Repairing wood siding
 

Problem: wood rot of cedar siding at the bottom
(deck level) in a right-angle corner on the north
side, therefore slow to drain and dry. (The
prevailing wind is southwest and we have
snow for 4 to 5 months every winter.) The
deck was built onto the house (1986?) by the
owner who did not instal flashing over the
ledger and did not space it out from the
house. I spotted damage in 1994, filled
soft spots on the ledger, fitted flashing and so on.

Over about 10 feet horizontally, four or five
(vertical) siding boards now are wet and
rotting at deck level (discovered when
cleaning the siding preparatory to restaining.)

Possible solution:
1 = remove deck board(s) and flashing:
2 = remove bottom 3 inches of siding
by a shallow cut all the way along with
circular saw
3 = replace this bottom 3 inches with a selected
plank of new timber (previously waterproofed)
4 = replace flashing and reinstal the batten
that shields its top edge from rain etc.

Informed comments would be welcome,
or a steer to a good web site tutorial on this
sort of repair.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
dphillipson[at]trytel.com