Repairing Rotted Wood

Years of rain leaking in caused increasing water stains on our interior baseboard trim. After finally finding and fixing the problem outside, it was time to tackle the inside. There was wood rot behind the trim and I decided to try a combination of wood hardener and wood filler in an attempt to repair the rotted wood. See links below for the parts and tools I used:

Minwax High Performance Wood Hardener:

Minwax High Performance Wood Filler:

Chip Brush:

Cotter Pin Extractor:

*Purchasing from these Amazon affiliate links earns my channel a small commission. Think of it as a tip that doesn't cost you anything. Thanks for the support!

[Mikeattempts]

Minwax High Performance Wood Hardener:

Minwax High Performance Wood Filler:

Chip Brush:

Cotter Pin Extractor:

*Purchasing from these Amazon affiliate links earns my channel a small commission. Think of it as a tip that doesn't cost you anything. Thanks for the support!

[Dr_V]

As a hobby carpenter I never used a dedicated wood filler. If the defect is hidden (as in your case) I'll use wood glue mixed with sawdust to roughly the consistency of heavy cream or toothpaste, it's very strong and you can extend hardening time by adding a drip of water every now and then if needed. If it has to look good it's gonna be transparent varnish plus finer sawdust to the consistency of honey, pushed into cracks with a syringe and leveled off with a putty knife +/- a dry brush as it starts hardening (matching colors can be a bit tricky, but using sawdust from the same type of wood makes it easier). The quickest way to make sawdust in large enough quantities at home is by using a hand sander with coarse grit pad (40 or 60), filter off (if it has one) and a collector bag attached to the evac pipe (a vacuum cleaner bag works well for this, attached with duct-tape).

[anthonyb]

Great video. I think that's a pretty good repair. The wood hardener is a great product and combined with the two part filler should last years. I'd probably give the filler a coat of paint though.

[BrucePierson]

I'm in Australia, but we get a lot of US house renovation shows and building shows over here and I watch a few of them. One thing i will say is that building code in the US is way different to what we have here in Australia. For one thing, we do not have the composite shingles you have there. Our roofs are mostly steel or tiles, either ceramic or concrete. On these US renovation shows, I see a lot of repairs getting done because of building work done incorrectly and not being up to code. Your example is typical of this. Here in Australia, we have more problems with termites than anything else because our climate is a lot warmer than yours, unless you go to somewhere like Florida or Hawaii. The way you did that rotten wood repair would be about the only way you could have done it without replacing the timber, which would have been impractical because of the magnitude of the job to do that. It was a case of the best solution with the least amount of work.

[jimharper]

Instead of the super expensive Miners Wood Filler, you should have used automotive body filler (Bondo). WAY cheaper, exact same product! You could have gotten 3-4 times the product for the same money!