How to Seal Gaps in a Tongue and Groove Porch Floor
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- A lot of homes in the Philadelphia area have wood tongue and groove porches. Water can get into the joints as the wood moves with age and weather. By sealing the joints with a polyurethane caulk you can protect your porch from rot to the boards and the supporting joists underneath.
Sealing a tongue and groove porch is a project that a homeowner can do with the right tools and a little bit of time. But, it's important to make sure that Henny damaged boards and structure have been replaced or repaired first.
Here we show you how to seal a tongue and groove porch in Roxborough Philadelphia with polyurethane sealant.
To seal your porch you'll need a polyurethane caulk sealant, I used Loctite PL Polyurethane Sealant (labeled for use on concrete), mineral spirits, a plastic spreader, rubber gloves, and rags. Make sure the to dispose of rags properly to avoid spontaneous combustion.
Apply a small bead of sealant along the open joints. Dip the spreading tool in mineral spirits and use the tool to push the sealant into the joints. Then wipe away any excess with mineral spirits and a rag. The sealant will take 3 to 6 hours to dry and one week to cure.
I wasn’t really looking for this info but I do have to repair my own porch soon. Traditionally the boards were popular and sealed with white lead (oil paint with lead no zinc) in the joint between the boards. They weren’t painted on the underside to promote drying. I haven’t decided what I’m going to use yet but I figured S-W exterior oil primer as it doesn’t seem to dry hard and can be top coated with latex even. I haven’t really researched products yet. Your porch looks really good and if the S-W porch and floor enamel is still holding up where the urethane caulk is it should stay that way a long time. I have a bunch of boards to replace on mine so many I might remove all of them and seal the edges and put them back. Thanks for the info.
Yeah, I just got done doing a 200 year old porch. Well at least the house is - are use the OSI quad pro and never thought about using mineral spirits as a cleaner upper I just rag and tool it as much as I could I have a porch to do this week and will try it. Thanks for showing us been using Diamabrush and removing paint all the time, and looking at the Mutombo or paint shaver pro
Thanks for sharing
Good video, thanks for posting.
Thank you ,much 😊 appreciated. What was the name & type of caulk again ?
I used Loctite PL Concrete Non-Sag Sealant. Sikaflex would also work.
I am skeptical that expansion and contraction won’t push the caulk out. This happened to me with paintable silicone caulking…is the product you used much different?
It's been a while now and it's still in good shape. I think that the polyurethane sealant has more elasticity so I expect it will be better. Plus, it should stand up better to foot traffic than silicone caulk.
I just had tongue and groove, 2x6" treated, put on the porch, now after the long period waiting for it to dry, large gaps between the boards are very evident. So do you recommend the same treatment for this ailment...Thank you.
Hopefully, the boards were dried out before they were installed. If they were installed straight from the lumber yard and allowed to dry after installation then the gaps may be too big. You can try this method and use some caulk backing rod to fill in the gaps if they're especially large. The only other likely fix would be to pull the boards up now that they're dry and reinstall them (assuming they weren't dry when they were installed).
Do you reckon that’s going to last ? What about movement in the boards? Won’t it look shite once boards move ?
So far so good and I do expect it's going to last at least a few years. The product has a good amount of elasticity to it so it should hold up as the boards move.
What kind of paint or porch floor coating do you use that will stick to that polyurethane and hold up to foot traffic?
I used Sherwin-Williams Porch and Floor Enamel.
@@NorthwestPhillyHandyman Is the Porch and Floor enamel slippery when wet? I have not worked with enamel before.
@@cindyloope4601 no, it's not. If you're concerned about it you can add in a non slip additive to give it a bit of grit.
What would be a good option if I use a stain instead of a paint.
Good question and I don't know the answer. I would expect that a solid stain would work just fine but a transparent or semi-transparent may not adhere to the polyurethane. The staff at my local Sherwin-Williams is very knowledgeable so it may be worth calling SW to see what they say.
Could you fo this before painting, then paint over it?
Yes, you could do it that way.
@@NorthwestPhillyHandyman I plan to sand the porch this weekend. Then I was going to caulk and paint after using the polyurethane caulk. You made it look easy to wipe up the excess caulk, but I just realized your porch was painted before caulking. Will we have trouble wiping excess caulk off the sanded boards? We need to paint the caulk as we want a specific color on the porch. Should we paint first then caulk then paint the caulk? Do we need to lightly sand the caulk before we paint it? Your video was terrific and gave me the courage to try to do this ourselves..now I am thinking it through more carefully and appreciate any answers you can give me. THANK YOU!
@@cindyloope4601Glad you're giving it a shot. First, I just want to clarify the terms caulk and polyurethane sealant since you mentioned caulk. For this job I wouldn't use caulk as it won't stand up to being walked on. You'll use polyurethane sealant which comes in a caulk like tube. Be sure that whatever polyurethane sealant you use can't accept paint. They probably all do but good to double check.
As long as the polyurethane sealant will accept paint you should be able to apply it after sanding and before painting the porch boards. The polyurethane sealant cannot be sanded so definitely do your sanding first. You may want to do a test with the polyurethane to see if it'll wipe off of the unpainted boards but I expect it will be fine.
You'll most likely be best off by starting with sanding, then apply the sealant, then painting. Let me know how it goes!