total of 2.5 inches long and 3/8 inch deep. Options: Just sand it a bit and prime, cut out the area and replace with treated wood or fill with JB Weld Wood Restore 2 part wood filler? Thanks

 

[BlueKnife]

I have Pella wood windows I wish to install in my lean to attached to my barn. Question 1: The frame wood is not primed on the parts that will be in the wall. Is there a reason for this and would it be OK to prime that area before installation or are they left bare for a reason?

It's not primed because there's no reason for it to be. The part that's in the wall will never see weather if the window is installed properly. That said, it won't harm anything if you prime it.

 

[drizler]

It can’t hurt any so long as it doesn’t make a binding dragging surface so I wouldn’t build it up too deep. Your real problem with wooden windows is the water that runs down outside the glass and gets into the lowest part of the casing where it meets the window. That’s where your problems come from right there,
I wish I’d known that 20 years ago before mine all went to hell like that. I always wondered how my father-in-law‘s windows made of nothing but pine ( close as could tell) in Bavaria had a little streak of sealant all the way around them on the outside edge of the glass besides the seal that was there to begin with . Come to find out that tiny, and I mean very tiny seam of sealant kept the bottom wood in those windows in excellent condition. That’s in spite of them being softwood from 1978 till when we sold the house in 2021. He kept them well stained though.
In my case, we had hardwood windows with vinyl cladding. I wouldn’t touch those again with a 10 foot pole. The water trickled slowly down behind that beautiful cladding nicely rotting the lower window casings Very badly before I started to catch on! At the time I didn’t know about sealing that lip to make sure absolutely sure that running water can’t make it in back of the vinyl to do it’s evil work. At the all it would’ve taken was some sealant, but at the time who knew me surely not

 

[EddieWalker]

I really don't understand wood window frames. I've worked on them in some very expensive homes, and when I start looking for issues with them, I always find them. I personally prefer metal/aluminum frame windows. They open and close better then vinyl, and they look a lot nicer then vinyl. I admit that some wood window frames are very nice looking, but in my opinion, not worth the effort it takes to keep them from rotting of time.

In your case, I believe that the better you can seal those windows, the longer they will last. I don't think primer will keep out moisture, but it's a good fist step before painting. I like Zinsser 123 the best.

For damaged wood that will be painted, I like to use automotive Bondo. There is house Bondo too, but I don't like it as much. The automotive Bondo comes with the red colored stuff that you mix with the Bondo to make it harden. The house Bondo stuff is white. The red mixes better, lasts longer while spreading it, and sands better when it's hard. I usually start shaping it with a chisel before it gets really hard, then I use a palm sander if there is enough room for one. If not, a block and sandpaper work too. 80 grit gives a nice finish and removes material quickly.

I use Bondo a lot on older homes with fancy molding on the outside that has started to rot away. I remove the rotten wood, vacuum out everything that's loose, the screw in as many screws into the open areas that I can so the Bondo has something additional to hold onto. Then I build up the Bondo, chisel it into the shape I need, and sand it until it's perfect.

Another good place for Bondo is at the bottom of garage door frames. Most of them are rotten out where they touch the concrete.

 

[drizler]

I once tried pink bondo on my door bottom. It really isn’t the greatest stuff in the world As it absorbs water like a sponge. It’s good for a few years if you can seal it well enough. either way I’m not impressed with the stuff much though I’ve used it For decades on my old cars. I Found the green fiberglass bondo worked far better at resisting water infiltration than the pink stuff by far. Of course none of it holds up like new wood or epoxy. Whoever invented the wooden, or should I say hardboard garage door ought to be hung.

 

[Captain Dirty]

A restoration carpenter who worked on my 200 YO house decades ago told me about the Rot Doctor (Rotdoctor.com), a Seattle company that sells a Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES) that I have used and recommend (no commercial interest except as a customer). There is a lot of information on their web pages that is more informative than typical marketing hype. As the excerpt below shows, they do promote their own product, but their explanations are worth reading.
There are miscellaneous non-epoxy “wood hardeners” on the market, such as Minwax’s “Wood Hardener” and, more recently, Bondo’s wood repair kit. Both of these are sold through mass-merchandising outlets and are intended to meet a very low price point. If you want a permanent repair of the damaged or deteriorated wood, these are basically a waste of time. The Minwax product is an acrylic with an alcohol solvent. It mixed poorly and didn’t emulsify well, lacks any kind of structural strength and will be chemically unstable after long term exposure to moisture. The Bondo wood repair kit uses styrene as the pre-treatment. This penetrated poorly and lacks structural strength (compared to our epoxy) when cured. The filler supplied is the basic Bondo polyester filler. It will get hard, but again lacks the comparative structural strength and will not withstand the expansion/contraction of wood under varying environmental conditions. It tends to crack or pop out. If you want permanent repairs, you must use epoxies [emphasis mine--CD], and of all the epoxies available our testing shows that our products are far superior to anything else on the market.

 

[jjeff]

As others mentioned bondo absorbs water. Ive used this two part epoxy on boats however high moisture areas like windows I think it will do a great job and it's pretty readily available at most marine supply stores, pretty pricy though and prep good, I use acetone.

 

[Hay Dude]

I will not build any construction project that includes windows unless they are Andersen 400 series. Beautiful and extremely durable. I have 60 of them in my house and not one has given us any trouble in over 20 years.
Best all around window money can buy.

 

[jjeff]

Put new windows in a project of mine, they were vinyl sliders it was new construction so had a nailing flange, one step above lowest builder grade the store had with brick molding (much simpler to install vinyl lap siding into it). A year ago had a bird strike one of the windows and broke it, They are egress so are bigger, anyways I'm kind of convinced if I had gone with higher quality windows the bird might not have broken the outer glass pane. One thing I also learned/was taught was don't block the weep holes on the lower sill and keep those holes clean or you'll get build up of water and there's no where for it to go.

 

[ljjhouser]

I replaced all our windows (about 18) with Pella Wood. It has been about 25 years. I had only one rot or cause problems. I replaced it with another Pella. It rotted because there was a window air conditioner and moisture got in where the windows overlapped.