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I am restoring as best I can without taking it off, the sills on some of my windows. They are original to the house at 101 years old. It's down to bare wood where it sees lots of sun and water from rain when the windows are accidently left open.
The wood is fir, common for the 2nd floor of an older home, they didn't want to spend money on the good stuff for 2nd floor. This is a patwork job as I am not removing any window mouldings to remove the sill completely.
What finish would be the best option. I don't need or want to buy alot of it due to size of the job. Is there any thing commonly available that be provide good protection against rain and UV?
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Take a look at something like Helmsman Spar varnish. It has some UV protective agents in it. I wouldn't recommend it outside, but it should do OK for your application. You can get it at many home centers, ACE Hardware, etc. Cabots, Zar, etc, probably make similar products.
John
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In our last house I made new sills for the windows out of white oak. For a finish I used unitnted oil based exterior paint.
(for more info look here) But it was the same situation, if the windows were left open the rain hit them, and the sun was constant, especially on the southern exposure. I'd like to tell you it lasted for years and years, but we sold the house after the finish was about 5 years (still unblemished) so my experience with it ended then. But I highly recommend it, and while I hate to disagree with someone that has John's experience...the last thing I would use is anything that has urethane resins in it. The problem with the paint is that oil based paint is getting increasingly hard to find. I use the Olympic from Lowes, but they dropped it....the real paint stores would be the best bet. The other point about the untinted paint is it looks all the world like an oil based once applied, in my case the balance of the trim was finished with varnish and you had to look very closely to tell the difference.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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this is the best option. the deep tint oil base paint with no tint added.
I use Sherwin Williams paint, started out with sw just because we had a store in my small town. Now I like it and they usually have some type sale going on from 30 to 50 %. Started out using just for outside projects. Then moved on to other stuff like window sills. works great dries clear. looks good. Just remember it is paint not varnish so applies like paint.
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I forgot about the untinted paint, Fred. I agree, that's the better option.
John
