Bathroom Renovation #2 - Bondo

The obvious way to deal with rotten wood is to replace it. But sometimes that's easier said than done. For example, as I began pulling out rotten studs I discovered what must have been a window leak in the old shower (below bottom left corner of pictured window). There was an obvious trail of rotten wood behind four side-by-side studs I had to replace. But these newly revealed rotten boards were the planks that make up the external wall and the exterior siding planks were nailed in part to said rotten planks. Thus, replacing said rotten planks would involve taking off a chunk of the siding.


Since the planks were in excellent condition except for the leak trail, I decided to repair them instead of replace them. First, I attacked the rot with a hammer claw, removing all the rotten wood. Second, Melissa saturated the areas with Minwax High Performance Wood Hardener (which turns the wood a dark wet color as shown in the above picture). Third, I rebuilt the original wood with Bondo, which is a less expensive version of Minwax High Performance Wood Filler.