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Wood Repair / Wood Putty / Wood Filler

S

StevieB

Nordic Pine
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I have been repainting wooden sash windows and doing general repairs with standard 2 part Ronseal wood filler - the usual stuff in a green tin we all use routinely. I have now got to a window cill and the base of two pillars by the front door that have some serious defects - a bit of rot, missing timber etc and previous 'repairs' by a former owner. These areas are too big for standard wood filler even if I apply several layers. Can anyone recommend a suitable 'wood putty' or similar product for effectively rebuilding missing timber? I am sure I have seen 2 part cartridges for a cartridge gun previously but I cannot find anything when searching as I do not know the exact terminology I am looking for. Ideal product would be for timber replacement rather than hole filling, ideally from amazon or similar where I can get delivery by the weekend. Recommendations from personal experience would be fantastic, this will be repairing the pillars around the front door of the house so a bodge job will look awful and obvious!
 
Assuming you are not doing a cut it out and replace with wood job then you want something that sticks like shiete to a carpet, is water proof / impervious so look at Isopon P40 which is a resin based fibreglass filler designed for larger holes and used in both automotive and marine applications. As for wood filler I just use P38 which is a quick dry filler than sands to a glass finish and is better than many wood fillers.
 
Thanks chaps. I have come across this, which is much closer to what I had seen previously https://www.3c-sealants.co.uk/2-part-wood-repair-resin/ - never thought of using car body filler such as P38 to be honest, it feels a bit too big a job for something which is presumably spread very thinly in car repair?

Roger - I could potentially do this, but it would make the job a lot bigger and more time consuming. The shape is complex (base of a pillar, so oval at best, definitely not circular) and I do not think I will be able to do it without the repair showing. I will try to remember to take some pics tonight in case anyone has some suggestions.
 
I’d also recommend a real wood repair. 2 part products like timbabuild wood repair resin quickly get expensive and you really don’t have a lot of time to get them into shape - very fast setting and goes really sticky even before it’s set. Plus toxic stink. I’m not convinced that shaping resin to column shape would be any quicker or more reliable than sanding wood if you don’t already have experience with doing it with the resin.
 
Like Spectric, if I need to fill wood then I also use Isopon or similar.

One dodge I used it for was for getting the exact provile of an old period moulding or glazing bar. Mix some up to go off very quickly. Sheet of clingfilm on the palm of your hand then a dollop of the mixture then another sheet of cling film on top. Slap your palm around the moulding and wait for it to go off. Gets quite warm at times. DAMHIKT. Work a treat though. Cut across it then draw the outline and get a cutter made.
 
RepairCare is popular amongst painters for that kind of work. Hack out all the rot, gob the resin in and trowel it off flush with the rest of the woodwork and paint it over.

I personally wouldn’t consider it a proper “repair” and there are a lot of snake oil merchants touting it as a better alternative to replacing your joinery, whilst charging more for their services than new joinery would cost.
 
I fixed a frame by gouging out the rubbish and applying Ronseal wet rot hardener and then using isopon in layers and letting each harden for a day. Final coat was then done using the same technique as we used to do for diy car repairs 40 years ago 😀
 
Some pics:
PXL_20250515_182048023.jpg
The above shows the base of the worst pillar - the piece at the base is loose filler / rotten repair. Pulled out it looks like this:

PXL_20250515_182034701.jpg

I was hoping to remove the previous repair, clean up a little and use some form of filler, possibly with an internal timber piece to take up most of the volume and just 2 part filler on the outside. I am not sure I am going to be able to shape a piece of timber accurately enough as a full replacement, but I guess I can try and see how it goes.
 
I've got a very good Fein for sale! Comes complete with sanding discs ;)
 
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