Laminated oak as a windowsill?

[Kjell_G]

Anyone think it would work, does it need to be treated, e.g., lacquered or oiled?

The window casing, by the way, is intended to be MDF which will be painted white. Initially, the window sill was also supposed to be the same material, but I thought a contrasting window bench could look nice. The staircase is ordered in oak with white lacquered stringers and railings/spindles and handrails in oak. Should be able to match that?

Kjell G

 

[ordain]

We have window sills made of stave-glued alder, so it does work. We oil ours, but of course, it's possible to varnish them as well. Untreated doesn’t work so well with even the slightest moisture though.

 

[Kjell_G]

Great, do you have radiators underneath? Or underfloor heating (because then you don't have to perforate the board I guess). Do you have chamfered/beveled edges or are they straight? If you have any picture of them it would be great, I can imagine the contrast white/oak is really nice.

Kjell G

 

[fn76]

I was in a show house where it didn't work at all to have stave-glued oak. It was admittedly a 500 mm deep window niche. What happened was that it had warped, but since the entire board was anchored on the sides, it couldn't move much, resulting in it cracking. The board looked like two waves ~~

 

[Kjell_G]

Hmm, sounds ominous. In my case, it's about half that width, I wonder if it might work better. How could one avoid it behaving like in the show house? Let it float between MDF, maybe with a little movement allowance at the edge (joint).

Kjell G

 

[fn76]

Half the width results in fewer problems as it halves the movement. I suspect that heat/cold was the issue for the window sill I saw. The house is heated with underfloor heating and that heat has difficulty reaching all the way to the glass pane in such deep niches. A window sill that sits floating should work.

 

[cameljointen]

I have made window sills out of pine, which I stained and then lacquered. They are placed over an old marble slab that the original board consists of and therefore a bit difficult to remove. They have not warped a millimeter after 2 years.

 

[ordain]

That's great, do you have radiators underneath? Or underfloor heating (because then you don't have to perforate the board, I suppose). Do you have routed/beveled edges or are they straight? If you have a picture of them, that would be great, I can imagine the white/oak contrast is really nice.

Kjell G

Hello!

We have underfloor heating, routed rounded front edge, but just slightly filed side edges. I'll get a picture of it!

 

[tomas_mandorf]

Have made my own window sills from stave-glued oak, about 20 cm. works very well and is, as you say, very nice together with the white walls.