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Getting Rid of RotBy Jim Sulski Summary: Rot can spread through your home and cause the wood to deteriorate. These steps help you prevent rot and repair and replace wood damaged by rot. If wood rot on a home goes unchecked, it could spell trouble. That's why it's wise to attack wet rot when it first appears by scraping and chipping away to prevent the wood from deteriorating.
Rot is actually a living organism technically known as fungal spores. It has nothing to do with insect infestation although the two can coexist. The fungus thrives on wet wood, and the more it destroys the wood, the deeper the moisture can penetrate into the wood. Hence the spread of rot. As the rot works into the wood, it not only becomes unsightly - producing peeling paint and blackish blemishes - but also weakens the structural integrity of the wood. Ultimately, it turns into a void, causing porches to sag and windows to leak. Rot can be found wherever wood is exposed to water - especially horizontal spaces, such as front porches and windowsills. Another common area is the base of porch columns and posts, which come in often contact with moisture. Rot is also common around eaves and facia boards around the roof edge as water gets behind gutters. Regular rainfall is usually not enough to be a catalyst for rot. Instead, rot is more commonly found in areas that stay wet constantly, such as shady spaces. Rot can also result from sprinkler systems clipping the house or gutter leaks. To check for rot, look for wood spots that remain wet after a rainstorm. Check for any peeling paint or blackish stains, which are signs of rot. Then, take an ice pick, awl or punch, and jab it into the wood. If the ice pick goes into the wood only about a 16th of an inch, then the wood is in good shape. If the ice pick easily penetrates the wood, then you probably have a rot problem. The best way to deal with rot is to avoid it by taking preventative steps. Make sure all wood on a home is finished with paint or sealer and repair any cracking, chipping or alligatoring of paint. Make gutter repairs to prevent rainwater from dripping or collecting on wood. And cover windows with storms to reduce the wood's exposure to moisture. There are a number of ways to repair rot: •Minor Cavities: If the decay is minimal, the easiest way to treat rot is to chip away flaking paint, scrape and sand down to the good wood, and then finish the bare spot by repainting or sealing. Be careful to remove all the rot to prevent it from spreading again. •Major Cavities: Large sections of rotted wood can be repaired with commercial epoxy remedies, alleviating the need for tearing the wood apart. The liquid filler is literally poured into the rotted area of the wood and is usually applied with a squirt bottle. Drilling a few angled holes into - but not through the wood - helps the liquid epoxy spread via capillary action. As the epoxy hardens, it becomes a structural member. Another type of epoxy works like a wood filler and is applied with a putty knife. •[] Replacement: If a piece of wood literally starts to crumble apart, it needs to be replaced versus being treated. Using a drill and a small saw, cut away the decaying piece in small chunks to make their removal easier. To choose a replacement piece, salvage what you can of the old piece or take precise measurements of the space it came from. Replacement wood parts can sometimes be found at home improvement stores or lumber yards. More intricate pieces may need to be improvised or fabricated at a lumber yard or a millwork shop. A rotting board from a tongue-in-groove porch, for example, can be replaced with a standard board. Sometimes, you can replace just a small section of piece of wood by cutting away the deteriorating piece and fabricating a replacement piece. Structural pieces of wood blighted with rot can also be shored up, via "sistering" - attaching an adjacent piece of wood that is the same size of the original damaged piece. This is common, for example, with a porch floor joist on the underside of a porch. Once you make a repair, quickly finish with new wood with paint or sealer to protect it from water.
© by Jim Sulski. All rights reserved. April 1, 2005. NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher. © 2005 by Ilyce R. Glink. Distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate. |
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