Filling Holes in Wood before Painting
How to Repair Holes in Wooden Houses when Preparing to Paint and Sand
Homeowners would enjoy it if your wooden home stayed in good shape with only basic home maintenance. Only caulk and scrape a bit, put down some painting drop cloths, and slap on a new coat of outdoor acrylic paint.
Well, it just is not so easy. Rather than easy, one almost always has to patch the wooden surface of the house.
This house of mine needed more than just some new paint. The galvanized metal near the roof gutters was badly done and enabled the water to soak the wood behind the eve. As the years passed, the wood shriveled and the paint fell away.
This repair I wanted to do on my own. I was sure that standard compounds to fill wood would last.
My buddy next door repaired his wooden home many weekends to control those darn flying termites. These jobs stood the test of time. I asked him his secret.
Use Bondo to Fill Wood then Use Sanders to Finish Sanding
He said a contractor had recommended to use Bondo to repair larger holes in wood. To learn more look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondo_(putty)
I knew how Bondo worked on cars. This auto filler did not shrink. Bondo permitted sanding and lathing. When he mentioned using Bondo, It was obvious that it would do the job.
With auto filler, the trick is to make repairs in steps with thick layers at the outset and thinner sections to finish. You can even do fine finishing work, if you use wood molding and wax paper. To sand before priming and painting all you need to do is to use one of the wood working power tools for sanding the Bondo and wood smooth.
Homeowners with a wooden deck, you could also use Bondo to fix splits in the planks of your wood deck. It is sometimes necessary, when you are preping a redwood deck for treatment.
You should note that Bondo looks light red after sanding and this will be obvious, when using a non-hiding water treatment on your wood deck. When you desire to waterproof a wooden deck that has Bondo, you might need to use prime and painting.
Finally you do not need to find an auto parts store to get Bondo. It is easy to find Bondo at most any big hardware store. Incidentally, my painting prep job shows no signs of deterioration after many years.
