Replies

1. 
   wflather | Apr 06, 2004 04:58am | #1

   dbeatty,

   I deal with that for many of my windows and especially doors on our 150 yo house. Admittedly, I am doing this for myself and not doing it with commercial time constraints, so I have time to fuss. My concern is trim that sits flat against the wall and doors that are plumb and don't swing open or closed on their own.

   The oldest walls are hand plastered and uneven, often I will need to create trim and casing extensions just to meet the wavy edge of the plaster for both inside and outside edges of the trim so that I don't have gaps against the wall.

   I will glue the extensions either to the trim or casing, whichever seems to make the most sense. If the difference is 1/4 inch or so, I will glue to the trim, if more, to the casing. If I am simply increasing window casing out to meet the wall level, I will use a straight edge held against the wall and measure the needed depth to the casing in 12 inch increments along the casing edge.

   For doors, I use a level taped to a straight stick long enough to span the entire door heighth. I set it plumb and measure the differnce I need in 12" increments along the casing.

   For those outside edges of trim where I simply need to fill the gap to the plaster, I am just creating a wavy section to fill the gap, so I either measure in increments or hold a piece of stock in place and scribe against the wall agains the stock and cut to the scribe line.

   I then mark 3/4 or 1" wide stock, rip close to these measurements and hand plane to the line. Clamp and glue the extension pieces in place, if you can't span the opening with clamps, nail them in, I usually remove the nails when the glue is dry. If your extensions are thin, use long pieces of thicker stock to spread the clamping pressure more evenly.

   For some doors, I have to use an extension for the jam and on the outside of the trim as well to bring the whole assembly plumb. It is more work, but nice not to have the doors swing open or closed on their own.

   If the extensions are not quite flush after the glue sets, I hand plane flush. Since all trim on this house is paint grade, any final small imperfections I will fill and sand and are not noticable.

   Good luck, it is mostly common sense and practice.

2. 
   WorkshopJon | Apr 06, 2004 05:25am | #2

   Dbeatty,

   Order the windows with 4 9/16" jambs ( the standard size and cheapest, and build them out yourself.

   Jon

3. 
   trimnailer37 | Apr 06, 2004 06:31am | #3

   cut the ext jamb to length, place in position on door or window, scribe profile of wall onto width of ext jamb, rip ext jamb freehand on ts, sand and ease reveal edge, glue and nail to existing jamb. 

4. 
   dgarrison409 | Apr 06, 2004 12:48pm | #4

   My house is about 200 years old with some fairly crooked walls in places.

   When I was trimming my windows I took the time to scribe he extension jambs to the walls so that the trim lays flat against the wall. Everything looked great, I felt that I had really done a great job.

   Then, my wife decided that she wanted plantation shutters installed in some of the windows. They are installed directly to the jambs with butt hinges. Since the jamb extensions are tapered, curved etc. the resuting installation was b*tt ugly. Next time I think I will shim the trim and flat tape to it.

5. 
   andybuildz | Apr 06, 2004 05:25pm | #5

   Order over sized jambs or simply just buy 1x6 clear pine.....scribe to walls and cut leaving it a bit proud.

   Its very simple.

   I can't remember the last time I bought a pre made sill either.

   I make my own out of 1x4 or 6 or 8......file the ends and fronts rounded or whatever you want....or route em clear around the entire sill to the profile you like the best.

   BE jammin' mon,

                           andy

   My life is my passion!

   http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM

1. 
   rjgogo | Apr 07, 2004 08:36am | #6

   For those of you that are extending the jambs what do you do about stained wood? For sure the extension would show up.

   I have this same problem I am dealing with right now. What I have been doing is extremely time consuming. Fortunately I have been using 3 1/2 inch 3/4 stock to match the existing trim. I have run a very wide dado on the backside. 1/2 inch on each side with the rest cut a 1/4-inch deep. When I fit it to the wall I will plane whichever side is not correct. If the jamb is inset then I plane the wall side, if the jamb is proud then I plane the jamb side. I have chosen to copy a detail in the house that has a 1/4" piece that is out of plane with the rest of the trim across the side jambs under the top piece. It will hide small miss-alignment of the jambs and header trim. Still a lot of work but then again I am dealing with stained trim. I guess I know why they used that detail in the first place. It is mentioned in the "Graphic Guide to Interior Details" book so I don't feel that bad about using it and it fits in with the style of the house. Life would be much easier if I would just paint the trim and caulk the gaps, but there is not a foot of painted trim in the house, and I love the look of stained wood contrasting the paint.

   Edit to add these are 90 year old existing windows and doors. the plaster had to be removed in some rooms and sheetrock put in it's place. Don't want to hear the opinions of leaving the plaster. When it falls on your head it needs to go. ;-) I have paid great attention to preserving the look of the house, spending great amounts of money on 3 piece base and heavy door and window trim as well as considerable time making it, and making it fit. Wow I really sound nasty on that. don't mean to present that type of front but I really don't know of a better way to say it. So please take it as if I said it nice. :-)))

   BTW, Dont mean to hijack since I think this fits into the original question.

   Edited 4/7/2004 2:04 am ET by rjgogo

1. 
   calvin | Apr 07, 2004 02:06pm | #7

   I hold the extension back a bit, making another reveal to the jamb as is done on the casing.  Any extension a qtr inch or more thick looks pleasing with another set back.  It's when you try to cut waves in a shallow  extension that it looks goofy.  I'll sacrifice a little air behind the casing when that is the case.  If tight is the demand, then yes to planing the backside of the casing.  Doing it to the extension just doesn't look right to me.  *I guess the above didn't really say a darn thing..........Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.

   Quittin' Time