Window treatment for Oak Windows

[RichardP]

Hi, to introduce myself - have been a long term lurker on this forum since I bought my Edwardian house almost two years ago. I have learned a lot from reading posts and have been setting out my plans to start my refurbishment - its a v.long term task for me.....

Work on the house includes, Remaking of Oak windows, wiring, heating, re refurbishment of the oak panelled hall etc (I am sure the list will go on and on).

My first project looks to be the refurbishment of the original oak windows. Probably about 10% of the casements need re making due to water resting on the window rails and rotting the wood and the other 90% need some for form of re-fub in fitting, and draft exclusion (eg you can see through the gaps....).

Question is on what finish to put on the Oak inside. All the wood of the windows are really dirty and the moldings are just full of old wax and dirt on the inside. To clean these up I was going to use some 0000 wire wool and white spirit, hoping to bring them back to life. My question is what would be a good coating to put back onto the interior of the windows that would let me see the lovely oak, but give some protection on the glazing rails to the water / condensation that forms daily (you would spend half the day cleaning condensation from all the windows...)

On the outside they are coated in a think sticky, black tar like substance - was hoping to clean this up also and protect with a lighter finish.

I have read posts from Biff etc that advocate not using any coating at all on oak, however given that the wooden rails that the 8 pane glazing fit in gets wet daily from condensation etc I thought some protection would be good - any ideas ?

 

[MdB]

I am not an expert but others have stated that wire wool and oak don't go together well. Small bits of steel get stuck in the oak and stain it black.

 

[biffvernon]

That's right. I'd use a cabinet scraper rather than wire wool. I use linseed or tung oil and then beeswax - but while this offers a good deal of protection it's not really water tight. For hot coffee and red wine-proof oak table tops I use, er, lots of coats of polyurethane varnish. Very thin coats, thin the first couple of coats with turps, and rub down with the finest abrasive between coats.

 

[biffvernon]

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[Andrew Bodenham]

Hello, RichardP, and welcome to the forum.

These oak windows sound good, and well worth restoring if you can. MdB and Biff are spot on about avoiding steel wool on oak - don't do it! Synthetic steel wool works well, along with scraping and sanding.

As for a suitable coating I'm a great fan of Osmo products (do a google search..) and would suggest something like their Wood Protector overcoated with Clear Wood Oil or maybe Top Oil for a more matt finish. Their finishes are not cheap by DIY shop standards, but they really do come up to expectations. Since "discovering" the brand 18 months ago I've stopped using anything else for my furniture and interiors projects, and have had only positive feedback from my clients.

Whilst I am drawn to the concept of using 'pure' finishes like linseed oil and beeswax I have found some drawbacks with these; I favour what I perceive to be the better performance of a slightly more 'engineered' product. Others will disagree, I'm sure.

Would be great to see some pics of your project.

 

[Nemesis]

That sounds like a tremendous amount of condensation, which something needs to be done about though.

Heating and drying the place out, alongside ventilation, should help.

 

[RichardP]

Thanks for the responses – I took a look at the OSMO products and think I will give it a try – Have you tried the ‘wood protector’ on external woodwork also ?

I have attached a picture of our Dinning room that shows a typical window of the house (not the best picture but the only one I have at the moment). Having looked at the OSMO products I got me thinking on if the Top Oil would also be a good finish for the oak wood paneling? A lot of the formal areas of the house downstairs are paneled to eye level in oak and the prev owner has let the panels get very dark and dirty lower down and given them all a good thick coating of some thick varnish (runs and all). Was going to use a varnish stripper to remove the mess and then through of topping it off with the Top Oil and a ‘furniture type finish’. Had looked at shellac however all I read made it sounds very hard to apply.

On the condensation problem – it is really just on the windows and no where else. All the windows are single glazed and was thinking this was just a fact of life with these. Ventilation is very high…. Due to the amount of wind that drives through them on a windy day. The house has 9 bedrooms and a pump converted old gravity heating system and therefore is very under heated by today’s standards (another problem – sorry project task for me to tackle). Having looked at some of the windows I also think that following rain it looks like the water is also getting in between the old putty and the glass and working its way into the glazing rebate – so I think I have to read some more on the forum about doing a summer project to re putty all the windows.