Dry Rot Repair — Vancouver, WA & Portland Metro
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Dry Rot Repair Vancouver WA
What "Dry Rot" Actually Is
The name is misleading. Dry rot is fungal wood decay, and like all wood-decay fungi, it requires moisture to grow — wood that is genuinely dry will not rot. What most people call dry rot in the Pacific Northwest is usually brown rot or wet rot: fungal decay that breaks down the fibers giving wood its strength, leaving it crumbly, cracked in a cubical pattern, and structurally unsound even when the surface looks intact.
That last part is what makes it dangerous. Painted fascia can look fine from the driveway while the wood behind the paint has lost most of its structural integrity. A rafter tail can hold its shape and still crumble under a screwdriver. This is why visual inspection from the ground isn’t enough, and why we probe suspect areas rather than judging by appearance.
Our climate makes this a persistent issue. Long wet seasons, sustained humidity, shaded north-facing slopes, and mature tree cover all mean roof structure here stays damp longer than it does in drier regions — and fungal decay only needs consistent moisture and time.
Roof Sheathing & Plywood Decking Repair
Sheathing is the layer of plywood or OSB panels fastened across your rafters or trusses, sitting beneath the underlayment and roofing material. It’s the structural deck your entire roof system depends on, and because it’s hidden, rot here usually goes unnoticed the longest.
Sheathing rot typically comes from one of three sources: a roof leak that’s been active longer than the homeowner realized, inadequate attic ventilation allowing warm moist air to condense on the underside of the deck, or bathroom and dryer vents discharging into the attic instead of outside.
What we do: We cut out the compromised panels back to sound framing, verify the rafters or trusses underneath are structurally sound, and install new sheathing properly fastened and spaced. If the underlying cause is a ventilation problem rather than a leak, we’ll tell you — replacing the plywood without fixing the airflow means you’ll be replacing it again.
Signs to watch for: a roof deck that feels soft or springy underfoot, visible sagging between rafters when viewed along the roofline, dark staining or visible mold on the underside of the deck in your attic, or nails backing out of shingles.
Rafter Tail Repair
Rafter tails are the ends of your rafters where they extend past the exterior wall to form the eave overhang. On homes with open or exposed eaves, they’re visible from the ground. On homes with enclosed soffits, they’re behind the soffit material — which means rot can progress substantially before anything shows.
Rafter tails rot for a predictable reason: they’re the lowest point of the rafter, and water goes downhill. Overflowing or clogged gutters spill water directly onto them. Missing or improperly installed drip edge lets water wick back along the underside of the roof edge. Ice damming and wind-driven rain both push moisture into the same area.
What we do: Rafter tail repair is more involved than surface trim work because rafters are structural. Depending on how far the decay extends, we either cut back to sound wood and sister in new material, or replace the tail section entirely. We do not cover damaged rafter tails with new trim to hide them — that’s a cosmetic fix that leaves a structural problem in place, and it’s something we regularly find on homes previously worked on by others.
Signs to watch for: sagging or wavy eave lines, soffit material pulling away or bowing, visible decay on exposed tails, or gutters that have begun to pull loose because their fasteners no longer have sound wood to grip.
Rake Board Repair
The rake board is the trim running along the sloped edge of a gable end — the angled board following your roofline up to the peak. It’s a finish component rather than a structural one, but it protects the roof edge and framing behind it, and it takes an unusual amount of weather.
Rake boards sit at the most exposed edge of the roof, catching wind-driven rain directly. Their upper joints and the peak connection are common failure points, and because rake boards run at an angle, water that gets behind them travels down the length of the board rather than draining off — which is why rot often starts high and is discovered low.
What we do: We replace rotted rake board sections with properly primed and sealed material, verify the roof edge and framing behind it are sound before closing it up, and correct the flashing or roofing detail that let water get behind the board in the first place.
Signs to watch for: paint bubbling, peeling, or holding moisture along the gable edge, visible gaps or separation at joints, soft spots when pressed, or daylight visible at the roof edge from inside the attic.
Fascia Repair
Fascia is the horizontal board running along the lower edge of your roof at the eaves, and it’s where most homeowners first notice rot — because it’s visible, and because it’s usually where your gutters are mounted.
That gutter connection is the core problem. Gutters attached to fascia put a constant load on the board, and when gutters clog, back up, or pitch incorrectly, water sits against the fascia and runs behind it. Add a missing or undersized drip edge, and water gets between the gutter and the board on every rainfall. In the Pacific Northwest, that’s a lot of rainfall.
What we do: We remove the affected gutter section, replace the rotted fascia with properly sized and sealed material, address the drip edge or flashing detail causing the problem, and rehang the gutter with correct pitch. Because fascia rot and gutter problems are so tightly linked, we inspect the entire gutter run rather than just the failing section — replacing one board while the rest of the system keeps doing the same thing isn’t a repair.
Signs to watch for: sagging or separating gutters, staining or streaking down the fascia, visible soft or crumbling wood, peeling paint that returns shortly after repainting, or water dripping behind the gutter rather than through the downspout.
How We Find It?
Rot is diagnosed by probing, not by looking. During a free inspection, we check the areas where decay concentrates — fascia behind gutters, rafter tails at the eaves, rake board joints, roof-to-wall transitions, and the underside of the sheathing from inside the attic where accessible.
Every inspection includes photo documentation. You see what we see: where the decay is, how far it extends, and what’s causing it. If the repair is minor, we’ll tell you that. If we find the moisture source is a ventilation problem or a failing flashing detail rather than the wood itself, we’ll tell you that too, because fixing the visible damage without fixing the cause is the most expensive way to handle rot.
Why the Cause Matters More Than the Board
Rotted wood is a symptom. Every rot repair we do includes identifying where the water came from — a leak, a clogged or misrouted gutter, missing drip edge, failed flashing, blocked attic ventilation, or a vent discharging where it shouldn’t.
We’re a maintenance-first company, and this is where that shows most clearly. A crew that replaces a fascia board and leaves is guaranteeing return work. A crew that replaces the board, corrects the gutter pitch, and adds proper drip edge is solving the problem. We’d rather do the second one and not see you again for years.
What Dry Rot Repair Costs
Rot repair pricing varies more than almost any other roofing service, and any company quoting you a firm number before looking at the work is guessing. Small, accessible repairs typically start around $500. Extensive work — multiple rotted rafter tails, a full fascia run, or significant sheathing replacement — can run into several thousand.
The spread is that wide because the cost is driven by what we find, not by square footage. The main factors:
- How far the decay extends. Rot is almost always larger than it looks. A fascia board with one visible soft spot may be sound three feet away, or it may not be — we don't know until we probe and open it up.
- Whether it's structural. Trim components like rake board and fascia are more straightforward to replace. Rafter tails and sheathing are structural, requiring more careful work and more labor.
- Access. Steep pitches, second and third stories, and areas requiring gutter removal or staging all add time.
- What's causing it. Correcting the moisture source — regrading gutter pitch, adding drip edge, repairing flashing, improving attic ventilation — is part of any repair we do, and the scope of that correction varies.
- Whether it's found during other work. Sheathing rot discovered during a roof replacement is often less expensive to address than as a standalone job, since the roof is already open and crews are already on site.
Our Warranty on Dry Rot Repair
- Repair performed as part of a roof replacement: 14-year labor warranty, matching the warranty on the replacement itself.
- Standalone repair work: 2-year labor warranty.
The difference comes down to what we can control. During a full replacement, the roof is opened up and we can verify the condition of the structure underneath and correct every contributing detail — ventilation, flashing, drip edge, and sheathing — as a complete system. On a standalone repair, we’re addressing a specific area and the surrounding roof stays as-is, so the warranty reflects that narrower scope.
Either way, the warranty covers our labor. We’ll walk you through exactly which applies to your job before any work starts, in writing.
What Makes Us Different
We’re not a franchise, and we don’t subcontract. Every technician working on your home is background-checked, trained, and employed by us directly. Over 22 years in Clark County and the Portland metro, we’ve built our reputation on telling homeowners the truth about what their home needs — including when the answer is “less than you were expecting.”
That’s earned us 700+ Reviews and an A+ BBB rating. We’re licensed, bonded, and insured in both states (WA #NORTHRM887DL, OR CCB #196307).
