Sawmill and Timber

The wood shop => Projects and Plans => Topic started by: terracefarmer on July 10, 2020, 05:45:28 AM

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Title: house windows
Post by: terracefarmer on July 10, 2020, 05:45:28 AM
I live in a re remodeled 1870's house, its been remodeled and changed so many times over the years, not much is still original anymore so I'm not even sure what vintage it would be called.   

It has the old two window style in it, the rope cable and weights in the sides to aid the lifting of the widows themselves and have storm windows over those or in the summer screens on instead of storm windows.     Well after about 85 years and many window scrapings and repainting, its about time to make new storm windows, the frames are getting rotten and coming apart.     

The question I have is this, what wood to make the frames out of? or is it time to investigate some of the plastics or composite's to build with??     I'm not really into the whole retro thing, so it has to remain true to the period style at all, I'm more into the whole, simple and cheap to last sort of thing myself.      Toss in I have many thousands of board feet of sawed lumber on hand, all hardwood, such as red and white oak, walnut, some elm, cherry, bur oak, black ash, hard maple and a few others.       

Over my lifetime, since I grew up in this house I now own, it was once thought to update the windows to something new, which I'm glad nobody ever did do, since these have outlasted anything else five to one from what I've seen over the years and for the most part these are still fully functional and can remain so for years to come yet, but its getting time to think about doing something to either renew the rotting parts or build complete new frames and reuse the glass.     

Looking for suggestions and idea's.    Thanks
Title: Re: house windows
Post by: Kirk Allen on July 11, 2020, 09:49:52 AM
In order of rot resistance to the best of my knowledge.

Osage Orange
Black Locust
White Oak
Western Red Cedar
Eastern Red Cedar. 

I would not use red oak as it is open cell and will rot unless regularly treated with something or painted.   
Title: Re: house windows
Post by: terracefarmer on July 12, 2020, 05:32:18 AM
Thanks for the info. 
Title: Re: house windows
Post by: joasis on July 13, 2020, 07:17:11 AM
My add would be from the perspective as a general contractor. The issue with wooden windows will always be movement of the wood and sealing. There are fantastic windows out there now that can be ordered as "base" or unfinished, and then have wood facings applied to keep the traditional look. Not as expensive as one would think.