Squirrel Hole

[Petertaylor]

A squirrel runs up the wood column of the front porch and gnawed a two-inch hole in the crown molding. Whatever repair is made will have to be sculpted to match the contours of the molding. 

First I’ll wad up some chicken wire to stuff in the hole. My question is: What kind of waterproof, moldable material would be good to use. I had thought of Wood Putty, but the label says not waterproof.

[jteneyck]

A squirrel runs up the wood column of the front porch and gnawed a two-inch hole in the crown molding. Whatever repair is made will have to be sculpted to match the contours of the molding. 

First I’ll wad up some chicken wire to stuff in the hole. My question is: What kind of waterproof, moldable material would be good to use. I had thought of Wood Putty, but the label says not waterproof.

Bondo would be my choice.  

Might be good to make sure the culprit hasn't taken up residence before closing the hole.  They can do a lot of damage trying to get out.  

John

[Petertaylor]

Thank you, John. I hadn’t heard of that, but looked it up and the wood filler product is what I’ll use.

[MstrCarpenter]

You can use the same bondo to make a matching profile sanding block. Wax or oil a good section of the profile you want to duplicate, gob on some bondo, and press a small block of (clean, bare) wood against it. When it's fully set, pop it off, and trim off the excess. You can use that "sanding block" to mark the profile on your choice of steel for a molding scraper. This works well when the Bondo is at that "hardness"(?) when you would typically use a cheese grater.

If you feel like getting a little creative, you can use waxed or oiled wood to help get the profile close to the finished product. Think; dowels to recreate flutes. Or even just tacking on a block to recreate an inside or outside corner. And just in case you thought you were really creative; I haven't had much luck using Bondo to mold Bondo.


Remember. Wax sticks to everything, nothing sticks to wax.

[EatenByLimestone]

You’ll need to kill the squirrel before sealing the hole. Until then, they’re motivated to chew a new hole.

[Snipe Hunter]

I had a squirrel eating wires under the hood of my van. Replaced a wiring harness 3 times. I finally made a box trap with 1/2 mesh hardware cloth. I released the squirrel about 2 miles from the house and it had nearly knawed through the wire by the time I released it... maybe 15/20 minutes at the most. My experience is that they don't give up or forget easily. It will just make a new hole.