Wood Putty and Caulk

The weather today and in fact, all weekend was perfect for a Holiday weekend. It has been raining so much lately that we haven't really expected much of the weather.

I didn't really even think about it prior to the weekend and so it had nothing to prove against me...like the weather is against me.

Susan spread wood putty over the porch today, smoothing it into the cracks and crevasses that abound on the deck. She is hoping it will help smooth things out but is concerned the wood putty will just crack and peel after a couple of years. I guess we'll find out.

I did a search on the Blog today to find out when we last painted the porch. It turns out it was almost 11 years ago. August of 2009 to be exact.

I think that 11 years on a surface that takes quite a beating is pretty good. Hopefully, I'll be dead by the time another 11 years comes around.

I spent the day prepping for caulking and then caulking.

This is what I had to deal with. There are gigantic gaps in the 100 year old tongue and groove decking on the porch. Plus, there is a tremendous amount of dirt that gets down in there. I had to pull out all the old caulking, scrape out the dirt, and then vacuum up what was left.

Here's a before and after shot.

It requires a great deal of caulking. I used three of these tubes. There is a lot of waste because you put down a bead, screed it with a putty knife, and you end up with a wad of caulk that the putty knife picked up. I tried to make the best use of the excess by pressing it into other cracks. 

It's a messy operation. But...it is a messy operation that is complete!