Last weekend I decided to turn some attention to the front porch. I wanted to get it painted before winter set in since there were some worn areas and some rotted areas. I opted not to strip it down due to time. But I sanded the entire area with extra focus on peeling areas. And almost every joint between the boards had flaking paint - so it was time consuming. Overall, I feel like the porch is in decent shape. But there are a handful of spots with rotten wood. A couple spots are small enough to fill with epoxy or putty. But a couple small sections were bad enough that I think they need replacing. My inclination is just to cut back the boards to the next joist and replace a section. I am assuming for a single replacement I'll have to cut back the tongue to fit it in. Does anyone suggest a different approach? It's clear some boards have been replaced in the past and underneath the porch the PO added cement block and a new beam across the center. So if just cutting out certain areas is the right way it shouldn't be too difficult. I am going to use a BM oil primer for bare areas and then I purchased BM floor and patio paint. I haven't started looking, but I am hoping I'll be able to find replacement boards of the same width and thickness. I would appreciate any feedback just to know I am missing something obvious. Thank you.
I pulled out this piece here because almost half of the width was rotten. The joist below also has some rotting but I think I can brace that versus replacement.
This is a narrower section where I think I would still have to replace the board versus using epoxy.
When I had to replace a couple of mine I cut it back to a joist. I cut the rotted board up the middle to the cross cut. I pryed the rotted board up from the cut up the middle so the tongue and groove in the boards next it were still there. I cut the replacement board a little long, lined up the tongues and grooves and smacked it into the gap with a hammer and toe nailed it from the end underneath. Last I trimmed off the hammered end flush with the ones next to it.
"How will we know it’s us without our past?" -John Steinbeck
Thank you - appreciate the feedback. Does anyone have tips on where to look for that type of wood? I made a couple calls to more specialized lumber stores in our area and it looks like a special order thing. Is that what others have found? Just curious.
I may have partly answered my own question. I called up a couple area salvage places and they indicate they have some stock of salvaged pine/fir porch T&G boards. So I may take a piece up there to see what I can find. Since I need only smaller pieces I don't really need much. And I can't hurt to wonder around an architectural salvage yard... I'll report back..
a router with a 1/4 inch straight bit works well to cut the boards off, just use a little piece of plywood to kneel on and guide the router. Use a chisel to clean up the bit at the end so you don't have to overrun your router cut into the adjacent board. then use a skil saw to cut the board you are removing in half ( down the center) . you can't get the tongue and groove to go in, unless you can insert it from the end, which you may be able to. if not , just remove the lower part of the groove on the tongue and groove board you are replacing it with. you may be able to just snap it off, push it under the old board and put it back together with it's broken off part with some ( waterproof) glue as you nail the new board down. you might have to chisel a little off the tongue as well to help make it easier to slip in.
as you may find, some of the old lumber comes in smaller dimensions now so you are on the right track if you can source some other old fir. If what you have is thinner, shim it up a little before you nail it down so the surface of the repair is level with the old stuff. you can probably add a little blocking underneath to nail into if necessary, rather than cutting further into the non rotten area to get to the joist.
Those are helpful tips - thanks. I went up to a salvage place and pick up four 5' pieces of flooring that matched in size. This flooring is 3 1/4 wide on the surface. It was interesting to check various boards because not all were the exact same size and even when the wide and thickness was the same the T&G were offset to a small degree. But the pieces I found seemed really close if not exact. I need to sand off the existing finish and then I'll see how it goes.
I replaced the entire decking on one of our porches about 12-15 years ago with best available grade Southern Yellow Pine (Texas) and made sure it was oil based primed on all four sides then used polyurethane deck paint and thought it would hold up forever. Was I ever wrong! It started going downhill after a couple of years and like you I made some spot repairs and replacements but after a decade total replacement seems the only option. I had planned to use Tendura synthetic wood 1 x 4 T & G boards but those folks went out of business. I know on the West coast they use Douglas Fir for the same purpose but not sure they get more years out of them. Short of using a synthetic decking board (which doesn't look like a T&G 1 x 4) I don't know of any natural product that holds up over time. Maybe there's a coating that penetrates and keeps moisture out for a long time but I'm not aware of any. I re-constructed a Gothic Revival porch for a landmark house in Vallejo, CA (the 1860 Greenwood-Winslow House) and used Doug Fir boards but the paint was Marine epoxy-with a special epoxy primer the homeowner found. I'd be curious to go back and see how well the deck has held up. The old growth boards from the 19th century and early 1900's seem to have been inherently less rot resistant but only salvage sources would have any today.
The costs wasn't great - $4 sq ft. So it cost me $20 for four 5 foot pieces that were not all that great. I don't know if it's the case, but the wood I got was in the rack of misc flooring. I don't know if the wood used on an outdoor porch is any different than what's used for indoor flooring. So I got enough for some misc repairs but I might check another salvage place for more spares. As mentioned, the odd thing was that while the width and thickness was the same the T&G did not line up on all boards. I'll take some pics of what I got this evening when I start stripping off the existing paint / stain.
I replaced a porch with Ipe, a very hard, natural wood from Brazil. A friend who builds decks uses it to replace failed composite decks. So far, after 10 years it shows no sign of wear. It is unfinished since I was told I could just let it weather naturally.
