For the second or perhaps third time in ten years, I find myself about to cut out the bottom foot or so of rotten door frame timber (about 43 x 70mm in section) which stands in contact with an outdoor concreted area. A dire concreting job, done long before I lived here, has left rain water creeping towards (not away from) the door frame in question, which is then slowly soaked up into the wood and leads to wet rot.
I know the real answer is 'replace the concrete', but that's a massive job which I can't consider right now. I've got preservatives like Cuprinol Clear and Green, and think I may have used these to soak the end of the repair section in the past, but I basically have doubts as to how long these treatments can hold back the repeated exposure to damp which follows heavy rain.
Are there any non-wood materials I could use instead of wood, so the bottom few inches in contact with the (wet) concrete no longer soak up water? Or has anyone got any other ideas (or better opinions than mine regarding preservatives) as to how my next repair can be made the last one?
