Saturday, August 23, 2008

Siding Progress

Today Doug finished the siding on the front of the house and put the trimboards up for most of the front windows. I'm really looking forward to seeing the cornerboards now!

These two vents look surprisingly good, in spite of the fact that they are on the front of the house.

We experimented a little bit with window trim styles.



For now we are going to stick with the plain ones. After we install the cornerboards and finish jazzing them up with crown moulding, we will know whether or not the windows need something fancier. For now I kind of like the understated and simple look. I think it fits well with the style of the house.




12 comments:

SingLikeSassy said...

I'm completely fascinated with the progress you're making on this house. Thanks for the blog.

Cyndy said...

Thanks, it's been a long and bumpy road.

SmilingJudy said...

Ok, this has intrigued me. I have considered dressing up the top molding on the window trim I put up to make it a little less arts-and-crafts on my little cottage.

For some stupid reason I thought I'd have to rip out the old and put in new. Duh. Just nail pretty trim to the plain board. But this has me baffled - how do you flash the trim after-the-fact? Have you guys figured that out?

Kurtis said...

Cindy, you asked for an opinion on the lintel ds etails on the windows I assume?

Its hard to tell from your photos, but it appears you have plain 1x casing with no drip cap at the top. If you're going to add anything to those windows add that. A drip cap is like a miniature sill that sits at the very top of the casing. It has to be flashed behind the siding. If you've already installed the siding above the windows without flashing first: you'll have to remove the siding. I wouldn't add the cyma molding by itself; it looks incomplete. A full entablature and cornice over each window is too ornamental and formal for this house style. Add a drip cap and those windows will stay watertight for a long time.

Cyndy said...

Judy - We had fun playing around with window styles a little bit but we've decided to keep it simple because it looks more appropriate to the overall style of the house. We did quite a bit of after-the-fact repairing of flashing on the original window trim when we replaced all of the windows. Obviously it is important to have everything overlapped so that the water flows out and down and doesn't get stuck anywhere. So there definitely needs be flashing with some downward slant in normal construction and it needs to come out from behind the siding to go over the top of the window. The people who lived in the house before us had used caulk, which is a very sketchy way of dealing with it.

What we are doing now probably doesn't apply to your situation at all because it is actually new construction using Tyvek, Azek trimboards and "gasp" vinyl siding. I know, I was horrified too at first. Our house is completely fake. You should check out Kurt's blog - he's an actual professional and he does beautifully authentic and stylistically correct work, as far as I can tell.

Kurt - I have been asking Doug all along about the flashing over the tops of the window trim. It makes me really nervous not to have it. But he has assured me that because the Tyvek is lapped over and taped to the window flanges on the top and sides and lapped under the bottom flange it will be completely waterproof around the windows. I guess you could say that it's flashed from the inside underneath the siding and the Tyvek membrane is what keeps the water from getting into the OSB of the panels.

The Tyvek tape is extremely strong and seems pretty indestructable. The Tyvek tape that's been on our house under the siding for the past 15 years still looks brand new. So the idea is that if any water gets in, it will flow down between the Tyvek and the siding and flow over the drip cap of the band board.

The vinyl siding is in no way waterproof so it needs to be waterproof underneath with a way for the water to get out. Hopefully what we have done will accomplish that! We've never had any issues with the sections that Doug did that way in the past so we can only hope that will hold true in the future.

Today will be a good test for the window flashing system with Hurricane Hanna bringing 8-10 inches of rain and moderately strong winds.

Thanks for your comments and especially for reassuring us (me) that simple is the way to go on the window trim. It's really nice to have a knowledgeable third opinion!

Kurtis said...

Tyvek is temporary covering. I wouldn't rely on it to keep your wall dry. That is a fundamental design flaw that will shorten the lifespan of your building. What do you do when the OSB of your panels starts rotting from condensation?

Build the casings right, or this house is doomed.
After the fact, you can probably slide some flashing under the last course of siding and face nail it. That would be 100 times better than counting on TYVEK. We have been building window casings on siding houses for at least 300 years and there is really only one way to do it right. It is both functional and aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

Cyndy said...

Well I agree with you that it would be safer to have exterior flashing above the casings. That makes total sense to me.

All of the new houses being built around here are wrapped with Tyvek. Our house will not have a bunch of water sitting between the siding and the Tyvek. There are plenty of channels for it to flow down and out. The Tyvek that was covered by siding for 15 years looks brand new. I doubt that it will decompose any time soon. Doug has done his research and is doing what he thinks is best.

The issue of condensation where cold air hits a warm surface or vice versa is not an issue with foam core panels the way it is with poorly insulated older houses. We do have some experience with this phenomenon in both types of houses.

I feel really sad that my 130 year old house is gone, in spite of all of its repair and maintenance issues. I lovingly painted the entire outside of the house twice, and the last time was just 3 months before the fire. I don't think I could do it again. I adore old houses and I really miss being able to live in one. So I'm settling for the next best thing that I am capable of having with my particular set of circumstances.

I do not feel like this house is doomed and I don't believe there is ever only one way to do something right.

Check back with me in another 50 years or so. If Doug has anything to do with it, we'll still be living here.

Kress said...

Perhaps not "on topic" but good work on the house! I was just looking for some new mouthpieces after 11 years or so... and I'm terribly sorry to hear that your home burned! Looks like you are recovering well, and I'll just take a moment to say that Doug was one of my role models as a young trombonist - I remember sitting and listening to the airmen of note in awe :) Hope things are well for your family, and hopefully you'll get back to some sort of normal soon. kressf at gmail dot com

Cyndy said...

Thanks Kress! I know that Doug will enjoy seeing your message.

Anonymous said...

Hi! Beautiful trim! Was just curious what size trim you used around the windows? Was it 3" or 5"?
Thanx!

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Anonymous said...

Cyndy, I know this is an old post, but could you tell me how wide your window trim is?