Suffice it to say in Nebraska, trim on the exterior is either non existant or hardie. We don’t get to see anywhere near as much of the architectural detailing that the East does.
Some of this is probably just prudence: older houses that had that, nothing they used to do lasted. Stone cracks, wood rots, paint peels, etc. I think our wildly swinging climate shifts tend to be hard on a variety of materials.
Nevertheless, there are people who want something out there. And I got to wondering, more specifically (for lack of a better example) when you look at a 2 story Georgian or colonial and there’s the architrave that belts around just under the roofline, sometimes with large dentil molding . . . in this modern day, surely we have the materials and techniques that can make the stuff last.
What do you do, or use, and what techniques do you employ to help insure that it wont be a callback?
“Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think — there are no little things” – Bruce Barton
Replies
Makr it out of Azek or Koma, or check out the Fypon or Outwater catalogs; they have a lot of foam trim pieces that would work
Agree with Shep. Those companies are the ones that I've seen on the Georgian styles. Beware for the price though, it will not be cheap. Only the multi, multi million dollar houses around my area use them.
nothing they used to do lasted. Stone cracks, wood rots, paint peels, etc.
The house renovation I learned most on was my own circa 1800 or before post and beam 1+1/2 storey Cape Cod style farmhouse. In 1980, after 25-30 years of of it having no maintenance, I bought this house and began renovating. From what I can gather, at that time, they had putty but no sheet metal flashing or caulking. 85%+ of the original pine clapboard is still on the house. Hand planed-moulded drip caps for over the windows/doors were in good condition and shed water without caulking or sheet metal.
We now know why rot did occur in these older homes- exterior water intrusion or very wet interiors such as wet basements (in mine, 1-2" of the adzed-one-side log main floor joists had rotted from 180-200 years of summer surface condensation of moisture from the damp mudfloor). Today we should:
(1) Paint every piece of exterior wood finish on all sides at least twice.
(2) Use water shedding designs such as rainscreen walls.
(3) Use systems that require no or little caulking.
(4) Use longlife flashing where necessary.
(5) Check and maintain all exterior features yearly!!
Edited 6/10/2006 8:53 am ET by experienced
Good post. I've encountered similar on mine and other houses to work on. You make good points about yesterday's building practices that did the job nicely.
I do feel Aztek and the like materials are very useful, and moderately cost doable, to provide nice maintenence free exteriors. Trimming windows and doors and installing friezes with these are nice to do, but we still need to deflect and reroute water with dripcaps, etc.
You know, if you think about it, it may be just as costly nowadays to apply two coats of paint on some already expensive wood, after milling and sanding, and to install it. Lots of the new exterior trim boards already come made to fit a persons needs, like corners and drips, crowns, etc. Saves lots of precious extra time that could be spent doing other activites. That costly exterior trim may not be as spendy after all when one factors in the other labor involved for more traditional methods.Neither cold, nor darkness will deter good people from hastening to the dreadful place to quench the flame. They do it not for the sake of reward or fame; but they have a reward in themselves, and they love one another.
-Benjamin Franklin
I live in the Mid-Atlantic region and we get fairly mild winters and some pretty hot summers (probably not as bad as Nebraska though). My house is an 1870's "victorian" farmhouse. I've redone the entire thing with hardie board siding, cement board corner boards, I used a 5/4 12" water table made out of Azek and all the exterior window trim is also Azek with CDM/Fypon (injection molded polyurethane) head casings. The frieze, soffits and rake moulding are also PVC. I have to admit, that while there's not a single stick of wood on the exterior of the house, it still looks identical to the way it was born. If they had this technology when my house was built, there'd be very little exterior work for many of us!
Question on the Azek & PVC vs wood.I'm not a fan of Coil wrapping or Vinyl siding. My reasoning is everything seems to have limitations and at least w/ wood you can see what you've got going on. It is all a trade off.Does the Azek have any downsides ? Does it allow the wood beneath to breathe ?
spend the extra money on azek or fypon put it up and forget about call backs, maintenance etc.