Help needed with serious wood rot; house near Atlanta
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My daughter has a serious issue with her house in Locust Grove, Georgia (near Atlanta 30248) that she wants to sell. She has a water leak somewhere above the second floor, causing damage to a second floor window frame and then the door farme on the ground floor. Yes, she made a mistake by waiting too long to fix it. Despite trying Angie’s List, porch.com etc; she can’t find anyone interested in repairing the damage. “Too big of a job for a handyman”….Too small of a job for a general contractor”. She has some health issues and a job change that aren’t helping. Any suggestions/advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Bob (Charlotte, NC)
Replies
The doorframe rot is pretty vanilla stuff and easily fixed by cutting off the bottom foot or so and splicing in a new piece. Or one can just replace the door & frame.
With the window it's hard to tell what's going on. It may just be ordinary weathering of the framing material and/or caulk or may be something more severe. In the simplest case a compentent painter can handle it.
But, if you say, these are both apparently due to water dripping down the face of the house from above, that issue needs to be addressed first.
It doesn't look to me from your photo that the door rot is associated with the window rot. That's pretty typical for exterior doors exposed to weather. You replace the entire door and frame. I use PVC frames and fiberglass doors so it never happens again.
Assuming the rot is below the window my guess would be that it's leaking through the sill. I'd pull the window, repair the rot and install a new window.
Thanks.....
Thanks to all for taking the time to reply. It's one of the things I really like about Fine Homebuilding.
There is a kit to fix the door frame. It's PVC, and I have NO experience with it. I don't even know how much it costs or where to buy it.
It consists of two sections of PVC brick mould, and two frame sections. I can't find the link now, I believe it was called frame saver.
With window sills I have had good outcome using epoxy to stableize the rot and then a thicker version to machine back to a sill you can finish. Because it sets fast this can be done in one day for a given sill. Search for Abatron expoy for more information. I think the 3M version called Bondo is at the orange big box store.
Both the door and the window should be doable for a handyman with decent carpentry skills. Can't see how bad the window rot is. If it's patchable, as the others have said a Bondo type product will work. I've had good luck with Minwax's 2 part wood fix epoxy. If the house is being readied for sale do a really good fix on the door or it might cost you if a home inspection picks up on it.