Rotting corner of timber casement window.

[ohdearme]

Hello, A bottom corner of my lovely stained glass window is rotted and I have tried different fillers, it all falls out. What canI do please. Slight problem is that it is on a first floor landing so I cannot get it out. Never mind please help. Someone mentioned Epoxy, What's that? Keep well everyone.

[Scotty001]

I'm no expert however more knowledgeable will come along. from my knowledge Unfortunately it isn't always as simple as just fix with filler or expoxy, the damage you see is just that (what you can see) , it's what you can't see that you need to investigate, you may discover that a large part of the encasement is just rotten wood and beyond repair.
Poking a thin sharp point into different areas will give you an idea of the wood structure below the paint, if it slides straight in like a hot knife through butter the wood is rotten, if not too much is rotton you will need to dig out all the rotten wood and then treat and fill, but if there is too much rotten wood it's a case of replace rather than repair.

I had wooden window casements that had rotted (to what I though and could see as a little amount) , we wanted to get upvc dg anyhow so when the window fitter turned up and took the casement out, the lower part of the casement gave way and the glass payne went shooting to the floor and shattered everywhere. I'm only glad that the weather had been windy and cold the months prior and I hadn't been opening the window that much, if it had gave way at any of those times I'd have been left with a nice large air vent, at best possibly 2 badly damaged cars, at worst someone getting a heavy glass Payne landing on their head.

[dewaltdisney]

The answer is to have a new window frame at least. The wood is shot and you can mess around splicing in wood but the cost of this would be best put into a new double glazed UPVC unit replacement. You can get the lead and stain glass reproduced all with stick-on parts that will leave you with a draft-proof double glazed window. Far better.

DWD

[Dave54]

The joint in that corner has more or less rotted out.
Repair, to be blunt, will be a waste of time.
As DWD says replacement is the only long term answer.

[Grendel]

It should be perfectly possible to repair the casement if you want. I've done or had to do loads of this type of repair in my time. Probably needs a new bottom rail and better to replace the hinged stile too although at times i've had to splice a section in. Cost wise it would probably be as cheap to have a new casement made and put the stained glass into that should you wish to retain the period look. If double glazing is not what you want and i can understand that secondary glazing might be something to look at.

[Graeme from Tod]

The answer is to have a new window frame at least. The wood is shot and you can mess around splicing in wood but the cost of this would be best put into a new double glazed UPVC unit replacement. You can get the lead and stain glass reproduced all with stick-on parts that will leave you with a draft-proof double glazed window. Far better.

DWD

You can have the existing stained glass encapsulated into a double glazed unit. Sometimes needs a bit of resizing. Looks much better than stick on.

Don't listen to anyone from a double glazing firm who tells you this can't be done. ( We work with one guy who specialises in this ).

[dewaltdisney]

I had never heard of that Graeme but of course, it is perfectly logical. The sealed void could hold the original leaded glass between the outer and inner panes, which to all intents and purposes will appear to be as original. I wonder if the panel would be as thermally efficient though??

DWD

[Grendel]

I t's jogged my memory and now i remember I've seen it done or rather seen one in place but unfortunately didn't really pay enough attention at the time. Hindsight and all that...

[Graeme from Tod]

I had never heard of that Graeme but of course, it is perfectly logical. The sealed void could hold the original leaded glass between the outer and inner panes, which to all intents and purposes will appear to be as original. I wonder if the panel would be as thermally efficient though??

DWD

We have a stained glass panel encapsulated into a sealed unit in our front door. It's a south facing door & we're half way up a valley side so it's in an exposed position & is exposed to some serious temperature fluctuations. I not noticed any significant condensation on it during the two winters it's been installed.

It's a good quality encap, argon filled ( I think it's argon ) with the correct glass by a firm who do a lot of this stuff

People sometimes just install stained glass panels in front of a sealed unit or even single glazing but I wouldn't recommend this in an exposed position ( don't ask me how I know this ). However this approach can work in more sheltered situations & avoids reflections from competing light sources on the surface of the sealed unit.

One we did a couple of years ago ( bathroom on the edge of a moor ).

[ohdearme]

So much to consider, many thanks everyone.