Bondo or epoxy for Wood rot?

[Brian Kent]

I have a porch cover with wood rot on a couple of overhang beams. The wood is a 4x8 by about 2 feet. I would like to try scraping, treating for rot and insects, and filling.

My two choices appear to be Bondo or Epoxy such as Endrot by System Three.

Do any of you have experience using either process to repair wood rot?

Thank you in advance.

Brian Kent

[Lloyd McKinlay]

LiquidWood and WoodEpox from Abatron. http://www.abatron.com/product/liquidwood/ Not inexpensive but they work.

[Lee Schierer]

Minwax Wood hardener works well followed by Minwax High Performance Wood Filler. I've used this for several projects where replacement was not an immediate option.

[Lisa Starr]

Try M-Balm and E-Wood. These products are made for consolidating rot and repairing log homes. We used it a couple of times when we lived in one with great success. It was somewhat stainable as well.

[Mel Fulks]

Beams. Does that mean there are no fascia boards?

[Tom M King]

I'm assuming the source of the water has been stopped. After things dry out, you need a thin, penetrating sealer that will run into the voids, and harden. Cross Bondo off the list without even talking about it. If the water is kept out permanently, get one of the many penetrating epoxies, and after that hardens, fill the remaining voids with some sort of thickened epoxy.

Exactly which one is not nearly as important as seeing that it never gets wet again. With such a repair done, the now filled voids with epoxy will help hold any future water that gets in the wood next to the fill, and it will rot even faster than it did before.

[Rob Sack]

Shouldn't the fungus that caused the rot in the first place be treated before the repairs are made?