Is it worth redecorating when windows need replacing?

[leeloo1]

Title says it all really. I'm trapped in a spiral of not doing anything in the house because so much needs doing, but we've lived here for 4.5 years and its getting so depressing!

Our bedroom is the worst decorated room and I want to redecorate it. But... the windows are very old aluminium double-glazing, which attracts mould and damp. The paper(?) round the window recess is all peeling off now and there is mould lurking within the window sealant! (We have a dehumidifier which keeps damp under control, but damage is done). Plus the plaster is starting to crack a bit.

The outside of the house also needs repainting - especially round the windows, as its peeling badly.

Is it worth re-decorating inside or out, or would both areas be damaged again if we ever do get the windows replaced? We're planning to move in 2-3 years, so not sure we'd get the cost of replacing the windows back when we sell (suspect our house would be split into flats as neighbour's houses both have been).

Apologies if this is too long and confusing a post, but any ideas would be appreciated. :)

It's quite easy to damage the plaster around the windows when the frames and sills are being removed so I think it would be best to do that first. From the sound of it, the bedroom will need replastering and there's no point doing that while there are damp issues - is the damp coming from leaky windows or are the gutters or something else letting water in?

Hi, thanks for the reply. I think I may have made the damp sound worse than it is. Its just condensation from the windows - the aluminium gets v cold, so any moisture in the air condenses on it - so they get v wet especially when i dry clothes on airers.

Sounds like I should still replace the windows 1st though? Or just leave it all completely? :(

Definitely get the windows done first then redecorate (if you plan to do both!). My parents had windows replaced a while back and the paintwork etc around the window needed attending to so it was easier just to redo the whole room.

If you need lots of work done I find the best way to approach it is to make a list of ALL the jobs that need done, then decide your priorities and put the jobs in order. If I kept thinking about it I would never get anything done.
(am in the middle of redecorating bathroom!- been wanting to do it for nearly 2 years)

Thanks... I think it might be worth getting an estate agent round to get their opinions on who'd want to buy this kind of house and how much work its worth doing.

[scared of what I'll find out emoticon]

I'd say that if you need to paint the walls, then do go ahead. Obviously if you are doing the windows in the next couple of months then wait otherwise you might wait for months and months and nothing happens. We had windows for the whole house replaced 2 years ago. took a week. There will be minimal touch up needed but the guys (if you use a good company) will try to keep it clean etc. A lick of paint to even one room will freshen up any place.

Mmmm peggy0062 I like your thinking... although sadly the room needs stripping and re-wallpapering too (previous owners had a funky wallpapering style where some strips go up onto ceiling and some strips go down over skirting board and lots of it has air bubbles). Although I bought the easy paper stripping stuff someone recommended on here, so at least the stripping bit should be easy. :)

I think I might just go for it. Really reassuring that you had your windows re-done without much damage being done. Thanks. :)

If these were wooden windows, I'd have said to give them a good sand down and fill any cracks with wood repair and repaint them with a thick weatherseal paint both inside and out - we did this with some almost rotten windows in one of our bedrooms as a temporary measure and it's rainproofed them and also saved us another year till we need to replace them.

Aluminium, I don't think you can really patch them - I'd do the replacement and decorating at the same time!

Just go ahead and decorate if you don't know when you can afford to replace windows. We've procrastinated over the same thing in the past and ended up with rooms that weren't decorated for seven plus years just because we were waiting to replace the windows, which we couldn't afford to do.