basement window windowsill -- what material?

[Snipe Hunter]

I was in a hurry today, so I just saw the trim boards, I didn't look around for anything else.  I take it there are plugs so I can hide screw heads?

Are you screwing into concrete/block or wood? If wood, use trim nails. If you need plugs for screws, make them. You can get nicer plug cutters but if you don't need anything fancy, Home Depot has these Plug Cutters.

[FS7]

Use some sort of PVC trim board like Azek. I tried wood on one sill at my old house, and over the years it was essentially 90% Bondo.

Problem areas, like basement windows, demand alternative solutions.

[EricU]

Are you screwing into concrete/block or wood? If wood, use trim nails. If you need plugs for screws, make them. You can get nicer plug cutters but if you don't need anything fancy, Home Depot has these  Plug Cutters.

I was over-thinking again, trim nails make the most sense.

I took out 1/4" plywood trim when I removed the old walls.  No rot or any evidence of water damage at all.  But I would rather be conservative.

[Phil Thien]

I took out 1/4" plywood trim when I removed the old walls.  No rot or any evidence of water damage at all.  But I would rather be conservative.

Yep, just got done looking at a friend's place where they used vinyl-wrapped particleboard trim in the basement.  A sump pump failure flooded the carpeting and about 20' of trim is toast.

Crazy that the vinyl-wrapped trim was apparently actually indented for use in areas that could see water, the vinyl only wraps the faces/edges, not the ends.

I just don't think you can be too conservative in a basement.

[mad_planter]

I was over-thinking again, trim nails make the most sense.

I took out 1/4" plywood trim when I removed the old walls.  No rot or any evidence of water damage at all.  But I would rather be conservative.

I used those little tiny-diameter finish screws to install mine and then just plugged the holes with caulk and painted.

[EricU]

an 8' long Azek board is 97 inches long, which is almost exactly how much I need.  Going to have to be careful.  Brand X was 12' long for exactly the same price, but I didn't feel like stuffing it in the car.

[Snipe Hunter]

You'll pay more for Azek but imho, the other stuff is just as good. I have learned that if you aren't painting it, buy all you need at the same time to get a good color match. Different lots vary in color quite a bit.

[museumguy]

When I was building museum exhibits, we used a similar product a lot. It had to have smooth edges. After a bunch of online searching and some trial and error, we came up with a way to get a good edge. We took a good sanding block and attached PSA sandpaper to it and sanded the edges straight and smooth. Depending on how bad the saw marks were determined the starting grit. We progressed through 600 grit if we could. Then, we would wear heavy rubber gloves and wipe the edges with a rag with MEK on it. It melted the edges so to speak and gave us a smooth, clean edge. I've done the same at home with cut edges that needed to be painted and it gave me great results.

Just a little info that may or may not be useful.

[EricU]

I noticed the edges are really rough.  I was going to make a test cut on my tablesaw to see how that worked out. I'll take the MEK technique under advisement, not sure I want to do that inside this time of year.

[museumguy]

I noticed the edges are really rough.  I was going to make a test cut on my tablesaw to see how that worked out. I'll take the MEK technique under advisement, not sure I want to do that inside this time of year.

Yeah, not a good idea to do it in a closed environment. We had a 100,000 sq ft shop so we had plenty of ventilation. If you are using it in a tighter space, I advise wearing an appropriate respirator.

Also, stick to either aluminum oxide or the white (not sure of the proper term) sandpaper. It may not matter if you are painting the edges but most of the time, we needed them to be bright white. A yellow sandpaper would discolor the edges. Aluminum oxide or white paper didn't. Sometimes, we'd wipe the edges and then have to resand with  400 or 600 grit a little to get it just right. Keep in mind, we were doing museum exhibits, it had to be perfect. You may be able to get away with 220 or 320 and then MEK if you just want to clean up the edges, whether you paint or not.