Connected Craftsman LLC
Rot Repair and Exterior Carpentry in West Chester, PA
On a borough house this is trim carpentry, not deck work. The pieces are shaped, they are visible from the street, and a repair that does not match is worse than no repair.
Prefer to text? Feel free to include a few photos — it helps us give a faster, more accurate estimate.
What actually rots on a historic borough house
West Chester's 2003 historic resource inventory counted 4,278 historic resources across the borough, about 90% of them still contributing to one of its three National Register historic districts — and roughly half the borough's buildings date from the 1830–1930 building boom that gave the town its Victorian character. So the material we are repairing is generally old-growth softwood that has already lasted a century, and the question is almost never whether it is worth saving.
What fails is nearly always the horizontal surfaces and the end grain. Window sills, the bottom rail of a door, porch decking and the bottoms of porch columns, the cornice and the trim boards under the roof edge where a gutter has been overflowing for a few winters.
Brick rowhouses and twins do not have much exposed woodwork, which is precisely why what they do have matters so much visually. There are only so many wooden elements on the front of the house, and if one of them is patched with a bit of plain stock that does not match the profile, the eye goes straight to it.
So on these houses the work is: cut back to sound material, match the profile — from stock where a matching one exists, built up from several pieces where it does not, or milled — and finish it so it disappears.
What the job includes
- replacing soft boards, and being honest when it is more than boards
- railings, balusters and stair treads that have gone wobbly
- checking the ledger and the flashing where the deck meets the house
- rot repair in posts and beams
- gates, steps, and the rail that has been loose for two years
The gutter is usually the cause
Rot in the cornice or the trim under the roofline in a borough house is almost always downstream of a gutter that has been overflowing. Chester County winters do this efficiently: meltwater runs into a gutter during the day, freezes overnight, the ice loads and lifts the gutter, and the next thaw sends the water over the back edge and straight down the fascia.
Repairing the wood without dealing with the gutter buys you a few years and then you are back where you started. We look at both, and if the gutter is the problem we will tell you even though the call was about the trim.
Historic district work
A large part of the borough is in the historic district, and exterior alterations there can carry review requirements. Like-for-like repair of an existing element is a different proposition from altering it, but it is your property and your responsibility to check with the borough where there is any doubt. We are handymen and carpenters — we are not going to advise you on what the historic commission will approve.
Frequently asked questions
Can you match an old trim profile?
Usually. Some are still available as stock, some can be built up from several pieces, and occasionally the answer is to have a piece milled.
Can rot be filled rather than replaced?
Sometimes, for small areas in a sound piece, with proper epoxy consolidant rather than filler. For anything structural or extensive, replacing the wood is the honest answer.
Do you paint the repair?
We prime and paint the repair so it is finished and protected. Whole-house painting is a different job.
Do I need historic commission approval?
Check with the borough. Like-for-like repair and alteration are treated differently, and it is not our call to make on your behalf.
Serving Chester County
This page covers West Chester. See all of our deck repair and exterior carpentry work, or what we do across West Chester and the rest of Chester County.