Rotted Marvin Vinyl Window lower Sashes, How Best To Fix???

[driz]

My 95 Marvin double hung windows seem to be going the way of way too many people, rotting at the bottom sash. Looking at them it's easy to see that the water that hits the outside of the window just runs down behind the vinyl and lays there inside that lower sash to make sure it rots really well. Anyways lesson learned and I will sure as hell seal the top sides of those lower surfaces and everything else for that matter with a fine bead of silicone. I always wondered why the father in law had the thin bead around his Velux windows in Bavaria and those aren't clad at all and still performing fine since 78.
Marvin is kind enough to sell the basic blanks to make the bottom sash for a princely sum of 25 / foot and you get to essentially make your own. Nuts on that crap. I have been thinking about cutting my own blanks with the table saw and router from 2 x 6 pressure treated wood or similar. It might not exactly match the maple but I can make it blend in pretty well with the right stain. I can't believe how poor Marvin windows are. Simply googling here and there I found a legion of very mad former customers with rotted lower window sashes and casings many of which are just past the 10 year warranty. Any advice out there about how to go about handling this mess? I would like to hear it.

[pushkins]

Yep, that's pretty typical for those windows, have you checked the bottom of the side legs for rot ?

More often then not it works out cheaper to simply replace the window, I guess it depends when you DIY the project on your time.

[driz]

Yep, that's pretty typical for those windows, have you checked the bottom of the side legs for rot ?

More often then not it works out cheaper to simply replace the window, I guess it depends when you DIY the project on your time.

Thanks for the reply way back in June. Gonna put those off till next season and sure a couple have some side panel rot. Too bad they are such junk as the glass is fine. Looking at how these things are staged in the frames with those cheap plastic push in squeeze rails I can see it wouldn't be much effort to simply make up new window sashes out of hardwood. There is nothing there a table saw and router can't easily duplicate. It wouldn't hurt much as they are down low anyways and almost out of sight from the outside. Food for thought next Spring I guess.