A couple elevations at the rear will have Hardieplank 6″ claps down to the foundation, and I want to trim the bottom with a water table.
How would a 1×8 look capped with something? How about something else?
I thought of 1x rather than 5/4 because a.) the cap will add some beef, and b.) Hardieplank is pretty thin stuff anyway.
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Replies
Around here (when wood/FC siding is used, which is increasingly rare) the watertable is usually capped with some sort of drip cap. They have a variety of ways of doing it, including getting the PPFJ molded stuff, which usually doesn't last too long.
Another variation is to rip the thin edge off some claps and nailed it to the top of the watertable to shed water. My own house has this, and it is stained to match the siding, and has lasted 20 years. Not too fancy, but it gets the job done and supplies a shadowline for interest. I'd recommend flashing it, though, unlike my own. I've had to replace most of the watertable due to inadequate (no) flashing and no backpriming.
I made a water table from, I believe, 2 x 8, covered in copper. I used 12" wide roll flashing of 16 ounce copper. The color went well with both the paint color on the Hardie siding as well as the masonry on the foundation. Copper was appropriate for the Craftsman style of the house, too. Here's a picture.
The flashing tucked up under the siding, with the housewrap lapped over the upturned edge of the flashing.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=35025.3
Wayne,
We'd like to do something similar to what's shown in your photos, but have been told that in our area copper will turn black rather than verdigris. What other material might you recommend?
Shauna
I'm not sure what else would work. Aluminum can be corroded by contact with cement, so with fiber cement siding the flashing may not hold up the many decades the siding will. Perhaps stainless steel. It is stiffer than copper, so you could get by with thinner material. I don't think any plastics would hold up more than a couple of decades.
What is so bad about your area? Where are you?
We're in northeast PA. It's got something to do with industry in the area. I've been meaning to ask someone else or try to get clarification from the person who told us that, but life gets hectic.
I started taking a look online at faux stone ledges. Maybe that would be the way to go.
Shauna
Leaded copper
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I didn't recommend lead because of it's toxicity. Once it's in the soil it's pretty much there forever.
Which is a good place for it. It is inert, and heavy, which means that it will not travel more than aan ich or two into the soil. Unless you plan to grow carrots right under the eaves, and eat them, there is no danger from leaded copper or lead flashings on a residence.
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I'm doing a house right now that has that detail. I had the siders use "1x8" Hardi Trim material which is actually 7/16" thick, and a PVC drip cap, which if I remember correctly protrudes 1 5/8" from the surface it is mounted on. I wanted to flash above the drip cap, but really didn't have a good way to do that, so I caulked the top of the drip to the sheathing paper with some polyurethane caulk. The regular Hardi "claps" start just above this. The PVC drip has lip on the top that the Hardi "clap" sits on.
The reason I used 1x8 was that I wanted the drip cap to come right even with the front porch floor level. This is a typical detail on historic houses and often this bottom "belt" wraps the porch floor system as well. The belt is painted the house's trim color. Also I wanted as nearly as possible a rot proof material at the bottom edge of the house - that is why I did not use the Miratec trim that was being used elsewhere on the house.
Here's an option we normally use...
1) Ice & water shield over the sheathing where the water table will be.
2) 1x8 primetrim, miratec or Azek applied over 1/4" or 3/8" thick treated rippings from a 2x (so 1 1/2" wide) to bring the thickness of the water table even with the 5/4 corner boards.
3) Azek or similar drip cap set on top of the water table. As an alternative, you can take a pc. of 1x3 azek & rip a 30-45 degree bevel on the long edge, & apply that on top of the table to form a pitched cap.
We don't seal the back edge of the drip cap to the ice & water, so that any water that may get behind the siding can run behind the water table (shimmed off the building) to daylight.
Gene-
Working on a siding situation right now (there's a thread on it elsewhere). The top half has me in knots, but the bottom - where the water table is - went fine. The WT is 5/4, built out on 1/4 inch vertical spacers. Like greencu says, give the water a way out. The top of my WT is beveled about 15 degrees so the water doesn't sit on it, and there is a copper drip cap on the top (also angled). The drip cap comes down the face of the WT about 5/8", and in the back, the copper goes up, behind the siding about 2" or so. I've got foam insulation between the sheathing and the siding; the copper went behind that. I've got 1/2" beveled cedar, so the heavy WT doesn't project too far past it once the siding is started. If the Hardie is thinner, you may be happy with 3/4, but the shadow line from the 5/4 looks good to my eye.
Don
here's a couple ways
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Piff: Re your pic on the right - that is the way I have done it. Would you be concerned about water getting behind the drip cap? - either above or below? Matt
To be honest with you, I didn't draw it, but I rip some scrap lumber to shims about 3/16" verticle behind the base material.
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Piffin,
In your drawing on the right is the groove on the underside there to stop water that is coming back due to surface tension?
Yes, that is a Brosco 923 molding we can buy off the shelf here. But when I make my own, I rip about a 13° piece and dado rip that same drip groove into it. see attachemnt
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I've had nothing but trouble with that drip cap; the glue weakens over time and moisture to the point the fingers disengage. You clip it with a lawn mower and it breaks. I now use a cellular PCV molding which looks exactly like the pine version, without the pine or fingerjoints.
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What're you doing with a lawn mower two feet up the wall?Seriously, I wouldn't use it close to ground either, but painters around here do good work. never had a problem.
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The drip cap sat on a 1x4 watertable on a shed, which sat near ground at the edge of a grassy field, which needed to be mowed...
Which eventually caused most of the drip cap to break off on the front side.
Saw a flying 3-tab shingle take out 5 feet of the wooden finger-jointed drip cap when it landed square on during a roof replacement (the roofer spun the shingle like a frisbee.) The tarp to direct all the shingles did nothing to stop it.
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I live in Essex, NY. where the majority of homes have a water table detail. I use 5/4x8 primed on both sides and dado a half lap on the top. My clapboard then rest over in the lap. I also bed the lap with caulk. Prior to installing the clapboard I take a hand plane and lightly run in across the front edge of the half lap to ensure a positve drain. The half lap pushes the clap board out as a stater stip would but i place a filler strip on top of the watertable behind the clapboard to ensure it will not split.