ᐅ Interior Window Sills – What Depth or Overhang Is Recommended?

Created on: 25 Jan 2018 19:15
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winnetou78
Hello,

I was working away from home this week and stopped by the construction site briefly this evening.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
The main contractor installed the interior window sills, but they protrude by at least 10 cm (4 inches), and probably around 8.5 cm (3.3 inches) after plastering.
Isn’t that unusual nowadays?
That was common practice in the past when you needed to hide radiators underneath.
Now all the issues begin, but surely it can’t stay like this, right?

Best regards,
Daniel
White window frame with wide window sill in front of raw concrete block wall; construction work visible.

Interior construction site: raw concrete wall, window sill, pipe penetration, pink markings on the wall

Coffee cup on provisional window sill; exposed cable duct in wall.
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winnetou78
26 Jan 2018 07:37
This is secured with expanding foam; it will come off eventually. The question is who will pay for it.
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Bieber0815
26 Jan 2018 07:50
To be honest, I can’t recall if the depth of the window sills was discussed beforehand. Are the window sills shown on standard construction drawings?
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winnetou78
26 Jan 2018 07:59
No, that is not visible there. But based on common sense, if it is not explicitly mentioned, one would expect normal overhangs of 2–4 cm (1–1.5 inches), and not built-in serving trays.
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Bieber0815
26 Jan 2018 08:04
winnetou78 schrieb:
No, that isn’t visible there.

That was clear, but my question (execution plans, window sills) was not about your construction project, but about the general situation. Did everyone else know beforehand what they were going to receive? Is this usually known?

There are so many topics when building a house... We weren’t always fully informed about the details of how things would be done. Although I asked a lot of questions (and didn’t always get answers). Sometimes you just have to live with certain things, while others can be corrected...
lastdrop26 Jan 2018 08:32
How many window sills are there in total?
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Curly
26 Jan 2018 08:48
I quickly looked into this online. It’s generally recommended to have an overhang of 2-5cm (1-2 inches), so your 8-10cm (3-4 inches) is definitely not typical. I would definitely insist that they remove it! Also, you can’t use the space behind it properly—for example, we have a printer placed directly behind our windowsill, and when walking by, you have to make a detour around the window. You can’t just make an arbitrary overhang and then expect the customer to be satisfied with it. In our case, there was a slight color difference on one windowsill, and the site manager had it replaced immediately, even though the interior plaster was already finished. It was done quickly without damaging the plaster, so it’s not a big deal.

Best regards,
Sabine