Re-enforcing water damaged plywood?
Late last year a seal by the antenna in a 1992 18' Scout Nomad allowed some water to come in on the front right corner of the trailer. The plywood in the wall feels like it might have absorbed some wa...
Forum Discussion
End grain plywood has an affinity for moisture.
Drying it out is imperative, before trying anything.
Let it drink some denatured alcohol, which will absorb the moisture when it evaporates. Lather rinse repeat.
Penetrating epoxies are very thin, and will wick deeply into end grain plywood.
Whether it is deep enough to reinforce that which you suspect is no longer as robust as it was before it got soaked, is another matter.
I really like System 3 clear coat resin for its ability to penetrate wood deeply. it is a very slow epoxy and has a lot of time to creep deep into the wood grain
SYS3 has other specific wood rot fix products too, which I have no experience with.
Heating the wood before adding the epoxy, will allow it to draw more epoxy in deeper when it cools and contracts.
Do not try to seal any wood that is not thoroughly dried out, and anything which dries fast is going to be creating its own heat, which will purge the moisture right through the epoxy/ or other resin and likely leave a path for moisture to try and get in again.
That heat and the denatured alcohol can allow one to mix and apply epoxy much sooner, than if they were just to wait for it to dry out on its own.
Drying it out is imperative, before trying anything.
Let it drink some denatured alcohol, which will absorb the moisture when it evaporates. Lather rinse repeat.
Penetrating epoxies are very thin, and will wick deeply into end grain plywood.
Whether it is deep enough to reinforce that which you suspect is no longer as robust as it was before it got soaked, is another matter.
I really like System 3 clear coat resin for its ability to penetrate wood deeply. it is a very slow epoxy and has a lot of time to creep deep into the wood grain
SYS3 has other specific wood rot fix products too, which I have no experience with.
Heating the wood before adding the epoxy, will allow it to draw more epoxy in deeper when it cools and contracts.
Do not try to seal any wood that is not thoroughly dried out, and anything which dries fast is going to be creating its own heat, which will purge the moisture right through the epoxy/ or other resin and likely leave a path for moisture to try and get in again.
That heat and the denatured alcohol can allow one to mix and apply epoxy much sooner, than if they were just to wait for it to dry out on its own.
