Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Knock On Wood

This is a load of cypress from Louisiana that I had milled to use as the exterior trim on the house. It is beautiful wood; I almost hate to stain it a color but that's the way it goes. I am using Hardie board lap siding on the house but could not find a suitable trim board in the Hardie product so that is my reason for going with the cypress. The options for trim are very limited when it comes to pre-manufactured siding but you don't have to go with what they have. The boards here were milled down to a full 1 1/4" thick by 12" wide. We then ripped them down to 5" for window and door trim and one side of the corner boards. The other side is 3 3/4" so the corners are equal and it worked out to use some of the 3 3/4" boards for the bottom trim under the sill. The drop from ripping these boards was exactly the right size to make the sill extensions out of so it worked out perfectly. The windows came with sill extensions but they were sized for brick mould, which I hate. Since I am going with a 5" trim, the sills were too short. Not too big a deal to make more and the ones on the windows popped off pretty easy.
Here you can see 2 of the north windows trimmed out. Yes, the trim goes up first and the lap siding will butt against the trim. That way you don't have any spaces under the trim as you would if you were to lay it over the siding. That calls for more careful cutting of the siding but that's OK. I am just hoping that there in minimal shrinkage in the wood. I still need to put up my corner boards, which won't take too long, and then I can start actually running siding.
This is a little detail shot of the trim. The small groove in the back of the sill will cover up with the siding. The windows had a 1/4" tenon along the front that the sill extension fit over so we had to make these with the same thing. It will help keep the sill in line. I ran a bead of caulking in that groove and then slipped it in place. I also nailed, up through the sill, into the side pieces in order to hold that 1/4" reveal. Wider boards sometimes want to try to twist so I'm hoping to stop some of that. The sills extend past the sides 1" both ways, as does the header piece. That is sort of a Craftsman style trim and always been one of my favorites.
I am using an opaque stain on the trim and siding. It is basically an acrylic resin. Goes on like paint but you can actually see the grain in the wood well. I am very pleased with the look. I think it has something like a 20 year warranty. I am trying to avoid the peeling and blistering that you get with paint by using this stain. There are a fair amount of colors to choose from but not like paint. It is the Olympic brand. I wanted to use Cabot but they did not have the colors that I wanted.
I have never thought of myself as a great trim carpenter but am very pleased with how this is looking so far. The wood trim just has such a nice feel to it.


*Eddie Floyd

8 comments:

Ron said...

That's real nice looking window trim! I love the look the wide trim gives.

I'm very impressed by how well our fiber-cement siding took paint (although we didn't get the Hardie brand). I even used the fiber cement to protect the foam insulation around the perimeter of my monolithic slab, and so far none has bubbled or peeled. Amazing.

Ron

Woody said...

Annie..we used hardie board lap siding and i wasn't happy with the corners and window trim (there wasn't any window trim) just one of those deals where you use a general and don't think EVERYTHING through to the end. The siding is a wonderful product. I did help hang the siding (it was the first time for the general and me) and I really liked just about everything about it. I had done several houses in cedar siding which brings me to my point on hardie board. It gets damned heavy around 2:30p.

The house will love its new skin.

peace

Richard said...

Lookin' good. Can't wait for you to get them damn stickers off the basement window....:)

Anonymous said...

Now Rex, I know this is not the place for this post, but I thought if I posted way back on the switchman story you might lose the comment, but I have to say, hes cute!!!!

I thought switchman would refer to a sparky, aussie slang for an electrician LOL

and OMG, that watermelon story had me nearly spraying my monitor with a mouthful of coffee LOL...now that was simply TOO BLOODY FUNNY, you crack me up girl!

BTW, the house is really going great!

Blessings:)

R.Powers said...

I love the grain in cypress.
Nice window work!

Omelay said...

beautiful elegant work. my final imagined vision of your house keeps getting better and better. the house i am working on also has the hardie brand siding. it is wonderful stuff. it looks so clean when installed well--which i'm sure you'll do.

Jenn said...

Love that simple trim detail.

You will have to explain a bit, when you get there, how you trim up the Hardieboard around those areas.

Quality. It's all in the details. And you've got it. Thanks again for sharing your process with us.

MamaHen said...

Hey Ron! Thanks! I like wider trim too. It's sort of an older style of trim work to me. Yes, I have used some cement board at work and was quite impressed with it. And a lot of it nowadays is made with recycled fly ash.

Hey Woody! Yes, I like it too and yes, it's heavy! Especially when you are hanging it by yourself. God, I thought I was going to die!

Hey Richard! Ha! That irritates you too huh?! lol! As much as I hate Pella you would think that I would not advertise for them so. See, a friend gave me those windows but as with free stuff, sometimes there is a catch and that is they didn't come with any of the cranks to open them. They are casement windows and the stickers are all on the inside, between the panes and I just have not had the time to order new cranks or sit there with a pair of pliars and open those stupid things.

Hey Molly! That's OK; I'm glad you posted here. He is cute and we call electricians Sparky too! It was a funny story and one I STILL hear about at work. Never live that one down. lol!

Hey FC! Thanks! Yes, the grain is wonderful. I had never worked with it before but love it.

Thanks so much karl! My image of the house is getting better also! I am trying to come up with a drawing or something showing the house completely done but I'm not real good at some computer stuff.

Hello Jenn! Thanks so much. I will show how I installed the siding. It's sort of a pain but I think it works better than putting the trim over the siding.