Renovating badly weathered cedar windows

Hello everyone, first post here for me. Thanks in advance for any assistance. Much appreciated.

I wish I could blame previous owners or someone else but it is down to me. I have done no maintenance on my farm house for many years so this could be the first of many posts as I try and recover the situation. The house has western red cedar windows (Hanlon). The south facing windows are in reasonable condition but the north and west facing exterior surfaces are very weathered. I believe they were originally finished with Sikkens products but there is little of the coating remaining so the timber has been exposed to the elements such that the surface is now very weathered and grainy.

I am looking for suggestions on how to bring the windows back to life. Clearly I won’t be able to regain the smooth surface but I would like to get them to the point where they look OK again and I can keep them that way with some effort every couple of years. Any suggestions appreciated.

From the tone of your post I guess you have grey weathered areas on the frames? You're probably on a bit of a hiding to nothing here. Western Red Cedar is so soft and there is such a variation in hardness between the summer and winter growth that trying to regain a smooth planed finish is probably not viable. Whatever you do don't use a high pressure washer on it.

If you have a look at this PDF - selector.com/media/documents/how-to-finish-western-red-cedar.pdf - you might find it helpful. The section on page 11 concerning decks may be of some help, particularly this section, "It is difficult to maintain the original natural look
of Western Red Cedar exposed to the weather
over a prolonged period of time. The more natural
and transparent the finish, the more difficult it
may be to retain the original color of the wood.
Eventually you may decide to completely strip the
weathered finish from the surface of your deck
and start from scratch. In this situation, you can
use a heavy duty cleaner/stripper that will remove
the stain from the wood as well as discolored and
weathered fibers. However, you should be aware
that it is quite difficult to completely restore the
cedar to its original appearance. Commercially
available stain-strippers will remove oil-based
stains and acrylic stains from finished Western
Red Cedar. Most are supplied as ready-to-use
liquids. After use, residual cleaner or stripper
should be thoroughly rinsed from the wood
surface and the wood should be allowed to dry
before any other coating is applied."

Following stripping/cleaning coating with a suitable primer and then a solid colour acrylic will provide the best protection and most pleasing finish to the eye. Any clear or opaque finish will probably not be viable.

Hope this helps.

Welcome to the forum.
The weathered surface can only be rejuvenated by mechanical means, i.e., planing, scraping and sanding.
I'd use a block plane as far as I could, followed by card scrapers. I'd use a multitool to sand off where it is ineffective to scrap or plane.
You should be able to get a fairly pristine surface after that.
Obviously, You will have the same problem again if you are using some kind of varnish or oil unless you coat them every year.

Any chance of pictures to help advise you further?

Welcome to the forum.

@Adlav, yes the window frames are grey and weathered and unfortunately I did use a pressure washer to clean the windows. I'll take a look at the article you provided.

@cava. I'll take some pics and upload.

@justonething, should I remove the window and glass before I start this kind of major overhaul?

Hi all. Finally had a chance to take some photos. As you can see the condition is pretty poor so I don't think I can get these back to a smooth surface. How best to get back to bare timber? I am thinking I will then finish with Sikkens HLSe and Supernatural. Any thoughts or suggestions most welcome.

https://goo.gl/photos/yvUwWbu22XDLDL2H6

If the frames can be removed from their tracks. It would be much easier to lay the window flat down and work on it. It looks like a bit of weathering has taken place. I'm not sure if you are handy with a plane, if not, then a card scraper or a cabinet scraper is probably easier for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG7L-iPFWS0
Even the title refers to cabinet scrapers, what he was using were more commonly known as card scrapers. They can be profiled to fit curved surfaces and are very versatile. But for larger flat surfaces like you have on your frames, using a stanley #80 cabinet scraper is more comfortable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmknRm4-RCU
I wouldn't remove the glass though.
As you probably know, a varnish/decking oil system on windows requires you to re-coat almost every year under Australian condition. I had something similar on my balcony and I could see the varnish literally burnt off before my eyes evry summer. So I have now painted it. Good luck and show us photos of work in progress.

PS: I just watched the 1st video myself. I know that with a genuinely sharp scraper, you will get shavings rather than dust (unlike what's in the 1st video and more like what's in the 2nd video).

Mine weren't quite as bad as yours but after we put up the pegola, they looked aweful. They had been exposed to elements with no attention for at least 15 years.

I took the windows out of the frames and removed the glass. Also took the glass out of the doors and the lower fixed windows and repaired damage done by my BIL's dog.

I sanded back the flat surfaces on the windows and frames with a hard pad on the sander and hand scraped the surfaces I couldn't get with the sander. About 2 days per window and frame.

Re siliconed the windows, had to machine all the glazing bead, as all I could buy was oversize, then recoated with Sikkens.


During

Attachment 405665




Finished

Attachment 405664

Interesting journey, Lappa! They do look great now.

I think I wold have masked the glass to protect it rather that the tedious job of removing and replacing it.

We are faced with the same problem on weather-exposed upper windows, not an easy job to do wobbling around on a ladder or the sloping corrugated roof. We have decided to paint the exteriors of the windows, filling as necessary before priming and painting with good-quality exterior paint. (Australian manufacturers do that well. ) We will choose a colour to replicate the reddish-brown colour of the existing, still-in-good-codition windows under the covered verandahs so we don't have to do it every year or so. As those need refinishing we'll paint them too. The inside of the casement tracks and frames can be reached safely from inside.

We did not have good longevity with the original Sikkens on Surian cedar so hope the paint will provide a more long-lived solution. Good luck with yours.....

Thanks for the reply. The glazing mouldings were in really bad condition. I've had to replace cedar glazing on other windows for the same problem.