Wood rot repair

Where rot starts

Rot needs water and wood that stays damp. Even in a dry climate, it shows up where water sits: the bottoms of door jambs next to the threshold, window sills that slope the wrong way, fascia boards behind clogged gutters, posts set in soil, and trim behind sprinklers that hit the wall every morning.

Peeling paint is often the first sign. Push a screwdriver into suspect wood; if it sinks in easily, the wood is soft.

Fix the water first

Patching rot without stopping the water means it comes back. We look at why the wood got wet: a sprinkler head aimed at the house, a gutter overflowing, failed caulk at a joint, or a missing drip edge. Small fixes such as redirecting a sprinkler or re-caulking a joint are part of the job. A roof leak has to be stopped first.

Epoxy repair

When the rot is a small area in a larger piece, we cut out the soft wood, treat the edges with a wood hardener, and fill with a two-part epoxy filler. Once cured, it sands, shapes and paints like wood. This keeps the original trim, which matters on older homes with profiles that are hard to match.

Replacing pieces

When rot goes deep, the piece is replaced. For door jambs, the bottom section can be cut out and a new piece spliced in, rather than replacing the whole frame. For fascia and trim, we match the size and profile and prime all sides before installing, including the cut ends.

Primed and painted wood resists water far better than bare wood. Composite trim and PVC are good options in spots that stay wet.

Termites or rot?

Termite damage and rot can look similar. Drywood termites leave small pellets; subterranean termites leave mud tubes. If we find signs of termites, we stop and show you what we found before repair, because patching over an active infestation wastes money.

The gutter above the rot

Trim that rots along the eave line usually has a gutter problem over it. A joint that drips, a length that sags and spills in heavy rain, or a downspout that let go at the elbow keeps the wood below wet. Gutter repair can go on the same visit: we reseal the joint, rehang the low run so it drains to the outlet and reconnect the downspout. Roof work goes to a roofer.

When it is structural

Rot in a deck joist, a porch post that carries a roof, or a wall sill plate is structural. Those repairs are not work we take on. We will tell you if what we find is past trim work.

Painting the repair

Every repair is primed and painted to match or as close as possible. A full side of a house may look patchy until it is painted, which we can quote.

Common spots in valley homes

In the San Gabriel Valley, the usual trouble spots are the bottom of front and back door jambs, the sills of windows on the sprinkler side, the ends of rafter tails and fascia near downspouts, and the base of wood porch posts. Older ranch homes and bungalows with original wood trim get a check every few years.

Moisture readings

A moisture meter tells us whether the wood is still damp before we patch it. Wood that is wet when filled will keep rotting underneath. If it reads wet, we fix the water source and let it dry before patching.

Choosing new trim

Primed finger-jointed pine is fine indoors, but outdoors it can swell if paint fails. For exterior trim in wet spots, we often use solid primed wood, cedar, or PVC trim, which does not rot. PVC trim takes paint once primed and cleaned.

Keeping it from coming back

Paint is the main protection. Repaint trim when paint cracks or peels. Re-caulk joints every few years.

Keep gutters clean and turn sprinklers away from walls. A yearly walk around the house to look at paint and caulk catches small problems before they turn into rot.

Before you sell

Home inspectors probe trim and frames for soft wood. Fixing it before listing avoids a repair request later, and photos of the repair help the buyer feel confident.

How we price

Rot repair is quoted after a look, because the soft area is often larger than it seems. We probe the wood around the visible damage and give a price for the full repair before starting. If we find more once a piece comes off, we stop and show you before going further.

Window sills

Sills should slope away from the window so water drains off. When they slope inward or sit flat, water sits and rots them. A replacement sill can be set with a proper slope, or a sloped cap added on top.

Garage door jambs

The wood jambs around garage doors rot at the bottom where water collects. We replace the bottom section and seal it, and add a stop seal so rain does not blow in.

Fences and gates

The same rot shows up on fence posts and gate frames. See our fence and gate page for those repairs.

Gutters and downspouts

A downspout that dumps water against a wall soaks the trim and the siding there. Adding an extension or a splash block moves the water away, and we do it while repairing the rot nearby.

Painting schedule

Exterior paint in the valley sun tends to fail first on south and west walls. Repainting trim on those sides more often than the rest of the house is a cheap way to keep rot away. We can touch up trim during a rot repair visit so the paint on that side is all fresh at once.