Cooter, Help! Zambo gets Betty too hot

[crosscreekcooter]

Hey @crosscreekcooter , you ever use wood epoxy to repair rotted wood that is too difficult to just replace? I've heard some good stuff about it. I'm gonna try this stuff from PC Products, the first part is a low viscosity "petrifier" that you brush on in thin coats after removing as much rotted wood as possible and it makes whatever is left solid as a rock. Then there is a two part putty epoxy that you can use to build up the wood until it gets back into shape. They say its stronger than the original wood and you can sand, drill, cut, etc. I would only need to use it on a few small areas but if it works it'll be way easier than pulling so much stuff apart to replace a small section.

I have used a repair product called Durham's Rock Putty numerous times in areas that might be difficult to replace. Not a petrifier, but a filler that truly becomes rock hard. It's a gypsum based product when mixed with water can be shaped, sanded, painted and stained. If it's an exterior situation wood had a tendency to continue to degrade so you have to be careful to make sure the cavity you are trying to fill is sound and dry. Whether you use an epoxy or some other filler, it is helpful to provide some mechanical form of bonding reinforcement (which could be a small nail or screw) between the wood and your filler inside the cavity to ensure it has a good bite.
edit: I notice their label now reads Water Putty-$2 for a one pound can at HD-that one pound can will make about 1 cup of putty, mix in small amounts as it begins to set rather quickly, short pot time, should be applied in successive fills
Durham's Rock Hard DU-1 1 lb. Water Putty-1#CAN - The Home Depot

 

[Zambo]

I have used a repair product called Durham's Rock Putty numerous times in areas that might be difficult to replace. Not a petrifier, but a filler that truly becomes rock hard. It's a gypsum based product when mixed with water can be shaped, sanded, painted and stained. If it's an exterior situation wood had a tendency to continue to degrade so you have to be careful to make sure the cavity you are trying to fill is sound and dry. Whether you use an epoxy or some other filler, it is helpful to provide some mechanical form of bonding reinforcement (which could be a small nail or screw) between the wood and your filler inside the cavity to ensure it has a good bite.
edit: I notice their label now reads Water Putty-$2 for a one pound can at HD-that one pound can will make about 1 cup of putty, mix in small amounts as it begins to set rather quickly, short pot time, should be applied in successive fills
Durham's Rock Hard DU-1 1 lb. Water Putty-1#CAN - The Home Depot

Thanks bro. I definitely won't be using just the putty to bond any wood together, it will have mechanical ties to surrounding structure. Most of the wood in something like this is really just a landing area for the nails and screws that hold the paneling and siding. I've got some of the PC conditioner and PC Woody arriving today, I'll give that a try and see how it goes. Film at 11.

 

[crosscreekcooter]

@Zambo - post an update, curious to see your reaction. Wonder how that petrifier would work on One-Eyed Sam. Askin for a friend.

 

[Zambo]

@Zambo - post an update, curious to see your reaction. Wonder how that petrifier would work on One-Eyed Sam. Askin for a friend.

Will do, as a matter of fact Bezos just dropped it off at my door so I'll go slather some on before it gets too dark outside.

 

[Zambo]

Didn't get a chance to apply any of the petrifier last night coot, life got in the way. I did a couple pieces and sections this morning, will check back later to see what effect it had on the soft wood. You'll have to keep One Eyed Sam entertained by yourself in the meantime.

 

[crosscreekcooter]

@Zambo - I probably could have used some of that stuff - This house (gf's) was built in the 60's and is a 2 story with 4 columns that supports a balcony that runs the width of the front as well as the roof over the balcony.. They were built with 2x6's sandwiched together to form a post and then wrapped with 1x10's- I never liked the way they were built or the way they looked and over the years the column bases have begun to break down. My intent was to wrap the columns as they are with BC plywood and panel them. I also don't like the ballustrade on the balcony so I am planning to tear all of that out and rebuild it as well before I paint the house.
Problem is when I removed the base off the first column I see the bottom of the column is rotted away, supporting nothing, so a cosmetic repair has now become a structural issue. I am also now assuming the other 3 are probably in the same condition. Once exposed I see only about 12" is affected so I have decided to cut that portion out, replace the bad material and move ahead with the new column wrap.

 

[grengadgy]

@Zambo - I probably could have used some of that stuff - This house (gf's) was built in the 60's and is a 2 story with 4 columns that supports a balcony that runs the width of the front as well as the roof over the balcony.. They were built with 2x6's sandwiched together to form a post and then wrapped with 1x10's-

Were the originals PT? Also the flat pillar that the post sat on looks like it could retain water for short time which wouldn't be good for the bottom of the post.

 

[Gator By Marriage]

All of the projects I’ve seen in this thread have been pretty interesting; either a nice new home improvement or a fixing of something in bad need of repair.
Anyone had to do any nasty home repairs? I ask because Mrs G and I decided to give our kitchen hood a good, and I mean really good, cleaning. We had always kept the visible areas clean and shiny (it’s stainless steel), but never disassembled the innards. On the one hand, it was nice making them look new again, not that they're visible, but I had no idea how much grease gets stuck up there, particularly in the two squirrel cage fans. I regret not taking “before” pictures.
The cleaning process itself was fairly simple: I soaked the parts and covers in a mix of hot water, Dawn, and vinegar and the used 409 to remove the rest. The really stubborn grease required some goo gone. It was truly one of the nastier non-plumbing jobs I’ve done in a while.

 

[grengadgy]

All of the projects I’ve seen in this thread have been pretty interesting; either a nice new home improvement or a fixing of something in bad need of repair.
Anyone had to do any nasty home repairs? I ask because Mrs G and I decided to give our kitchen hood a good, and I mean really good, cleaning. We had always kept the visible areas clean and shiny (it’s stainless steel), but never disassembled the innards. On the one hand, it was nice making them look new again, not that they're visible, but I had no idea how much grease gets stuck up there, particularly in the two squirrel cage fans. I regret not taking “before” pictures.
The cleaning process itself was fairly simple: I soaked the parts and covers in a mix of hot water, Dawn, and vinegar and the used 409 to remove the rest. The really stubborn grease required some goo gone. It was truly one of the nastier non-plumbing jobs I’ve done in a while.

All that grease was amazing. Nasty job.

 

[crosscreekcooter]

Were the originals PT? Also the flat pillar that the post sat on looks like it could retain water for short time which wouldn't be good for the bottom of the post.

They were originally pressure treated however if you look closely at the last two pictures you can see where a previous repair had been made. In 1964 hurricane Dora crawled through Jacksonville and high winds took a tree down that damaged this column. The company that the insurance company hired apparently decided that part of the repair should include the addition of the reinforced concrete blocks at the base.
My plan was to brace the balcony and roof above, remove the rotted section and block base and ultimately finish the base of this column to match the other 3. Once the rotted section was removed I could see three reinforcement rods peering out of the concrete fill, at which point I now assume are drilled into the concrete deck below. I decided to leave the block in place and frame and trim the other 3 columns to match the affected one.
I hired a company last week to wrap the soffit and fascia with vinyl coated aluminum which was finished Thursday (new gutters in 2 weeks) and had the guy brake a heavy gauge aluminum flashing for the bases to prevent intrusion in the future.

 

[crosscreekcooter]

Here's the base flashing, not stock dimensions

 

[Zambo]

I love when the base material is some weird size you can't buy! One of the joys of doing the reno on this RV is that none of the wood structure is an available common size. All the framework studs are 1.25" square and the base frame around the perimeter is a full 2". Super convenient to have to rip every piece I need to replace on the table saw.

The petrifier chemical seemed to do its job pretty well although you can't see anything in a picture. But the wood fibers definitely went from being soft to rigid. It doesn't fill in any voids so its still just a pretreatment for using the epoxy putty. I mixed up a batch this morning and slapped it into the areas I'm working on now around the entry door and the gen compartment. It builds up pretty good, but its not like clay so if you try to build more than about 1/2- 3/4" it will sag on vertical surfaces. Other than that the workability was pretty good, about what I expected. It should cure to the point where I can sand it in less than 24 hours so we'll soon see how well it works. I also put some on a scrap piece of rotted wood and tomorrow I'll cut through it to see what it looks like inside.

 

[grengadgy]

That's fugly....:)

 

[bradgator2]

So it’s basically like bondo for rotten wood?

 

[Zambo]

So it’s basically like bondo for rotten wood?

Yes!

 

[Zambo]

That's fugly....:)

Of course its fugly did you think wood repair putty was gonna look like the ****ing sistine chapel?

 

[grengadgy]

Never used wood putty/filler/Durham Rock Hard Water Putty before.

 

[bradgator2]

So, finally got to the drywall repair. I really, really, really wanted to use the original pieces of drywall. So I figured I could mount a very thin piece of craft wood as a backing behind the “odd” hole. I used anchors like this:


Attached the craft wood behind the hole. Took some patience. And yes... I tied everything to the wall while I was working on it

glued and screwed the original pieces

 

[bradgator2]

Filled in the cracks, used the spraycan of texture. Primed. Feathered more texture. Primed again. Feathered more texture. Primed again. Then painted the original color.

Suck it haters:

 

[MJMGator]

Filled in the cracks, used the spraycan of texture. Primed. Feathered more texture. Primed again. Feathered more texture. Primed again. Then painted the original color.

Suck it haters:

How’s it feel knowing you got a fcked up wall behind that paint?