I’ve got a outdoor deck railing consisting of a welded metal frame with 1″x 3″ wooden slats oriented horizontaly, screwed to the metal. the material used to fill the screw holes looks like plastic wood dough that had been stained to match. the railing is on the sunny side of the house and takes a beating from the sun all day. the fill is failing all over the place; popping out and in some cases & slightly crumbly. God only knows what the carpenters who built it used. I was thinking of using a stainable wood epoxy, but I’ve heard that despite the advertising claims, it will fail due to heat & wood movement as well. Any ideas? Thanks for any advice.
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Given that tough environment, dissimilar materials are going to behave differently.
Could you cut some wooden "plugs" from a less-visible edge, and then fill in the (slightly enlarged) screw holes? Maybe make a jig to enlarge each screw hole with a 3/8" Forstner bit?
Forrest
the screw heads are counter sunk from 2 to 4 mm. while wood plugs are I think, the best idea, the amount of work to pull it off is more than I am willing to invest in it. As movement is the issue, I was wondering if anyone had ever used a colored caulk. like a polyurethane siding sealant or Big Stretch. Thanks.
I'd try Bondo ( polyester resin) and add some stain from the solids that settle in the can of minwax for color. Big Stretch don't tool or sand smooth worth a damm.
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