Trying to figure out the best way to resolve a problem trimming out the front porch band on a home under construction. Doing it all over again isn’t an option. See attached photo.
Without going into too much detail, there were several mistakes made that leave us with a problem that needs a solution. What’s difficult to see in the attached photo is that there is a 4″ brick ledge around the three sides of the front porch. The original intent was to have a “band” (probably HardieTrim) that covered the 2×12’s framing the outside of the porch floor, and which would also act as a brick frieze for the brick below the porch floor framing. However, the framing was done incorrectly, in that it was supposed to cantilever over the CMU block wall by 4″ so that the 2×12 bands were in the same vertical plan as the outside of the brick ledge. Then when the HardieTrim was put on, it would overlap the brick to provide the frieze. The columns were also supposed to cantilever out 4″ to be flush with the 2×12 frame. Hope all that makes sense.
Any ideas? I can build out the 2×12’s to get them 4″ further out by nailing on two 2×12’s and a 5/4 x 12 onto the existing 2×12 bands, but that will end up causing the edge of the finished porch flooring to be about 6″ (4″ of additional banding plus two thicknesses of HardieTrim, plus at least 1/2″ finished floor overhang) out from the front side of the columns, and I’m not sure how that would look.
I could leave the framing the way it is, nail the HardieTrim to it, and use water table bricks, or bricks turned on edge and “sloped” for the top row of the bricks. The problem with that is brick sills, water tables, row locks, etc., around here look bad pretty quickly due to dirt, mildew, bird poop, etc., and would require frequent cleaning.
Any other ideas that don’t require tearing down anything that has already been done?
Thanks,
JL
Replies
Jl,
Can you get some more pictures close up?
You can build out to extend the porch floor over the edge of the brickwork and trim as you planned.
Not sure you need the solid boards you describe. You could frame a ladder to support the porch floor and the trim board.
Since that looks high enough for a railing, you can consider placing the railing outside the columns.
All of those ideas are going to be expensive or ugly. You could bend an aluminum flashing cap at a 45 that would cover the edge of the bricks or you could do the same thing with trim but I'd use Pvc rather than Hardi. 16 to 21' pieces as opposed to 10's and much easier to work with.
I will snap some closeups and post them this evening.
The finished porch floor height is 49-1/2" above the brick ledge, and the brick ledge will be about 12" above finished grade, so the porch will have railings. Not sure about the aesthetics of putting the railing outside the columns.
I will look into the PVC vs HardieTrim. PVC hasn't caught on in this area.
Thanks,
JL
Another option is to reconsider the brick facing over the block, and cover it with something thinner.
Here's another photo (one more coming in a follow-up post) showing a close-up view. As the pictures show, the porch columns, 2x12 band, and CMU blocks all line up, and are 4" "inside" of the outside edge of the brick ledge.
How about a combination of extending the porch band out a couple of inches, then using some type of water table trim to cover the remaining top halves of the brick?
The porch flooring will be 1x4's perpendicular to the house walls, but it will also be picture framed with 1x6's to cover the ends of the 1x4's.
Here's a photo of another area that needs to be included in the solution. This area is three foot wide wall behind the sides of the porch. It is in the same plane as the porch band and CMU blocks. It's not shown on the photo, but the zip sheathing is 4" inside the brick ledge below it. It will be HardiePlank siding, the same as on the gable end at the top of the photo. The perpendicular wall on the right of this area (where the short 2x4 is nailed to the wall about halfway up) will be brick veneer on top of a 5-1/2" brick ledge (instead of 4" brick ledge). This area will require some kind of water table above the brick ledge because the siding can't be "pulled away" from the wall to extend over the brick below. The tough part will be coming up with a way to transition from the porch band/brick to the siding area.