Laundry room window Sill Condensation
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Laundry room window Sill Condensation |
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Laundry room window sill condensationA lady has a problem with constant window condensation causing problems on her window sills in her laundry room. |
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Window Sill Condensation
high north east Texas humidity and the extra moisture introduced by the washing machine, the window in this room 'sweats' most of the time. this has resulted in massive water stains on the window sill and in the former finish (lacquer) flaking off. My mother-in-law swears by polyurethane for moisture problems, so I bought a can and just finished going over the sill. I read the first step of instructions where it said to sand lightly (and I did), then I cleaned all of the dust off and put on the first coat (steps 2 and 3 from the back of the can). The next step says to wait 6 hours before re-coating (which I had planned to do) and the last step tells you NOT TO APPLY OVER LACQUER. Unfortunately I read these steps as I was working and did not read the last step until, I had already put the product on. So now I am on the Internet trying to find out why this is a problem and to see what I need to do. Can you advise me? (Other than the obvious advice that I need to read all directions fully Sandy - - - - - Reply - - - - - Hi Sandy When our granddaughter was about five or six something my wife was doing didn't go right and our granddaughter said, "When in doubt read the distructions". That's always been a watch phrase around our house since that time. About all you can do is bow your head and say a few words, then keep an eye on it. It may surprise you and stick ok for a while. I wouldn't re-do it now, but wait until it starts coming off again. Since the lacquer finish was old and well cured it could last for a while, it could be a few days or it could be several months, but it probably will eventually come unglued. Lacquer is a natural product made from cellulose (wood) and nitric acid, which is called nitrocellulose. Besides being used for lacquer, nitrocellulose is used to make explosives, celluloid, wound dressing, ping pong balls and all other sorts of good stuff. Lacquer is a medium hard, flexible, durable clear finish. It's easily repaired and, I hate to say this now, but if you had recoated with lacquer it probably would have lasted for what could be considered a good length of time under the conditions you have. When lacquer is applied over previous lacquer it will dissolve the top surface of the old lacquer and make a new thick application of lacquer. The problem you have isn't so much the product you've used, but the condition under which the product has to perform. The wood is constantly performing a hootchy cootchy dance with humidity changes and temperature changes and the stuff you put on it can't keep up, so it eventually says aw what the heck and lets go. I think you would probably have a greater problem with polyurethane, even applied directly to the wood. Polyurethane dries to a hard plastic film. Not "plastic like", but actually plastic. It has some flexibility, but extremely little. When you see a table made with boards joined edge to edge and you see light areas in the finish along the joined edges you can bet the finish is polyurethane and it's coming loose. The two boards will flex at different rates and cause the polyurethane to come loose from the surface, because it's so hard it can't keep up with the flexing. There are two products that you might use that might last a little longer. One is spar varnish, it's used on boats and is very flexible. It's designed to work in wet conditions and frequent temperature changes. Usually people will redo their boats every couple or three years, so you would have to figure on doing that too. The other is tung oil. Tung oil was originated centuries ago in China and has been in constant use since. Most of the more expensive paints have a tung oil base, for indoor and outdoor use. Tung oil will penetrate the wood and leave a film to harden on the surface. You can read more about tung oil Put waterproof in the 'find on page' feature of your browser when you get to the page, but read the whooooole page. The nice part about tung oil is that you keep a container of it in the utility room and when you periodically wipe up the excess water from the sill, let it dry, then use a cloth and wipe on another application of tung oil just like you were using a polish. The surface will keep slowly building and should look like new all the time. There is a good tung oil called Chinawood Deck Oil that's designed for use on decks, so it should handle a window sill pretty well. Tung oil is naturally kind of thick and the Deck Oil is thinned with people friendly solvents to make it easier to work with. There is also Rockler's Tung Oil, which is the 100% pure tung oil. The polyurethane over the lacquer will need to be stripped off down to the bare wood to use any of the clear finishes, that's why I suggest leaving it until it's actually necessary. You might be surprised by it's longevity, even if it is a no-no. Another choice, which could be less expensive in the long run is to replace the window with a thermal pane window. That should take care of the sweating problem. Tom
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