Rot Doctor
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Subject: Repair of garage door
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998Hi,
I was heartened to find your web page as I discovered a large rotten area on my garage door as I was repainting my house. I was scraping paint from the door and removed about a 18 inch by 2.5 inch section of the bottom frame member when the wood simply began crumbling away. Interestingly it is not on the bottom of the frame member which would logically seem to be the part in direct contact with wetness. Apparently there was some sort of seeping from the joint between the frame and the particle board panel above it. At any rate the rotted area goes completely through the frame member and my garage has a 12–14 inch gash that is two inches wide that goes all the way through. What I am after is a way to literally reconstruct the frame member from thin air in that section. Otherwise the garage door remains perfectly serviceable.
First, use our Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer (CPES) to treat the edges of the rotted portion and any other wood you wish to treat (such as the rotted wood near the fastener). The edges will do fine with just one application. The rotted area near the fastener I’d recommend treating twice, allowing the first application about 2 days to cure.
From my reading of your web page I think I might need to put on a backer board and fill in the void with some epoxy putty with sawdust or wood flour filler. Is this possible considering the volume of the void?
Yes. You can use our Epoxy Filler, which dries white, or mix sawdust with our Layup & Laminating Resin. Either of these will bond at the molecular level with the CPES for high strength. Be warned though that the resin/sawdust mix is VERY hard to sand smooth. You can use plastic wrap overlay to make the final smoothing easier, and then peel it off after the epoxy cures (24 hours).
I’d suggest leaving the backer board in place, or, you should use a glass mesh to give lateral strength to the repair. Garage doors can take a beating.
Also, at the end of the damaged area the metal bracket that attaches the door raising mechanism is exposed, will the epoxy putty stuff adhere to metal?
Yes, if the metal is clean and grease-free.
I don’t think that there is much structural stress at this time as the metal section is still firmly attached to a vertical frame member abutting the horizontal one with the damage. There is a fastener through the damaged area and if I completely removed the rotted wood that fastener would also be in this air at its outside end and bolted through the metal at its other end. Can I leave that portion of the rotted wood that continues to surround it and inject some of your product in this wood to “heal” it?
Yes, using 2 applications as suggested above.
I would probably manage a vertical application although the area is exposed on the horizontal axis at present.
I hope I have given adequate description of the problem and I await your reply.
Thank you,
Don B.Don,
Your plan sounds good and will work. My best guess is that the 2-pint unit of the CPES would be enough, and then enough Epoxy Filler or L&L Resin to fill. You’re the best judge of how much that might be. The Epoxy Filler sands easier than the resin/sawdust and the pricing is nearly the same.
All products are in stock, and we ship same day as ordered.
Come back if you have additional questions.
Doc
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