Rotted Wood!

It may be time for some wood repair on your home!

        Rainy weather makes me think of rotted wood. It's just the Contractor in me I guess. If you don't

This should have been replaced long before now.

think like a contractor, then over a few years the home maintenance can really creep up on you. Here in the River City with the climate extremes we have, due to the four seasons, many of houses develop rotten wood issues. Left unattended they can develop into real money eaters. As in bigger problems.

What to look for?
        Things normally happen, at least the things we are looking for, around the corners, bottoms, edges, and the ends, of pieces of wood.
Anywhere a piece of wood stops, or connects to another piece of wood or metal at an angle. Where a piece of wood stops you'll find wood grain. As the paint coating deteriorates moisture is allowed into the open wood grain at the end on piece of wood. This end grain really wicks up the moisture pretty fast. Accelerating the woods deterioration. The same thing happens where two pieces of wood meet at an angle. When the caulk or paint sealing surface of this joint is broken in any way, it allows moisture in. Moisture in a joint stays wet a long time and is hard to dry out. This is the start of rot. Lot's of times, these are where things should have been carpentered better and wasn't, caulked and wasn't. Or maybe it's natural time is up, and it has done it's duty and is ready for it's natural replacement. There are two areas of a house that always go first. For a change lets start at the bottom.  The bottoms of your exterior door frames. This area stays wet the longest from the morning dew or any other precipitation, and it is the last to dry out. As the caulking at the bottom inside of the door frame, at the wood to metal connection deteriorates, this allows water to be wicked up inside and start the rotting process. I cannot tell how many expensive exterior doors and door frames we have replaced due this little part of your house being neglected. The next one is the window sills. Same thing here - right at the sides on the exterior of the sill. Caulk deteriorates and allows in moisture to seep in. Lastly take a look at the fascia, leaking roofing or gutters are the culprit here. The water gets in behind the gutters, and rot starts to develop. It's just a matter of time before it is in the eaves, and can possibly transfer down into the walls.      
          Some times you are in need of some carpentry but sometimes a little repair work is in order. It's pretty simple. This is a great video by a pro, so please, check it out: