Repairing Rotted Window Sills

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Q: How do I repair dry rot in my window sills?

– Elliot, Rock Hill, South Carolina

A: Tom Silva replies: Depending on how bad the window sills are, you might be able to dig out the dry rot all the way to new wood. Then you can mix up epoxies to fill in the void, then sand, prime, and paint.

The easiest way to fix the dry rot is to dig it out to get down to good solid wood and then fill it with an epoxy. If the dry rot is extensive, you may have to remove the window sill and put in a new one. You also want to find out why the window has dry rot. Is it lack of maintenance, or was there a leak in back of the window sill? Or was it the storm windows on the house? Check behind the storm windows, because if the weep holes in the storm windows aren't properly drilled out the water can lie in there like a puddle.

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