damp shed wood

propertyrental

New house has a shed built close up against a low brick wall (see pics). Inevitably the gap between shed and wall had filled up with crud. I've scraped out as much of the soil and leaves as possible, but the wood inside the shed at ground level is damp and rotting. Hopefully things will now dry out, but is there anything I can do to the wood short of removing and replacing it? Anything I can paint on to strengthen/protect it?



 

grumbler

propertyrental said:

New house has a shed built close up against a low brick wall (see pics). 

 

And no guttering at the back?!
Add guttering and close the gap at the top to stop leaves getting there.

grumbler

I might have misunderstood this. Is it the the retaining wall in front?
If so, this is much worse. The gap is too small. You can possibly stop water leaking down the wall to the gap, but can't now stop water penetrating throug the retaining wall.

casper_gutman

I doubt any paint or brush-on product will help the wood that's there now: the rot has well and truly set in. Wood rated for "Use Class 4" (ground contact) might have a chance of surviving longer than most, but plastic/composite cladding would be better there instead of timber IMO. The trouble is, how to get it in there....

I suspect the most satisfactory approach might well be to disassemble the whole shed into its constituent panels, then replace the cladding, at least on the panels from the sides where the retaining walls are, with plastic, then reassemble the shed. Not a small job, though!

propertyrental

casper_gutman said:

......

I suspect the most satisfactory approach might well be to disassemble the whole shed into its constituent panels, then replace the cladding, at least on the panels from the sides where the retaining walls are, with plastic, then reassemble the shed. Not a small job, though!

I agree that's the ideal long term solution, but as you say "not a small job" hence hoping to avoid.

lemondrops69

Or take out the lower rotten planks to the height of the wall, then slide in plastic cladding in their place? 

grumbler

lemondrops69 said:

Or take out the lower rotten planks to the height of the wall,

Easier said than done, especially taking rusty nails into account.

then slide in plastic cladding in their place?

A single piece of coloured polycarbonate can be easier to deal with.

mi-key

Because of how close the shed is to the gap, getting to the planks would be very hard. If the planks are still fairly solid on the inside I would leave them to dry out, and if any are really bad, fit new wood from the inside between the uprights.

To stop it happening again it really needs something to stop water getting down into the gap. I would look at something like a length of upvc trim, maybe 6" wide, then fix this at 45 degrees to the shed wall and resting on the brick wall. Any water then would run off onto the top of the wall rather than into the gap. You could even silicon seal the top and bottom of the trim to really make it water tight

lemondrops69

grumbler said:

lemondrops69 said:

Or take out the lower rotten planks to the height of the wall,

Easier said than done, especially taking rusty nails into account.

then slide in plastic cladding in their place?

A single piece of coloured polycarbonate can be easier to deal with.

I didnt say it was easy, just another potential option, and it is doable if you've got the right skill sets

You could knock/cut the old wood out from inside and use a pad saw to cut the rust nails flush and yes a sheet of poly would be easier, not sure of the cost. I'd certainly try that before dismantling the shed, but each to their own 

grumbler

lemondrops69 said:

grumbler said:

lemondrops69 said:

Or take out the lower rotten planks to the height of the wall,

Easier said than done, especially taking rusty nails into account.

then slide in plastic cladding in their place?

A single piece of coloured polycarbonate can be easier to deal with.

I didnt say it was easy, just another potential option, and it is doable if you've got the right skill sets

You could knock/cut the old wood out from inside and use a pad saw to cut the rust nails flush 

Yes, doable, but not easy. An angle grinder can possibly be used for cutting the nails. Or a multitool, but blades usually fail very fast when cutting steel.