Mystery composition! I'm repairing a window frame in a 1960s house. The gap between the wooden frame and the concrete external sill is filled with this yellow sand. The frame itself is held up on blocks that this stuff is packed around and then painted over.
It's moist, sticks together between fingers, but it's in contact with bare wood (further along) and the wood's not rotten, so I think this can't be wet with water. The painted underside of the window frame has been in contact with with it and is as good as new. It has a faint chemical smell. I can't be sure that's the composition itself. I'm not even sure it's sand - I first thought it was some foam that had degraded somehow, gritty anyway.
The gap has been painted over, which is what made me think this was solid once, like mortar, but the paint is still flexible. Is this a kind of oil-based mortar? The rest of the house was painted in the last 10 years, no idea when this last saw light. These are the original 60 year old windows and frames, but who knows if this is from then.
I'm taking this out because the top side of the wooden sill is rotten and I had to take it back quite deep at the ends, past the line of this packing.
It's moist, sticks together between fingers, but it's in contact with bare wood (further along) and the wood's not rotten, so I think this can't be wet with water. The painted underside of the window frame has been in contact with with it and is as good as new. It has a faint chemical smell. I can't be sure that's the composition itself. I'm not even sure it's sand - I first thought it was some foam that had degraded somehow, gritty anyway.
The gap has been painted over, which is what made me think this was solid once, like mortar, but the paint is still flexible. Is this a kind of oil-based mortar? The rest of the house was painted in the last 10 years, no idea when this last saw light. These are the original 60 year old windows and frames, but who knows if this is from then.
I'm taking this out because the top side of the wooden sill is rotten and I had to take it back quite deep at the ends, past the line of this packing.