rotten window frame - best product for rot?

[TheMitchells]

A good friend of mine lives in a very old terraced house (one of the oldest in town) and has a big probelm with her kitchen windows.  The kitchen extension was done many years ago. It does not have foundations, has single glazed metal frames (apparently it is a particular type) and the Conservation officers will only allow new suitable wooden double glazed windows which she cannot afford.  To help get her through the winter, i am making thermal curtains but would like to add secondary glazing to the outside of the main window (155 x 127cm) to help stop the problem of condensation running down the insides everyday, which has rotted the frame, both inside and out. 

It is so bad that a slug recently crawled in through the frame from outside! 

 

What products could help?  I hope to screw a wooden frame to the outside and glaze it, so it can be removed in warmer weather so she has ventilation. (Though she typically opens the back door). But when i tried to find a solid bit of wood to screw it to, it was all a bit squidgy.  We are worried about removing the whole window as the concrete lintel above, looks like it only sits on a couple of inches of a brick pillar each side and we are worried if the window is removed, the lintel would collapse!  It is a huge mess with some temporary fixes in the kitchen still there after about 30 years! 🫣

I was looking at Ronseal Wet Rot wood hardener first then Wood Filler.  But are there any other products which could be better?  Would they work?  I shall try to get some photos, if I can.

[ToughButterCup]

I've looked at this issue for myself (old cottage , full time job so too busy to 'fix it') : I'd like to be proved wrong - but there is no product that deals with the problem.

 

Your problem statement hints this is just one problem in a chain of related things.  We had rotten wood, loose putty, worn this that and the other. And yes, I tried a couple of 'solutions' (that much abused word) to the problem.  While I have no criticism of the various 'products' , the original problem merely replicates itself at the join (not joint) between the wood and the repair product.

Water gets in freezes, expands and out pops the covering paint, more water gets in and the process repeats until the owner decides he can't stand the delay any more (after she has been as patient as she can).

 

How about this.

• secondary glaze until spring 2024
• Spring that year : window out;
• Support the lintel
• replace window frame and opener or
• repair (frames) properly with wood
• replace
• repaint

Idea?

 

 

[TheMitchells]

I guess I thought all that too - I doubt it will sort the problem out but it may get them through the winter.  Re sorting out the window - I doubt it will happen but I will try to help them find someone who could do that.  Whether they want to spend the money on it is down to them.  I doubt they have much to spend and they have lived all their lives being frugal (to the point of poverty) that getting them to spend is hard.  (To be fair, they are both near 80 and unlikely to change now). 😊

[markc]

If a rotten window frame is holding a lintel up then you have serious problems. Regarding the rot, @ToughButterCup has covered it. Bit of localised rot in a corner or cill can be cut out and repaired but when it’s widespread there is only aesthetic bandaids, not a cure

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, TheMitchells said:

I ....  I doubt they have much to spend and they have lived all their lives being frugal (to the point of poverty) that getting them to spend is hard.  (To be fair, they are both near 80 and unlikely to change now). 😊

 

Reading between the lines I felt that might be the case. OK.... how about this aproach  (the one I came to think was the only thorough repair)