Thread: Stopping Rott on hardwood post

There are proprietry products available at most good hardware and paint stores that will do the job for you. Really would be best to remove the post to do a proper job, however. Then you could fill the effected part with epoxy or some other filler.

years ago I had some hwd fence posts that started to rot from water, so a got a tube of silcone and sealed the tops with it, just smoothed it over the tops with my finger. The rot went no further.

The question is, where is the water coming from? Is it a leak or is the verandah open and it is the top end of the post that is rotting?

Solve the leak first, if that is the problem. I am generally very leery of filling joints or rot with sealant, often you just end up trapping moisture and promoting rot. I would not use silicone, you will never be able to paint over it again.
Depending on the situation I would use one or a combination of the following.
Cut the end grain at an angle so that water is shed, coat the newly exposed endgrain with oil-based undercoat and then several topcoats. Flash the endgrain with gal, zinc or aluminium sheet. If none of the above is appropriate, paint on copper naphthenate paste and keep up a regimen of recoating as per instruction if it is exposed. You can also buy fungicidal pellets which are inserted into holes around the affected area and sealed in with a wooden dowel.

Cheers
Michael

Thanks for the replies,,

Its on the top of the post.There is a spot of about 5mm which is exposed to the weather.Fixing that is OK and patching is not really a problem because its only just started to go.I would probably just sand it back to get back to solid timber.

What I wanted was something that I could apply that would kill any rot to stop it going further if I cant get it all.

Thanks

Greg

Copper Napthenate is definetly the go. Stops dry rot dead in its tracks, stops insect atttack.

Have used it a lot around my house [an old Queenslander] and it is now part and parcel of my kit for keeping up the maintenance