Name: Porch and Paint Restoration

Location: Milwaukee – East Side

Problem: The existing deck needed to be rebuilt without a hot tub, including restoring the rail, benches, and pergola.The original porch floor made of cedar needed to be replaced to hold the pergola properly. The home’s exterior also had several areas of rot on the wood siding and details, and needed a completely new coat of paint.

Solution Provided: Since the homeowners decided to match their home’s current paint color, we began by assessing the front of the home to determine how much rot or deterioration there was to the front of the porch and the porch fascia. Any area that could be salvaged was repaired with epoxy putty. To begin painting on the front exterior of the home our crew removed the wooden storm windows. Each one was stripped and sanded to remove the paint on both sides. For the windows we painted the outside of the inner window, and repaired the window glazing as needed.  Next we began to scrape off the original paint, starting on the wood trim and repairing any areas of rot or deterioration with epoxy. These areas included the roof edge, made up of the fascia, crown, rafter tails and soffit, as well as the trim surrounding the door and windows. 

The majority of the home has clapboard siding, and there were several areas of major deterioration that if not repaired the paint would not adhere properly. We began by scraping and sanding the paint leaving the wood to be 80% bare. The front of the home also has cedar shingles, so we tried to repair and fix as many as well as adding in new cedar shingles. To finish installation we filled any holes with epoxy and sanded all of the siding to shape. Prior to painting, all surfaces were cleaned and, if needed, scrubbed to remove all dirt and contaminants, including any mildew. Next we primed all areas bare wood with Sherwin Williams exterior bare wood primer and  spot prime any places where wood tannins are bleeding through with premium stain-blocking primer. To finish we applied two coats of the paint to all areas of the front exterior, then re-installed the restored storm windows. 

On the back porch we began by removing the existing rails and pergola, including the second floor flat roof. We were able to leave the inner section of the lower porch, but brought any wood not completely deteriorated back to our shop to be restored. We also removed the 2 existing benches on the porch and brought those back to our shop as well. Our next step back at the house on the porch was to remove the existing cedar flooring, replacing it with a tongue and groove ipe wood, fully oiled on both sides before installation. We installed the new porch flooring using a blind nailing procedure, then sealed the end grain at the outer edge. 

The porches skirting had deteriorated too much to be salvaged, as its end grains were in direct contact with the ground. We replaced the skirting cut to visually look similar to the previous slat, but composed from Boral Tru-Exterior, a synthetic wood replacement. The new railing and balusters were cut from clear cedar, and designed visually to recreate the original rail and balusters but with design improvements. The original bottom rail contained an interior “fillet” used between balusters on the bottom rail. We also routed a slight chamfer into part of the rail that extends outside the balusters to aid in water shedding. We were able to reuse the existing newel posts. 

In our shop we disassembled the existing bench enough to remove the existing rail and reinstalled a new one. Prior to install we sanded, cleaned the mildew, oiled and sealed. We also constructed a new pergola cut to match the existing size, and reconstructed it to avoid the same problem as the railing. For the second story roof we installed new fiberboard underlayment, then a new EPDM rubber membrane roof. Around the roof we created a metal gutter apron, finished with EPDM tape and a new K style white gutter. Prior to installation all the new wood pieces from our shop are primed and given an initial coating of paint. Any wood on the existing deck is scraped to near bare wood, then received primer and two coats of paint. To finish the project we applied the last coat of paint and touched up where needed.