Feltwell
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- 6,378
- Location
- Shropshire, England
Just a postscript to this old post, now we're 6 months and lots of very variable weather further on....
Where the outer corners of the uprights join, I found with 2 of them that they were starting to pull slightly apart from each other as the wood moved with temperature and moisture. The cure to this has been to drill diagonally across the join from one side and glue in some beech dowels, to reinforce the joint and rigidly join both pieces of timber together. The ridged beech dowels work well I find, use weatherproof PVA and the glue makes them swell after they are tapped in, for a really tight join.
A pain to have to do this because of course it meant filling, sanding and re-decorating, but hey-ho, needs must. I did this about 4 weeks ago and it seems to have stopped all movement.
The only other tip I'd give is at first don't be too fussy about perfectly blending the repairs in, and expect to go back after a few months. I did blend the joints perfectly - the joints on the uprights could not be detected once painted, they were sanded completely smooth. However after a few months a line could be seen, where the new timber had shrunk slightly, presumably as it acclimatised to it's new position. You could also see where I've covered screw heads with the epoxy filler, the epoxy was standing just very slightly proud of the timber. Sanded them back again whilst doing the work above and now all seems to be well. Another winter will tell for sure!
It's so nice in this hot weather having able to open all the windows, and with such ease - they just glide up & down smoothly, such a contrast to the unrestored windows in the house.....
Where the outer corners of the uprights join, I found with 2 of them that they were starting to pull slightly apart from each other as the wood moved with temperature and moisture. The cure to this has been to drill diagonally across the join from one side and glue in some beech dowels, to reinforce the joint and rigidly join both pieces of timber together. The ridged beech dowels work well I find, use weatherproof PVA and the glue makes them swell after they are tapped in, for a really tight join.
A pain to have to do this because of course it meant filling, sanding and re-decorating, but hey-ho, needs must. I did this about 4 weeks ago and it seems to have stopped all movement.
The only other tip I'd give is at first don't be too fussy about perfectly blending the repairs in, and expect to go back after a few months. I did blend the joints perfectly - the joints on the uprights could not be detected once painted, they were sanded completely smooth. However after a few months a line could be seen, where the new timber had shrunk slightly, presumably as it acclimatised to it's new position. You could also see where I've covered screw heads with the epoxy filler, the epoxy was standing just very slightly proud of the timber. Sanded them back again whilst doing the work above and now all seems to be well. Another winter will tell for sure!
It's so nice in this hot weather having able to open all the windows, and with such ease - they just glide up & down smoothly, such a contrast to the unrestored windows in the house.....