Guess what? It's DONE!
The section was fairly large, and when I went to the Despot to look for a hunk (chunk?) of wood to use as a suitable block section, I only found eight foot long pieces of 6x6 lumber. Too much.
So I came home and found a piece of 2x6 board. I cut it up into three appropriately-sized sections, and glued it together to make a big honkin' block!
You can see the massive glue-squeeze out that I wiped off. And yes, I used Titebond to glue it together.
After the glue dried, and after some careful measuring and cutting, I had a block sized to slip into the gap where the old rotted wood had been.
The slits on the right are to fit into a flange from the window frame on the right. I tried to make the gaps as small as I could.
You can see where I put construction adhesive on the right side and the back where it will meet the old wood. I also put caulk on the top of the block.
If you look carefully, you'll also see the hole in the left in the old wood when I hacked out the old wood - I filled that gap with DAP Dynaflex 230 caulk. Critters could previously craw up under the old post, through the rotted section, and enter the sunroom.
I have closed off their path forever!
Here's the new section glued into place. You can see the top seam filled with caulk. I would have liked that seam to be a bit tighter - but it's filled with caulk and nothing can get past it.
You'll also see how the right side slipped over the window frame - a pretty good fit overall.
At this point, I'm nearly down the home stretch.
A bit more caulk to fill that top seam, as well as the hole on the right of the new block where I pulled out all of the old caulk.
The left side stuck out a bit, so I shaved that off with my trusty coping saw. Then I finish sanded it.
Then I primed it and used spackling to fill and imperfections - in this case, mainly that big seam.
The finished repair section after the final painting and caulking the bottom.
I'm fairly happy with it. The block isn't perfect, but it's functional, and from a meter away (39 inches, or 3 feet 3 inches), it looks darn good. Most people will only see it from much farther away.
If I was doing this job for a National Trust property, I would have kept at it until it was absolutely perfect, but since it's just my house...meh.
The main thing is that the rotted piece is gone, and it's all sealed from the elements, as well as crawling critters.
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