How Would You Fix This?

[John McClanahan]

This is some BORG deck lumber. It has 2 winters and 1 summer on it. Faces West, and the top screws onto the post. The red finish is deck stain. I just noticed the crack reacently. I am going to re-stain sometime soon. My first thought is to get some good quality caulk and try to force as much caulk into the crack as possible. How would you do it?


Thanks,
John

[Neil Gaskin]

Look for abatron Wood Epox two part epoxy. You can likely find it at a local real paint store. If not, you can order it on amazon. That will fix the crack this year, the epoxy fill will last forever, the real problem is more likely the lumber and its exposure to the weather. The wood epox is the consistance of plado its not porable. West system may also work but you would have to mix in something to stiffen it so it wont run out. Caulking will not work for very long, will shrink, and likely fall out.

[Mike Null]

Beside the epoxy I believe I would use some stainless wood screws in two or three places to halt the splitting. My guess is that it will worsen without a mechanical device of some sort.

[Jim Matthews]

It's not the ball on top that's splitting.

Take off the post, and rotate it 90 degrees.
If you use epoxy to close the crack,
it will need a mechanical fixture to
draw things tight.

Put in a few screws from the hidden (deck)
side to pull it together.

My guess is that it will fail again, regardless.

[glenn bradley]

Depends on your comfort level with look of the repair. For the effort and likelihood of a return problem I would be tempted to just make a new one.

[John McClanahan]

Thanks for the advise, guys! I got to thinking I could replace the ball and fix that part of the problem. I didn't think of using screws, so I'm glad I asked.

John

[Pat Barry]

IMO its just a guess what is / may be causing the crack in the wood. It may be for example, the screw connecting the ball and the post. It could be that combined with the grain direction of the wood. I think any attempt to seal the crack will likely only be a temporary (1 year) fix. Buying / making a new part is the best long term solution.

[John McClanahan]

The ball is a Home Depot item with the screw pre-installed. I drilled the hole in the post a bit large so I could hand tighten the ball. There is a ring of caulking between the two. That must be why the ball split to match the post. This is all cosmetic, I just want to keep water out of the crack.


John

[johnny means]

Fill it with exterior caulk and paint over it. Any hard glue is just going to fail again. Any mechanical fix will cause Splitting else where.

[Peter Quinn]

I would caulk the post with urethane caulk and replace the ball. The ball is likely a glue up and has failed at the glue line, that crack looks way too straight to be following the grain. The post looks like its starting to crack along the grain, pretty typical of SYP as it dries. IME nothing rigid will help or stop that, not epoxy, not most flyers. Best you can hop for is a flexible plug that keeps ponding water out that will exacerbate the problem. Cold dry winter air, everything shrinks and freezes, could be both parts shrunk along the screw line and thats where they failed?

[Jim Dwight]

You can also use bondo. It is not very flexible but it doesn't shrink like caulk. It takes paint well. If I caulked it, I would use Duo-sil. It's urethane and shrinks less than most and is very sticky. You could also just leave it. Pressure treated syp splits. Fighting that is a loosing battle.

[ian maybury]

Could be its split as a result of shrinking around an already tightly fitting bit of threaded/connecting rod or similar joining the ball and the post. If that was the case then disassembling and boring out the holes a little with an eye to re-assembling as a fairly easy/low stress fit secured by epoxy might be an option - after repairing the ball and the post.

My instinct for the latter would be to first dry out the wood, then (presuming the inside of the splits is clean and dry wood - they could be cleaned with a saw blade but might then require a more viscous epoxy to fill the gaps) run some low viscosity slow curing epoxy (maybe thinned - it's possible to do so with 10 - 15% methanol or isopropanol without messing too much with the cure) right into the cracks and clamp it up tight using appropriately shaped pads. Clamps might not work up enough pressure to close the splits, in which case a bottle jack or similar might be arranged to work as a press. It would need somewhere reasonably warm. Polythene plastic sheet will stop the expoxy bonding to the pads. Then bore out the holes as above and re-assemble with more epoxy. Sand/fill as desired - the filler wouldn't then be structural.

It could split again, but along another line in the wood if the internal stress is still to much as a result of shrinkage/relieving the fit of the joiner isn't enough - even if the repairs were initially successful.

Depends on what's involved to replace it, and how much other joinery is involved - could cost more and be more trouble than it's worth to do it that way...

[Alan Lilly]

1. sand
2. fill with a quality 2 part epoxy
3. sand again
4. repaint

[Tom M King]

Either replace it with another turned part to match, without the center of the tree in it, or put some primer down in the crack, caulk with Big Stretch caulking, and recoat. Anything else will show up the same problem a few years down the road. If it's a lamination parting, I'd take it all the way off and reapply it.

[Kent A Bathurst]

The ball is a Home Depot item with the screw pre-installed. I drilled the hole in the post a bit large so I could hand tighten the ball. There is a ring of caulking between the two. That must be why the ball split to match the post. This is all cosmetic, I just want to keep water out of the crack.


John

As noted - epoxy or some type of 2-part wood filler. SS screws to halt the spread are fine - don't try to close it back up. I just dunno what the refinishing will look like - red stain on filler?

FYI - those ball-top finials are usually turned out of the same stuff - SYP as the post [just usually a higher grade to provide better clear yield out of the full-length 4 x 4]. So, as they dry, they are susceptible to splitting, just like the post. Never saw this "combo split" before. Kinda cool, actually.