Repairing and Finishing Decorative Rafter Tails

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Some houses feature rafter tails as visible decorative components, highlighting the beams that structurally support the roof that is otherwise typically hidden from view. Recently, Lakeside Painting was tasked with reforming some decorative rafter tails for a residential painting project, which is part of the work we do for our Residential Exterior division. Since they are structural, we couldn’t just replace the ends—we had to reform them. Lakeside Painting’s foreman Paul Pausch undertook the task of reforming and reshaping the home’s wooden rafter tails.

First, Paul removed and dug out all of the rotten wood. Once this was accomplished, he mixed Abatron two-part liquid epoxy and applied this to the rafter tail to harden the rotted area, making it structurally sound. After letting the tail dry overnight, Paul used Abatron two-part wood epoxy paste/spackle to reform and reshape the ends back to their original detail. This also needed to dry overnight to achieve the hardness needed for sanding.

After sanding the minor perfections out, Paul primed the tail with Sherwin-Williams peel-bond primer, then applied two coats of Sherwin-Williams Resilience paint to it. As you can be seen in the slideshow above, the rafter tail makeover is significant, both in appearance and structural integrity. Not only does it look much better, but it will keep the wood from experiencing any additional rot.

If your home or office’s building features rafter tails that are rotten or otherwise need repair and refinishing, give Lakeside Painting a call at 262-642-9445 or email us a lakesidepainting.com, and we can discuss your options.