# Forum Home Renovation Plastering  How to repair water damaged chipboard

## aussieorchid

A few weeks ago we had some unusually windy rain and a small amount of water has got in between the bricks and the glass insert in the stairwell.  
The wall in question is half inch thick chipboard. It is NOT structural and it is really only there to finish the stairwell and stop people falling off the stair into the garage. 
It is one very large sheet and the damage is only to a section about 50cm long and 15cm deep so we are hoping a repair can be done. What would be the best way to fix this. A product called wood hardener was suggested to me. Will this work on chipboard. I really only want a solid base so as to bog up and plaster over the section and repaint. The damage is almost 2m off the ground so strength is not a real concern as it can not be touched by busy hands from the ground. 
If wood hardener is used do we have to remove all the flakey softer chipboard or will the hardener set this softer bit as well. 
Any help greatly appreciated

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## Ashore

Mate save yourself a lot of expense, time, effort, heartake and trouble and replace it with a suitable grade ply , if it could get wet again you may need a marine ply  :2thumbsup:

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## Bloss

> Mate save yourself a lot of expense, time, effort, heartake and trouble and replace it with a suitable grade ply , if it could get wet again you may need a marine ply

   :What he said:  You will not get a satisfactory repair of chipboard that has swollen from water damage so you need to replace all or part. In any case as you no doubt know, you need to waterproof first so there can be no recurrence.  :2thumbsup:

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## Master Splinter

Grind/scrape/sand or otherwise remove the weetbix-y surface of the chipboard and skim it over with Builder's Bog (or other cheap polyester filler from Bunnies).  It won't be perfect but it will be about as cheap and easy as you can get.  
Just make sure the chipboard is dry otherwise the repair could show up more as the board dries.

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## China

As Ashore and oldbloss said replace it

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