Repairing Holes in House Wood before Painting and Finish Sanding
It would be nice if your wooden home needed no more than basic house repair. Only caulk and scrape a bit, lay down some painting drop cloths, and roll on some layers of high quality exterior paint.
Maintaining your house is more difficult. Rather than easy, you usually have to repair the wooden facings of the house.
My property needed quite a bit of work. The steel sheeting near the roof gutters leaked and allowed rainwater to soak the wood behind the eve. As the years passed, the wood became rotten and caved in the painted surface.
This repair I wanted to do on my own. I was worried whether wood putty could fill in the gaps properly.
My friend down the block worked on the wood of his home many weekends to control those darn flying termites. This guy’s work quality held up very well. He knew something I did not.
Fill in Wood Holes with Bondo then Use Wood Working Power Tools to Finish Sanding
He told me a contractor had recommended to always apply Bondo to fill larger holes in wood. To get a better understanding see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondo_(putty)
I had used Bondo on a car repair. This auto filler kept its shape. It permitted sanding and lathing. When he mentioned using Bondo, I instantly knew that this was the right answer.
Using Bondo, the approach is to make repairs in layer after layer with a lot applied first and thinner sections to finish. Furthermore, you can do fine finishing work, combining molding boards and regular kitchen wax paper. To prep for painting by sanding all you need to do is to use one of the wood power sanders to make the Bondo blend smoothly with the wood.
If you have a wooden deck, you should be aware that you can also apply this auto patcher to fill in gouges in the surface of your wood deck. It comes in handy, when you are doing redwood deck maintenance.
Note the fact that Bondo finishes with a reddish hew and this will be obvious, if you only use a transparent water proofing on your wood deck. When you desire to seal your wood deck after patching with Bondo, you might need to use an opaque sealant.
Also it is not necessary to go to an automotive store for Bondo. You can get Bondo at Lowes or Home Depot. Incidentally, my painting prep job shows no signs of deterioration after many years.