Location:
McLean, VA
Size and Scope: Portico, replace rotten wood trim and railing system with Perm-o-Plank
Style: Colonial
Consultative Painting Solution:
This colonial style home in McLean was in need of a professional exterior paint job. Our
picture postcard prompted the customer to call us and have us inspect the home’s
exterior. Like most exteriors we look at, there was a significant amount of rotten wood;
but the bad wood was consolidated in 2 areas: the garage door frames and the front
portico.
On closer inspection of the portico, we discovered that nearly all the wood trim was
rotting as well as the railing on top. And when the carpenters began to unpeel the
portico, they found that the underlying frame was rotting too.
The pattern we see all too often with wood trim is that wood without a roof is not
a stable substrate (surface to be painted). You’ll often notice that window sills
exposed to the elements rot faster than trim around an entrance shielded by a porch. In
some of the newer homes we look at, the wood begins to rot within 2 or 3 years!
Same action, different results?!
Our solution involved a complete portico makeover—we would locate where the water was
entering the portico and stop it. And more importantly, prevent the portico from rotting
again in the future. Too many customers tell us, “I just had that window sill replaced 3
years ago, how could it be rotten already?” What did you replace it with?”, we ask.
They say, “wood”. Therein lies the problem. Someone once said that the definition of
insanity was to repeat the same action and just hope for different results! If finger
jointed wood has failed once, what is going to prevent it from failing again? Nothing! The
answer is to replace the existing substrate with something more stable. The product we
discovered is Perm-o-Plank (synthetic wood). It comes in many sizes and shapes and holds
paint wonderfully!
Smart Painting solution
To get back to our client’s front portico, our carpenter, Gilbert and his assistant
Fernando, found that the water was seeping in from the roof where the existing posts
penetrated through the rubber roof membrane. They removed the posts and sealed those areas
before reframing the portico with pressure treated lumber. They then covered the entire
structure. For the roof railing system, we had a railing fabricated out of Perm-o-Plank
which our crew installed. The entire portico and rail system was primed and painted to
match the rest of the house and it looks beautiful!
Not only did our crew replicate the exact details of the original design using synthetic
materials, they have made the portico impervious to rot.
