[Justan]

I seek feedback. Several months ago I had some work done at my house. The folks who did the work damaged the wood work on several window sills. Someone came out to repair the damage. The work he did, while professional only changed the nature of the damage, but did not remedy it. The proper remedy IMO would be to refinish the window sills. This is where the problem starts. To do this properly, the sills would have to come out of the window frames. Removing the sills would most likely damage the paint on the surrounding surfaces, and then require the paint to be redone. Well if the paint in the window sills is redone it will likely not match the rest of the paint due to the age of the paint. I’m not thrilled about wandering down this road as the end product would be a lot of repainting, even thought not done by me. I'd still have to endure the process. I’ve never encountered this kind of escalating problem and don’t know how to suggest a remedy. So….is there a standard for how this kind of repair is typically done? TIA

[Damian]

Hard to say without more info on the type and extent of damage. How far you pull the thread depends, to some degree, on how much headache you care to personally endure. In the heat of frustration your own assessment might exceed what a reasonable outsider would assume.

[Slugman]

Have the sills repainted in a contrasting color rather than the same color as the surrounding walls. It's a nice effect, really highlights the windows, and takes care of the"paint don't match" problem.

[Justan]

[Justan]

[peppersteak'n'ale]

[Slugman]

Sounds like you are "stuck" (glue joke ) to a certain extent no matter what you do, so choosing the path of least resistance may be necessary, even if that path is less than ideal. Living with the defects until you decide to repaint the rooms is the easiest way, repainting everything will solve the problem but with lots of work. Repainting the sills would be a middle course, a lot less work than a total repaint. And it would allow you to freshen up the look of the room. The contractor who screwed up originally still owes you a make-good if the repairs have been ineffective. They likely would balk at a total repaint of the room however. But you may be able to get them to do the sill repainting as an alternative. From watching many episodes of "The People's Court" and other such shows, it is more difficult in home repair cases than in say auotmobile damage to get them to pay for extensive repainting to get everything to match, especially if the older paint is not fairly new itself. Good luck, and let us know how it comes out.

[Justan]

[Justan]

[Mike E.]

This whole thread is really goofy. Don't you have a woman around there ? The whole key to these sorts of things is knick knacks. That's right, those silly things that some women put on every little flat surface or wall in a house. You just get a knick knack and stick it right on top of the offending spot....voila ! Problem solved ! Another good way to avoid this whole mess is to get some curtains, close them and voila ! Problem solved again. If you really want to get creative, get some of that colored duct tape and make a contrasting stripe on each window sill in the house. There you go, matching window sills and still enough time to spend this portion of your life hiking, instead of sitting in the closet banging your head on the rabbit fur lined walls because some "craftsman" got some goo on your window sill. You don't comb the fringe on your carpets do you ? Justan, Any undo concern or time expenditure over a spot on your window sill is a waste of your hiking time and you should probably consult with your therapist over how you REALLY FEEL about this !

[Jeepasaurusrex]

Another reason I do all my own auto maintainance, home projects, painting, etc.

[Justan]

[Mike E.]

[Justan]

Dang, I missed your comment before. Thanks for the suggestions! The sills are a very light stain, not painted. I don’t know what the original finish material is, varithane, urethane or lacquer are my guesses. But the finish shows every flaw. What happened is the repair guy tried to remove the glue with a chisel. The glue had bonded with the underlying finish material. When he removed the glue from the first sill it removed the finish as well, and gouged the wood in the process. There are 4 sills which were similarly damaged by glue. The first one he fixed was the worst. On other sills he tried to avoid damaging the wood by not removing all the glue. Then he put another finish over his work and it looks like a half-patched job. So, in short, that’s how we got to this thread. So anyway I spoke with the responsible party and they are going to have a cabinet shop remove the sills, refinish them and replace them. While the cabinet shop hasn’t seen it yet, based on typical building techniques, they are comfortable with being able to get out the sills without a lot of damage to the surrounding areas.