Your home has several features that make it distinct and beautiful from the outside. Before anyone gets into your home, they will see the exterior, and it needs to be up to a point. If you have shutters outside, they need to complement the house’s exterior feel.
Since they are outside, they are bound to be destroyed by various weather conditions. And when this happens, especially to your wooden shutters, you need to find ways to repair the damage. You can hire a handyman to help you with this, but you can also do it alone.
Here’s a simple guide on how you can repair a damaged wooden shutter.
Examine the Damage
The first thing you need to do before conducting any form of repairs on your shutters is to examine the damage. You need to find the various damages such as broken louver pins, broken louvers, wood rot on the frame, shutter frame, etc.
Once you have determined the damage, you can see the right cause for the repairs. You also need to check the warranty of the shutters, as manufacturers tend to offer them. If yours hasn’t lapsed the warranty period, you get the manufacturer to take care of it.
It will save you a lot if you take back the exterior house shutter for windows and redeem the warranty. If the warranty period has elapsed, below is how you can perform various repairs for the wooden shutters. This can be one of those DIY projects that may help you realize a new hobby.
Broken Louvers
One of the places that are quite susceptible to damage when it comes to shutters is the louvers and for obvious reasons. Sometimes, the damage on the louver is to the point of no repair. When the damage isn’t severe, though, you can repair it.
The first thing you can do to repair the louvers is sand the lover and then repaint it. You can then add wood filler to the repairs if the louver areas need it. When the filler dries up, you can sand it and paint it.
You can then re-install the louver back to the shutter. If any of the louvers has any sign of wood rot, you need to replace it – fully. You can quickly get replacement louvers for the shutter as most are readily available.
Wood Rot on Frames
With wooden shutters, you will at times find rot around the wood on the frame. Most people will quickly discredit shutter with frame wood rot, but you shouldn’t. First, you need to see how far the rot is in the wood before doing away with it.
If the damaged areas on the wood are small, you can start by chipping them away. You can easily chip off the soft and damaged wood with the tip of a flat screwdriver. You will need to mix up two auto-body fillers; you can also use saw-dust, but ensure you know how to mix it. Spread the filler in the damaged areas and then smooth the surface.
You can then sand the area where you added the filler to make it smooth. Alternatively, you can use a putty knife to smoothen the surface. After the filler dries, you should look to add a touch of paint to cover the stuffing on the frames.
Shutter Frames
The shutter frame is one of the crucial parts of the shutter. You will easily notice the frame damage when the shutter wiggle back and forth due to a loose connection. This will then put pressure on the frame, which will damage the whole concept.
You need to find exterior wooden shutters material to help you repair the shutter frame. One of the leading causes of damage to the structure is usually weather conditions. Mainly, the shutters are for the rough weather conditions, which can destroy them.
When the joints that hold the frame are loose, some louvers may fall off. You need to ensure that you repair the frame before you close the louvers. The first thing you can do is clean off the frame with a stiff brush. Then, have the louvers back in their positions and push the joints back together.
You can then use glue to coat the interlocking joints.
Broken Louver Pins
With wooden shutters, the louver is a huge part of them. The louvers require pins to hold them to the shutter frame. If any of these pins wear out, the louver may fall off – the same happens when the pin snaps out of position. The first thing you want to do in this case is to pull the louver out.
This louver has a damaged pin – and you need to take it out carefully. Use a needle-nose pair of pliers to take off the pins and hence the louvers. You can then insert the new pin into the hole where the broken pin was.
If you have a bigger pin than the one initially there, you need to drill a new hole. Ensure that the pinhead is aligned with the lower frame holes. You must ensure that everything is aligned to have an unformed finish about the shutter.
Tools
You need to have the right tools for shutter repairs if you do it on your own. Some of the tools you need for this work include pliers – sharp nose, sharp knife, drill, wood glue, drill bit, etc. each of the tools here has a different task when it comes to shutter repairs.
Different kinds of repairs, you need different tools. You need to know how to use the tools before using them for various repairs.
Conclusion
When your wooden shutter is damaged, you can opt to get a professional to help you repair them. Alternatively, you can do it all yourself if you know how to go about it. And since different forms of damage can happen to your shutters, you need to repair them differently. These are some of the ways that you can improve different damaged wooden shutters.
