Dry Rot Repair in Salem, OR: Siding, Trim and Sills

Dry rot in siding is decay in wood that has stayed wet too long. The name is misleading: the fungi behind it need moisture to grow, and the wood only looks dry once the damage is done. How much the fix costs depends on how deep the rot goes. Rotted boards, trim and sills are a routine siding repair. Rot in the sheathing behind the siding is wall repair. Either way, check Salem’s permit rules before work starts: the city lists dry rot repair among the work that always needs a building permit.

Is it surface rot, or is the wall rotten?

From outside you can usually tell which way it leans:

• Probe around the soft spot. If the screwdriver meets solid wood an inch or two away, the rot may be confined to the board or the trim piece.
• Push on the siding. Boards that flex, bulge or move when pressed may have lost their grip on rotted sheathing.
• Look inside. Stains, bubbling paint or soft drywall on the inside of the same wall mean water has been through the whole assembly.
• Check the corners and openings. Rot below a roof-to-wall corner or under a window sill points to a flashing problem that has been feeding water into the wall for a while.

Only opening the wall answers it for certain. A contractor may pull a board where the damage looks worst and look at the sheathing before giving you a firm price.

Does a dry rot repair need a permit in Salem?

The City of Salem publishes two pages that bear on it, and they need to be read together:

• Its page on whether you need a building permit lists “Dry rot repair” under “A permit is always required for”. The same page puts “Replacing or repairing siding and windows” in a separate list of work that needs a permit only “under certain circumstances”.
• Its guidelines on work exempt from permit treat replacing or repairing siding that is not required to be fire-resistive as exempt, but say a building permit is required when the sheathing underneath is repaired or replaced, and when T1-11 siding acts as both the siding and the structural sheathing.

Neither page says how much rot work counts as “dry rot repair”, or whether replacing one soft trim board falls under it, and this page does not guess. Describe the job to the city’s Permit Application Center before work starts, and agree in writing who applies for any permit. The exemption guidelines say it is “the sole responsibility of the building owner” to get required permits before regulated work begins. West Salem follows the same city rules. Salem’s siding permit rules covers the rest of the permit question.

On an individually listed historic property, or a house in one of Salem’s National Register districts, ordinary repair and painting do not need historic design review. Replacing rotted siding with a different type, style or material does. In Keizer, Silverton and the smaller towns, check with the local building office before any rot or sheathing work.

What does a dry rot repair usually involve?

1. Finding the edges of the damage, by probing and removing boards until the wood is solid.
2. Repairing the sheathing, if it is soft, under a permit where one is required.
3. Restoring the water-resistive barrier behind the repaired area, lapped into what is already there.
4. Fixing the water path: a drip cap or Z-flashing above trim, kickout flashing at a roof-to-wall corner, proper clearance from soil or decking.
5. New boards, trim or sills, with cut ends primed before they go up.
6. Caulk and paint, applied within the products’ temperature and dew-point limits.

Step 4 is the one that separates a repair from a repeat visit. A quote that replaces wood without saying how the water got in is worth questioning.

Anyone you pay for the repair needs an active Construction Contractors Board license. Oregon’s exemption covers owners working on their own property, not the people they hire, and the CCB’s license page lists siding among licensed work. Check the license on the CCB license search before signing.

Repair the rot, or replace the siding?

Replace boards when the rot is limited to a few pieces and the siding around them is sound. Price a full siding replacement when rot shows up on several walls, when the sheathing is soft in more than one place, or when the boards around the damage are a failing product. Rotted-looking edges on 1980s and 1990s lap siding can be swelling hardboard or OSB siding rather than rot in solid wood, and T1-11 panels rot from their bottom edges up in their own way.

On cedar and wood siding, rot around woodpecker holes and at the bottoms of shingle courses can be repaired a few pieces at a time.

What to have ready when you ask for a quote

• The walls where you found soft wood, and roughly how much
• Whether there is staining or damage inside
• The year the house was built, since pre-1978 houses need lead-safe work practices when 20 square feet or more of painted exterior is disturbed
• Anything already tried, such as filler, caulk or new paint

Request a siding quote with those details and we will follow up about a quote for the repair.