Spruce Up Those Windows!

I spent much of last week working on a sunroom that needed some repair. After fixing the cedar siding (read this post), I went to work on the windows.

The wood casement windows mainly just needed to be scraped and painted, however there were a couple small trim pieces that had rotted and come loose.

I would have to make the replacement pieces using my tablesaw to rip a small board down to a 3/8" x 1/2" moulding that would replace the one around the window. After replacing the trim, I caulked the gaps which were mainly around the sill at the bottom.

Then, I scraped all the loose paint off, trying to catch as many of the paint chips on a drop cloth below and gave the windows a coat of paint.

This homeowner was wise to attend to these windows now before they deteriorated more. If they had waited much longer, it's likely that more the wood would have been damaged and needing to be replaced. Now their sunroom is all spruced up and ready to go!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Keep the Birds Out of Your House!

Birds live in nests, right?

Well, not always...

At today's project, the birds had made their way into the walls of a client's sunroom. They seemed to have moved on for now, so it was time to do some repairs.

The exterior walls of the sunroom were covered in 8" cedar bevelled lap siding. It's just like the wood siding that you find on older homes, except that it's cedar and doesn't have to be painted. One drawback with cedar is that the boards can be somewhat brittle, meaning that they may split over time, and birds can dig their way through knot holes and make a home in the walls.

I started loosening the nails and removing siding when I saw into one of the nests and found that the animals had worn much of the insulation off of an electrical wire that supplies the outlets in the sunroom. There were bare wires showing! It's amazing that no birds got killed and the wire didn't short out... or worse!

Now my day of siding repair included some electrical repairs as I fished a new wire through the walls to replace the damaged one.

This is a prime example of why birds should stick to nests... :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

New Paradigm for Drywall - Sand Once!

I first learned the 'correct' way to finish drywall from a fold-out flyer in an older This Old House Magazine. Their suggested process was to do three layers of joint compound, each one applied with a progressively larger knife, and sanding in between each one.

I followed this process for my Eastside Bungalow Project and it worked well, however with all that sanding, and drying time, it seemed to take forever to finish the drywall.

Lately, I was working with a veteran carpenter who showed me a new way that has changed my drywall life. The amazing thing is that you only sand once, and if you do it right, there won't be much to sand at all!

I thought I'd lead you through the steps as I finish up the ceiling on the Sunroom Repair Project.

THE PROCESS

First Application- For the first application the idea is to get the tape to bond well. You only use the 5" knife (and maybe the corner knife) for this coat. For most joints, apply a thin 5" swipe of mud. Then put the tape over that and use the knife to press the tape down well and remove the excess mud, fanning out the edges. You don't have to fully cover the face of the tape, we'll do that with the second application. The most important part of the entire process is to "make the edges disappear". The middle of the joint will get built up, but the edges must be completely smoothed out.



(BTW- I know these pictures aren't great. It's difficult to capture drywall detail with my unprofessional camera, a.k.a. cell phone... :)

Second Application- Once the first coat is dry you may proceed to the second without sanding. For the second coat you will only need the larger 10" knife (unless you have tight spots to get into). This is called the "Build Up" coat. For this we use a liberal amount of joint compound and apply to both sides of the joint so that it ends up at around 18" wide or so. Butt joints will take more where tapered seams won't need as much.

Again, you want to make the edges disappear, but the center over the tape will have a decent amount of mud on it. When done correctly you'll have a small ridge in the middle where your knife swipes overlap. Having plenty of mud over the tape ensures that you won't sand into the tape later. Of course, you want the mud as smooth as possible without bubbles or whatever. Remember, if you apply too much, you'll just have to sand it off and that's a lesson you won't soon forget...

Third & Final Application- The second coat will take the longest to dry, but when it does you can move the final coat. For this I just use the 6" knife again. This is called the "Thin Coat". I like to apply the mud in a couple thing swipes parallel on each side of the joint. Then I wipe nearly all of it off, again making the edges disappear. The small ridge in the center from step 2 will be the high point, but this coat will smooth out any remaining valleys that are left.

This last coat will dry fairly quickly and you'll be ready to lightly sand and finish up. I'll try to address a couple sanding tips with my next post.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

New Roof For a Sunroom

With the Skylight doomed for removal and the rafter framing finished, (yesterday's post) it was time to head up to the roof to start taking apart the flashing and see how much sheathing needed to be replaced.

The window came off quite easily because, of course, it was rotted anyway. The weather was cold and potentially rainy, so I worked in small sections that could be covered if needed. After covering the window opening with 1/2" plywood I started tearing off shingles on the half of the sunroom that seemed spongy.

After removing the shingles it was clear that I needed to replace more sheathing. I used every bit of the 4x8 sheet that I had on hand. I took off the rest of the shingles with my handy roofing shovel (an unusual tool that you won't use much, but will be glad to have when tearing off shingles) and put down 15 pound underlayment or tar paper.

To match the rest of the house I used 25 year 3 tab shingles. They went on smoothly, though I was getting chilled to the bone on the roof in the cold weather we were having.

With the roof finished it will be time to head inside and replace the ceiling drywall and patch things up right. I'm so glad that I got the roof finished yesterday because today had a wind chill of 28 degrees with hail and sleet! Great weather for cleaning up shingles from the backyard, right? :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Skylight Leak Oh My!

Skylights have gotten a bad rap as being a problem spot for leaks. Yesterday, I was commissioned to look at a skylight that was, in fact, leaking. They wanted me to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it.

Here's a before picture where you can see where the water has damaged the drywall. You can also see where the window frame is also rotting from water entry:

I removed some of the damaged drywall and it appeared that the water entry was localized to just the window. Then, up on the roof I got a better idea of how the water was getting in. I inspected the flashing and it actually looked pretty tight. The water seemed to be coming through the window itself.

In this picture you can see the gaps around the window seal which is probably how the water was getting in and rotting the wood frame:

Since the window itself was the problem, the homeowner decided that instead of replacing the window, she would rather have me remove it and just reroof this room which is a sunroom on the back of the home. This was less expensive and quicker since we would have had to special order a replacement window to fit this opening.

This particular skylight was mounted so that it was completely above the rafters and basically sat on top of the sheathing. This allowed me to go ahead and do the framing from inside before removing the window. I could then do the tear-off and new roof the next day. I also wanted to take off a little more drywall to make sure we had removed all of the damaged area.

Here's another picture after the framing was done:

To be continued...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com