Rotten Wood Removal: Fence Repair & Maintenance Tips for Home Improvement

Video Transcript

"So after you got your paint scraped and sanded just want to check your other problem area that we located in the beginning which would be this rotten wood over here on the back. Now when you are taking off rotten wood you just need a few tools because it is basic you are going to need a good heavy hammer, this tool right here is called a cats paw and what it does it digs its teeth dig in to the wood to get underneath nail heads otherwise you wouldn't be able to get to. This is your average flat bar. This are all very cheap tools that you could get at any home improvement store and the flat bar is basically a man tool it is power. You put it were ever you want pry something and just yank on it. So head over here to the rotten wood. As you could see you just kind of locate your nails and then you want to hold depending on whether you are right handed or left handed then you hole your cats paw with your left hand you place it right above your nail head that you are trying to get underneath. You kind of want to tip it more so you are going to go down into wood as appose to right under the nail. Then you want to give it a few good taps to get under that nail. Then you just kind of figure out a good angle to pry it. In this case wood serve rotten and it would just pop right off. So again you could notice now that taken out that nail has caused this board over here to be loose so that is something that we need to address a little bit later on. So you just going to want to repeat that step though with the cats paw. Locate another nail. Get a good angle on it. Give it some good taps. Chose some good pressure. Pull your nail right out and you are all set. Then once you get your nails out of that part you want to use your man tool your flat bar. Just get it between the fence board there and then you can just pry it. You could pry it any direction that you feel comfortable with whatever helps you get it off faster. There you go rotten wood out. The next thing we are going to do is get those nails out and then we be ready to put a new piece on."