Home repair is rarely a straightforward endeavor. Getting into a wood rot project often reveals more work to be done or a complication requiring some creative problem-solving. In repairing the wrap around this support post, we ran into both of these situations. Removing the base trim exposed rot in the post wrap that had destroyed the bottoms and started to spread beyond the area covered by the trim. We decided to replace the whole wrap with a rot-proof TruExterior trim material dubbed Boral.
Upon removing the wrap, we discovered that the post was twisted, which would complicate installing a square wrap.
To account for the uneven dimensions, we made the square oversized. Starting on the flattest face, we loosely attached a piece, mitered on each edge, an inch wider than our post. We then put up the second side and shimmed out one edge until the adjoining miters met in a neat corner.
The third side, we shimmed approximately and attached loosely. With three sides on, we used a scrap from one of the faces to splay the open side of our square wrap to the right width, then shimmed and nailed them into place.
The fourth piece fit nicely, and a few final taps tightened up the corners.
The top trim was simple, but the base trim required some finer measuring and cutting.
We finished the base trim with a PVC molding to match the previous, filled nail holes and corners, and finished it with a hearty layer of paint.
The new post wrap looks much the same as the previous one, but is made of rot-proof material that will prevent having to repeat the repair.
