Rotting Oregon on house fascia

**jeff_w** · 19th July 2010, 02:40 PM

Hello all,

I have around 50m approx of Oregon timber around my house (the fascia) I have no eaves so this wood is exposed to the weather full-on. Anyhow, one length in particular is across the front of my garage and I dug out some rot yesterday with a screwdriver, around 120mm by 20mm deep ish. I need to know the following:

A) How do I removed the remaining rot - chemical etc, can I use bleach, exit mould or something more dodgy like anti-freeze or borax/boric acid (seems to be recipes on the web for this)
B) How do I patch up the hole? Builders bog looks good to me.
C) If I was to replace the whole lot (around 5m in this instance) it looks like it's simply nailed onto the brickwork I will update this with a photo ASAP. And what should I replace it with? treated pine?

The house and garage are flat roofed with colourbond roofing.

Thanks in advance!

Geoff
Canberra

**MICKYG** · 19th July 2010, 03:41 PM

Geoff

I had a piece of rotting timber on the facia on our garage which I promptly cleaned the rot out about 200mm long by 60mm filled with builders bog and painted the building. I replaced the timber after 12 years and the repaired bit was still good at this time. The replacement was due to a hail storm and I replaced all the facia at the same time the roof was replaced.

Regards Mike

**jeff_w** · 19th July 2010, 03:49 PM

Mike, so no chemicals used? Just a clean out of the damage then some bog?

Cheers,

Geoff

**MICKYG** · 19th July 2010, 05:13 PM

No chemicals, but clean back to good timber.

Regards Mike

**RossM** · 19th July 2010, 08:05 PM

The rot is a fungus & you really need to kill the remaining fungus. This can be done in a variety of ways. Commercial anti-freeze is effective at preventing dry rot formation as well as killing the fungus. Many sources indicate that you should remove timber up to a metre in each direction from the damaged area, as the hyphae (sort of like roots) travel up the wood fibers for quite a distance. However you can restore some integrity in the timber by using a product such as Earls Wood Hardener, which will also exclude moisture & kill the rot & I have used this in the past with great sucesss. I would use this prior to filling any major damage with Builders Bog.

You must also control the source of moisture that caused the damage.

Oregon is a royal pain in unprotected situations. It was very commonly used as an "outdoor timber" some time back(may b because it has been used in boat building - however in this situation it stays saturated or for spars it is well varnished & maintained) , but it does not stand up to the wet/dry cycles of exposed building structures & seems excessivly prone to dry rot..

**jeff_w** · 21st July 2010, 02:43 PM

Cheers all, will try Earl's then some builders bog. I do not know why Oregon was used as an outdoor timber, my deck rotted and had to be replaced, along with lots of other stories about Oregon, I guess the major issue with all wood is no-one seems to paint the end-grain when building things!! (Well, from what I have seen anyhow, would take too long I presume?) I paint them however, usually at least 2 coats and it does make building a bit more of a hassle. I know the mitred ends on the fascia corners are not painted, ahh well, that is what spare time is for!!

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