Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Around The House). This thread is read-only.
There is a circular wooden gable vent on the garage sidewall of my new-to-me home, near the peak. This painted vent is wooden construction, slatted vents w/ four perimeter keystones.
Shortly after purchasing the home, I noticed a hole chewed through the slats. A review of closing images days earlier showed that vent to be intact. Grrr…
A close-up examination led me to conclude a rat chewed through and could possibly be inside, in the attic of my home.
After removing the damaged wooden gable vent and plastic window screen, a new aluminum screen was glued over the side wall hole, making it still possible for a trapped interior rat to push his way out, while leaving me a visual tell tail of that escape event. The screen has remained undisturbed.
Rat poison was setup in the attic, in a commercially available rat poison box. The poison has remained untouched.
There have been ZERO unexplained audible noises since the damage was detected.
My hopeful conclusion remains, no interior rat!
The damaged / broken gable vent / screen parts were removed from the house. The wooden gable vent failed big time during removal, apparently much of the structural integrity was paint and sidewall glue, leaving me w/ a pile of failed parts. That original wood is MUCH lighter duty than currently available material used to fabricate replacement parts.
The frame was initially assembled / retained using those hammered corrugated blades. The rear curved half inch wide / tall perimeter spacer was nailed to the circular frame. The plastic bug screen was stapled to the circular perimeter spacer.
That original assembly was then screwed and caulked to house sidewall. Years of painting added to the curved frame / screen adhesion.
When the damaged parts were removed most things fell apart. The stapled plastic window screen was helpful to maintain placement of the curved perimeter parts, some of them small.
My hope / plan had been to purchase an acceptable replacement or to have someone recreate the part.
The plastic part from Amazon was waaay too cheezy and was returned. The local millwork shop could have fabricated a beautiful / sturdy part, but they were sooo busy that they told me they were not accepting any new jobs.
So, me fixing the broken part is the way to go…
The main circular frame boards had defects, including cracks, all the joints were VERY loose at the four large keystones, plus the surface was painted deep exposed grain.
West System epoxy system was used to restore the structure. My method is to use my digital scale, so I can create ANY batch size. This even works for teeny batches, such as fixing a small void. I tare the cup, add the desired amount of epoxy resin, divide the measured mass by 5, multiply by 6, then slowly add hardener until that mass is reached.
On the rear I also added West System 406 adhesive filler when fixing the joints for extra strength. The parts were clamped together while the epoxy hardened. After the circular frame was intact I removed the paint w/ vacuum sanding, also eliminating the deep exposed grain. The front defects were fixed by instead adding the West System 405 filleting blend filler, aiding attaining a smooth finish. Everything was finish sanded.
The broken apart pieces for the curved half inch wide / tall perimeter spacer were mostly retained in-position by the rear stapled black plastic window screen. That REALLY aided getting this broken puzzle together in the proper order. These curved wooden segments were attached to the main frame rear perimeter w/ epoxy and my DeWALT DCN623 23GA pinner. After things setup / hardened I used fiberglass matting, wetted by epoxy to bond / attach the curved perimeter spacer to the frame rear, tucked in tightly to the inside corner. I discovered at the end of assembly that there was a ½” gap on this curved spacer, indicating to me that the curved spacer had perviously been assembled at a slightly smaller diameter. I just used West System to bridge that gap. This is now SUPER DUTY strong!
Two of the slats were damaged / unusable, w/ a hole chewed through the edge. A wide finish pine board was ripped down on my portable table saw. I matched the prior / existing angle of almost 45°. These new slats were cut to match the length of the prior parts.
After sanding all the individual parts, everything was primed, then painted prior to assembly.
My DeWALT DCN660B 16GA finish nailer was used to reattach the slats to the frame.
There had been a small hole cut through the wall for venting the attic. That hole was incorrectly cut too close to the edge of the wooden vent frame, w/ that hole jog JUST covered by the circular wooden frame.
The masonry wall opening was modified, from a slot, to a circle, with the opening radius 2½” smaller than the wooden vent frame, to maximize the opening size. My DeWALT 4½” DW4528 masonry cutoff wheel was used in my DeWALT DWE4214 4½” HD Small Angle Grinder to cut through the masonry wall and lath. There was also a wide horizonal board at the bottom of the new opening and that board was notched, matching the circular opening to decrease airflow restriction. The vertical board, slightly set back from the opening, was left as-is. The masonry wall opening notch that was too close to the edge was patched, first by attaching lath, then filling w/ mortar, also patching surface holes and cracks. After the mortar hardened, everything was painted w/ body color, including the opening edges.
Aluminum window screen and ¼” galvanized hardware cloth was cut into a 18″ circle, matching the wooden vent frame. Those screen circles were stacked and screwed onto the wall w/ Tapcon fasteners and washers, covering the large circular hole.
The repaired / restored / painted wooden frame was screwed onto the wall, over this stacked screen.
As usual, this project turned into a big job, but I’m happy w/ the results and VERY happy it is done!
Circular Vent Frame w/ Rat Hole Damage
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Circular Vent Frame Removed, Perimeter Circular Spacer and Plastic Window Screen Remaining
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Initial Attic Vent Hole
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Gable Wall Mortar and Lath Circular Cut
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Lath Added to Incorrect Opening Notch plus Bottom Wood Circular Cut
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Notch, Holes and Cracks Repair Mortar Patched
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Wall Opening and Edges Painted
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Metal Screen and Galvanized Hardware Cloth Screwed to Wall
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Initial Broken Circular Gable Vent Parts Removed
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Frame Clamp Initial Epoxy Repair Started
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Frame Paint Removed Epoxy Repair Ongoing
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Sanding Frame Epoxy
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Rear Perimeter Spacer Pinned and Epoxied to Vent Frame, also Added Inside Corner Fiberglass and Epoxy
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Cutting Replacement Angled Frame Slats
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Stack of Old and New Frame Slats Plus Fiberglass Repaired Epoxy Frame
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Sanded Fiberglass Epoxy Frame Ready for Primer
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Parts Back Side Primed
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Parts Front Side Primed
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Assembly – Slats to Circular Frame – 16ga Nailed
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Painted Assembly Completed
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Completed Frame Screwed to Wall
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Project Completed
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Wow, nice job. Looks amazing. I am suprised when you took it off how small the vent hole was. Iw ould have thought it would have been a full circle for more air flow. Looks awesome.