We prepainted all the rough cut 2x trim that we hung on our house. It was nailed up with 12d spiral shank nails. I am looking for suggestions on what to patch the nail holes with (if at all). At each nail hole there is a small bit of raw wood exposed, that could absorb moisture. However we are in the mountains of Colorado, with pretty dry air, so rot may not be a huge issue.
It does look a little weird to see all the shiny nail heads. I guess what I’m looking for is some kind of putty that won’t shrink much, and is paintable. Any suggestions?
-Rich
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You could use painters caulk or putty, exterior of course. Or do like most and install, prep, then paint. It may be "dry" in NED. Iwould bet ya more snow than I do In Denver, or rain for that matter Sounds like you have some finish work to do!
I was concerned about the caulk because I thought that shrunk a bit. Sounds like I have gotten some good tips on the putty. Checked them out at the store today. Seems easy enough. Not looking forward to all the ladder time though.As for install, prep, then paint, we decided to prestain all of our siding and prepaint all of the trim so that it would last the longest. Future paint and stain jobs will obviously be only the outside faces, but it sounds like the best way to go was to do all sides initially. Time will tell!Thanks again to everyone. -Rich
For small finish nailholes you could probably get away with a good exterior spackle, but anything like a full head nail holes will need to be punched and filled with a two part filler. Like trout says, "minwax", "bondo" - it's all the same. If you're seriously trying to make these holes dissappear FOREVER, though, you'll need one more thing: hardener. Without it, the best filler will be rejected sooner or later as the wood moves around it. Minwax makes a good product which can be used prior to filling. Yes, it makes a somewhat bigger production out of filling a hole than most are prepared to do, but the fill will last indefinitely. Keep in mind that trim is almost always the first thing to fail on an exterior, and there's usually rot around a rusted fastener to blame.
I like using Minwax Hi=Performance wood filler.
It's a 2-part putty, similar to auto body filler.
It should work well for your situation. Most lumber yards and big box stores carry it.
Just don't mix too much at one time. It can set up pretty quick.
The two part Minwax is the Rolls-Royce of fillers. For little nail heads, the exterior Synko should do ya fine.
-- J.S.
I'll third the minwax high performance filler. (pssst....it's bondo--even down to the exact wording of the directions on the lable) Using the two side by side it's impossible to tell them apart other than the color, and the hardeners are interchangable.
At Walmart you'll get the best price on bondo--a galon for something like $13.
Also handy for large numbers of holes are small paper plates to mix on, tonge depressors to mix with, and plastic spoons to dig it out of the can.