A quick look at this entry door did not show anything unusual but a closer inspection revealed that the bottom of the door and side lites had been spliced "quickly and poorly" prior to us.Two notable clues that I saw was that the porch decking was to close to the inside floor height. A 7" step into the house would have helped keep water and melting snow out. The second was there was a fairly new gutter above this door and no gutters anywhere else … [Read more...]
Got Carpenter Ants?
I must admit, I have made alot of money from carpenter ants and have even been accused of harboring a carpenter ant farm at home... just kidding!Carpenter ant colonies expand ever outward, producing what are called satellite colonies. These satellite colonies will eventually mature into hundreds of ant members that will eventually set out to seek to create more satellite colonies.Established carpenter ants colonies are always responsible for … [Read more...]
Importance Of Flashing Exterior Light Fixtures
In the picture above all appears normal.... right?We thought so too and were going to replace a few clapboards that had unpleasant looking clapboard butt joints that were too close to the front door and aesthetically unpleasing to the owner.The moment I put a pry bar on these clapboards the bar went right into the stud bay cavity. It was after this that the close together clapboard butts made sense = prior repair, problem returned! [See photo … [Read more...]
Deck Building Basics Revisited
This job was on Partridge Lane in Concord, Massachusetts.Our job was to repair rotted siding on a deck alcove built about 20 years ago. As you can see from the pictures below, the siding runs down behind the decking and below the deck out of view.Problem:House clapboard siding runs below the decking and can not be replaced with out removing all of the decking.The original builder was trying to create an air space to keep the deck and siding dry … [Read more...]
Replacing A Picture Window
The above and below pictures were taken 6 weeks ago. The painters discovered a rotted window sill in this picture window. Unfortunately the rot was too deep and involved to repair and replacement was the only viable option.As is the case on any job I'm on I always try to figure out what caused the rot and try to address the cause. In this case I'm pretty sure the culprit was the window flower box and it's drip irrigation system.The drip … [Read more...]
Rotted Marvin Window Trim and Sill
Sixteen years ago I put these windows in and have always maintained the paint on them.Unfortunately the finger jointed wood trim that window manufacturers use these days is far inferior to that used in days past.I noticed that some of the paint appeared wrinkled. This is usually a sure sign of paint failure or rot.Most of the time I see window sills that are rotted to the point of the window needing to be replaced.Every once in awhile we luck out … [Read more...]
Removing The Fishbowl!
This week it's been HOT HOT HOT! We're working on Lang Street here in Town. The house has new owners and the move in date is approaching fast!In this post we were tasked with removing the glass enclosed mudroom entry way, which I refer to as the fish bowl, as well as the door and surrounding floor tile.Click on photos to enlarge.The glass panels were 1/2 inch thick and ran floor to ceiling, as did the door. They were heavy!Unfortunately, when we … [Read more...]
Porch Repair
Today was spent repairing this porch. Most of the rot we found here can be attributed to the lack of gutters on the roof above.The hanging plants also have automatic "drip irrigation" watering hoses. One morning I observed these plants overflowing and dripping on the deck below - also a factor in the decking rotting prematurely.We had to replace several floor boards, outside skirt boards, one complete post and the entire trim to a second post and … [Read more...]
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