Is it better to leave door post to breath?

[Silvan]

Hello all.

I have had a problem with the door post on my porch for years. Every year or maybe every second year I find that I need to re-paint the post. At the bottom it is usually damp and a bit rotten so I let it dry out, apply wood hardener and filler, then paint it again. I don't know where the dampness gets in.

The porch is about 50 years old and the timber is probably of a very good quality (the original wooden windows lasted 40 years and when taken out had no signs of rot).

I'm thinking that I would be best to leave at least the bottom of the door post unpainted on one side only (see picture) so that it can dry out, rather than paint it which appears to be trapping the dampness resulting in rotten wood. Is that a good idea? The unpainted bit won't get very much direct rain on it due to the prevailing winds almost never coming from that direction.

An opinions or ideas welcome.

David

 

[foxhole]

The design is poor exposed timber will always rot eventually ,been better done in UVPC.You could clad in UVPC to slow the rot.

 

[Silvan]

My fear is that the water is getting in at the top, which it might be because the roof is a fibre-glass sheet (that's what it looks like), with hairline cracks. If I clad in PVC then the water won't get out, which I think was what was happening when it was all sealed up with paint. If I leave some timber exposed then the water will evaporate and the timber will (most of the time) be dry.

 

[JohnD]

Rain.

It looks like the bottom of the post is sitting in water, which will soak up the grain.

A solution is to prop up the porch and cut the rotten bottom off the post, and soak the cut end for a few days in a spirit-based wood preserver. On reassembly, space the post off the ground or base, and support it with a stainless steel pin or bracket so that water cannot lie against the timber (you can use a galvanised bracket, but paint it well using an anti-corrosion primer and an oil gloss

I like to tack a piece of DPC to the upper face of outdoor timber during construction to throw off any rain during build or in case of later penetration.