I finally caught someone using wood filler to fix a rotting window frame

My neighbor spent 2 hours filling a rotted window sill with wood filler last weekend, and I told him it'd crack in a month because the rot goes deeper than the surface. He said I was wrong and that filler fixes everything, but from my experience rebuilding 4 windows on my own house, you have to cut out the rot first and use epoxy or replace the piece. Has anyone else dealt with a DIYer who swears by wood filler for rot, or am I the one missing something here?

3 comments

3 Comments

shanem3717d ago

Tell him to do the screwdriver test - poke around the wood until you hit solid stuff, and you'll see how much deeper that rot really goes. I learned the hard way that filler over rotted wood is just a temporary bandaid that ALWAYS cracks.

susan13017d ago

@shanem37 you couldn't be more right about that. I had a window frame that LOOKED fine but the screwdriver sunk right through 3 inches of soft rot after a wet season, and that $50 filler job turned into a $400 replacement six months later.

james_campbell123d ago

Oh man you're bringing back bad memories! Same thing happened with my porch post last year - looked solid from the outside but I pushed a key in and it went all the way through like butter. Spent a whole weekend patching it up and now I'm just waiting for it to fail again.