Double pane windows sealing to frame

[keith jensen]

I have 20 year old builder grade windows in my home that I started to patch/sand/paint the window frames on. They are still in pretty good shape so I'm going to hang onto them for a while longer. The windows were originally stained and we wanted to paint them white.
What seals the double pane window glass into the window frame? The stuff in there is brown and pliable like plumbers putty. I was going to caulk the window back to the frame with white silicone caulk but thought I better check first.

Thanks!
Keith

[Jason Roehl]

First off, don't use silicone anything anywhere near paint.

Are you talking about the interior or exterior side of the window?

[keith jensen]

Interior side.

I thought there were paintable silicone caulks?

[Jason Roehl]

Not really--those wouldn't be real silicone caulks if they were paintable ("Siliconized" is just a marketing term).

Does the glazing look like it is squeezing out between the wood and the glass? If so, that's normal. I see it all the time on brand-new windows. I just carefully scrape off the excess perpendicular to the glass and paint. For the interior side you shouldn't need to do any sort of re-sealing. The glass is bedded into glazing compound inside the wood sash where you can't access it without destroying the sash. No need for caulk.