Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Exterior Wood Repair?
Tom Norton
Yesterday I was noticing a few of the square spindles on our deck railing have some rot at the bottom. These are easy to make and replace. But I noticed a spot on the horizontal that has some rot and will need to be repaired in place. All the materials were/are cedar.
My thought is to dig out the rot and fill with epoxy that has a filler medium then restain with the solid hide stain.
Thoughts?
Re: Exterior Wood Repair?
Barry Irby
The rot externds further than is obvious. The living fungi are inside the fairly solid wood. Look up repairing wood rot with Borates. I bought some Bor-8 Rods. Small rods of solid borate. Drill a 1/4" hole, insert the rod and then make your repair. The borate should infuse the wood from the inside and arrest the decay. Lots of borate based kits out there.
You can also try making your own out of stuff like 20 Mule Team Borax and Antifreeze. The problem being you can only tell if it works years later.
Re: Exterior Wood Repair?
Josko Catipovic
IF you can dry out the rotted part, use epoxy (I use WEST) thinned 1:1 with acetone. This will permeate rotted wood quite deep and set up a sort of an epoxy matrix. Then use epoxy with sawdust and/or microbaloons to match the surface finish.
This will only work if you can thoroughly dry out the rotted section. I use it for boats, and bring them inside with a heat lamp on the affected area for at least a week.
Re: Exterior Wood Repair? *LINK*
Keith Newton
There are several brands of thin epoxies made to penetrate rotten wood architectural elements that are too expensive to replace. You can drill a bunch of holes into the area, then with a syringe inject the slow setting epoxy until it won't take any more. When it sets, it will no longer absorb moisture needed to continue to decay.
When I work on some of the historic homes in my neighborhood, replacing column bases and post, I've started using this product ahead of the primer on even the new decay resistant wood like Spanish Cedar. My clients would rather pay a little more to not ever have to deal with these problems ever again.
Abatron is the brand one of my neighbors who does only restoration work uses.
http://www.smithandcompany.org/CPES/
Re: Exterior Wood Repair?
Tom Norton
I do use West System Epoxy. I have never tried the acetone idea. So I can will give this a go!
Re: Exterior Wood Repair?
T.M. Stock
Remedying the immediate issue is fairly straight-forward - either repair or replace. The more important issue is the design of commercial baluster systems - these tend to routinely put vulnerable end grain and fresh water together - a recipe for both paint failure and wood rot. You may want to consider either an aggressive sealing and painting routine on painted work or looking at whether a design change can help.
19 years ago, I replaced a standard porch railing system with one designed to shed fresh water. The porch is a wrap-around on the north and west sides of the house, running about 70 feet of railing between wood columns. The original builder's railing had rotted out after about 7 years of service, with the finger-joined pine and lower railings under the balusters disintegrating. The replacement used dual upper and lower rails that captured the 1-1/8" square balusters, but let water flow through to drain away. The rail sections - up to 14 feet long - were mounted on blocks captured between the rails. Despite using big box 2x spruce and pine without any treatment, the design has prevented any rot with what has been an 8 year pull and paint cycle. As a bonus, the block system of mounting makes for a tool-less removal, so painting can be done off the porch with an airless system.