Does anyone have a reference for someone who can rebuild the dentils
and other detail on Victorian houses? I have a bay with some rotten
dentils and another with some rotten metal work. Not a lot of work,
but special enough.
Dentils: You might consider taking the existing wood dentils down completely -- if they're beginning to decay, fixing part may not preclude further degeneration later. Lowe's has a good selection of expanded foam mouldings, including several sizes of dentil crown mouldings, that you can use to replace what you have. I dare anyone with less than a PhD in architectural restoration to tell the difference between these elements and the "real thing."
Metal work: If the rotting isn't too extensive, you might try the solution we've used with success. Bondo. The stuff Pep Boys (et all) sell for repairing car bodies. Once it hardens -- typically half an hour since it's a two-component epoxy product, it's easily sanded and -- when painted -- blends in perfectly with the metal (as you'd expect given its use for auto body work). Depending on what you have to "fill," you might have to use this in conjunction with some kind of structural support medium -- we've used wire lath, fiberglass cloth, and -- when there's "nothing" behind the metal, a foam-in-place product such as "Great Stuff;" with the foam, let it harden (it'll expand inside and outside the area), then trim off the excess with a margin of about 1/4 inch "inside" -- it can be very rough -- then apply the Bondo.
Al Krigman
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