A Cow's Ear -- recreating woodgrain with faux bois:

Condensation on glass-block windows damaged these window sills.

A typical room...

until you look closer.

As a decorative accent, glass blocks serve nicely. But architecturally, , they have little insulation value.

These exterior wall blocks provide about R-5 -- hardly great by today's standards where some building codes require R-40 for exterior walls.

Because of the poor insulating value, condensation builds up during cold weather and eventually runs down the glass to collect in comfortable puddles on the wooden sill.

Have you ever seen anything like it? A crackle finish of the N-th degree, this sill looks as if it were sprinkled with corn flakes: a real cow's ear!

Because oil-based varnishes can be considered water-proof, moisture trapped under the film swells the wood, and the hard inflexible top-coating cracks under the strain. These cracks now let in even more moisture, and the problem compounds itself.

Were it not that cedar was used here as the building material, these window sills would have rotted out ages ago. Even after [fifty?] years of dry-wet cycles, this cedar sill proved to be sound.

Cedar is inherently rot-resistant. Always has been. Still is. But cedar releases tannins when wet. With continuous wet-dry cycles, these build up on the surface to become unsightly over time. I don't mind this, as long as it's in your place and not mine.

Tannins account for the colour of black tea -- and the barky stems n' seeds taste of a good wine -- and the deep brown colour of a tree-felled beaver pond. Beaver pond water and beaujoulais -- who can tell the difference at 25 or 6 to 4?


See the polyester pants.