Is it cheaper to replace or repaint a rooflight frame?

When repainting is right

Timber frame, sound throughout, glazing still clear, hinges and seals working. The finish has simply aged, which after twenty years it will have.

Preparation matters more than paint: clean, sand back to sound timber, treat any dark staining, prime bare wood, and mask the glass, seals and hinges. Paint on a gasket stops it sealing and paint in a hinge stiffens the action.

A water based satin or eggshell for interior joinery. It stays flexible and does not yellow.

When it is money thrown away

Soft timber anywhere. Press around the bottom of the sash and the reveal. If it gives, paint is cosmetic over a frame that is failing.

Misting between the panes. The glazing has failed. Painting the frame around a failed unit is decorating a problem.

Over twenty five years old. Even sound, it is near the end of its life on seals, hinges and thermal performance.

The external cladding

Cannot usefully be painted on site. It is factory coated aluminium and site applied paint adheres poorly, fails within a few seasons and looks worse than the weathering it covered.

Where external colour matters, order the cladding in the colour you want.

The honest comparison

Repainting buys a few more years of appearance on a frame that is otherwise fine. Replacement buys twenty five years, current glazing, new seals and new hinges.

On a frame under fifteen years old, repaint. Over twenty five, replace. In between, it depends on condition and we will tell you which we see.

Depends entirely on whether the timber is sound

Redecorating an internal frame is a cheap afternoon. Replacing a window is a day and a real cost. So on the face of it painting wins easily, and there is one question that decides whether it is even an option.

Press the timber

At the sill and the lower corners, where water collects. Timber that gives under a thumb is decayed, and paint over decay achieves nothing except hiding it.

Decay in a window frame does not stop. It is caused by water getting in, and unless the cause is found and corrected it continues behind whatever you put on top.

Any timber decay means replacing the window.

Where painting is the right answer

A sound frame with a tired internal finish. Clean it, key the existing coating with a fine abrasive, and use a paint suitable for interior joinery.

Do not paint the gaskets, the hinges, the handle mechanism or the ventilation flap and filter. Paint in a gasket stops the sash seating, which lets water past and gets reported as a leak.

What painting cannot fix

A misted sealed unit. That is the glazing, not the frame.

Thermal performance. A unit fitted twenty five years ago has no low emissivity coating, no argon and an aluminium spacer. Paint does not change that.

A sash that no longer closes evenly, which usually means the frame has moved or the timber has gone.

The external cladding. Factory finished aluminium should be left alone. Painting over it on site gives a finish that will not last and voids any manufacturer warranty.

Weighing the two against each other

If the frame is sound, under fifteen years old, and the glazing is intact, paint it and enjoy another decade.

If the unit is over twenty years old, painting it is putting a finish on something that is going to be replaced within a few years, and most of the cost of that replacement is the access rather than the window.

In that case, spend the money once.

What we would look at first

Send a photograph of the frame from inside, close enough to see the sill and the lower corners, and one of the data plate on the sash. Between those we can usually tell you the age of the unit and whether the finish is worth renewing.

A frame under fifteen years old with a tired coating is a decorating job you can do yourself in an afternoon, and we will say so rather than quoting for a replacement you do not need.

A frame over twenty years old is close enough to the end of its sealed unit life that redecorating it is putting a finish on something you will be replacing shortly, and most of the cost of that replacement is the access rather than the window.

Where you can press the timber and it gives, the decision is already made. Decay is caused by water getting in and it does not stop until the cause is corrected, so paint over it achieves nothing except hiding the evidence.

There is no charge for the question and no obligation attached to asking it.

Redecorating is cheaper, when the timber is sound

If the frame is structurally good and only the finish has failed, cleaning back, priming and recoating is a fraction of the cost of a new window, and it can be done from inside on the internal faces.

The whole point of redecorating is to do it before the finish fails, not after. A coating renewed on a cycle protects the timber indefinitely. Once water has reached bare wood, you are past that decision.

How to tell which you have

Push a fingernail into the corners of the frame and the bottom of the sash, which is where water sits.

Firm timber under a tired finish is a decorating job. Timber that gives is rot, and rot in a frame is the end of the window.

Check the external face too, which is where the weather is. On a clad window, lifted or corroded cladding means the timber behind has been exposed and should be inspected rather than assumed.

Where redecorating is not the answer

On external powder coated aluminium or the external cladding. The coating is the protection, and painting over it traps moisture at the interface and looks poor within a couple of years. A colour change there means a new unit specified in the right finish.

The age arithmetic

Redecorating a twenty five year old timber frame with a misted sealed unit and hardened gaskets is spending money on the least important problem.

Where the glass has gone, the gaskets are hard and the finish has failed, they are all the same age and they are all telling you the same thing. The access cost is the same whichever you do, and that is frequently the largest line on the job.