Filling in Wooden Porch Cracks

LESLIE: We’re going to talk to Lorraine in Missouri about an outdoor project dealing with a porch. What happened?

LORRAINE: It’s cracked. It was painted and it faces south and it cracks and I want to know what – if I can put that – something in that crack before it’s repainted.

LESLIE: Now this is a concrete porch?

LORRAINE: No, it’s wood and the wood is cracked.

TOM: Are the cracks between different floorboards?

LORRAINE: They’re on the top rail and on the floor, yes.

TOM: OK. Well, I mean this is a fairly common condition with wood. It’s always going to expand and contract and what we would recommend you do is sand down the paint and then fill those areas; I would use a good-quality wood putty. You know Elmer’s makes one that’s very flexible, comes in different size – you know quart size and down to like half-pint size cups. And it dries very quickly, it’s easy to sand and then you prime it. That’s very important. You want to make sure when you do a wood putty that you prime over that and repaint it and you’ll be in good shape.

LORRAINE: OK, thank you much.

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.