How to Repair Holes in Wood when Preparing to Paint then Sand

Homeowners would enjoy it if a wooden house needed no more than minimal house repair. Only caulk and scrape a bit, toss down some painting drop cloths, and roll on some layers of outdoor acrylic paint. Well, it just is not so easy. For a wide variety of reasons, one almost always has to repair the wooden surface of the house.

My home had to have more than just some new paint. The galvanized sheet metal edging near the roof gutters did not go to the edge and allowed rainwater to repeatedly dampen the overhang board. Over time, the wood became rotten and caved in the painted surface. I was determined to fix this myself. I was worried whether standard compounds to fill wood would last. My next door neighbor patched his wood facing boards often fighting termite infestations. This guy’s work quality stood the test of time. He knew something I did not.

Fix Wood Holes with the Auto Repair Filler Called Bondo and Use Cordless Power Sanders to Sand

He told me a contractor had recommended to always apply Bondo to fill any imperfections in the home’s surface. To get a better understanding go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondo_(putty) I knew how Bondo worked on cars. It kept its shape. It could be planed. When he mentioned using Bondo, I instantly knew that this was the right answer. Using Bondo, the method is to make repairs in layers with thick layers at the outset and thinner sections to finish. You can even make nice sharp corners, if you use wood molding and wax paper. To sand before priming and painting all you need to do is to use one of the belt sanders for sanding the Bondo and wood smooth.

For those of you who own a wood deck, you should be aware that you can also apply this auto patcher to fix splits in the flooring of wood decks of various types. It is useful, when you are preping a redwood deck for painting. Note the fact that Bondo has a distinctive light reddish color and this will show through, if you only use a light colored water proofing on your wood deck. If you want to waterproof a lumber deck after patching with Bondo, you might need to use prime and painting. Also you don’t have to look for a car parts place to acquire Bondo. It is easy to find Bondo at most any big hardware store. Incidentally, my painting prep job still looks great after several years.