In which I'm dull
Oct. 27th, 2021 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorThe last two months I have been working pretty steadily on the garage. When the weather and light permitted: getting the wall ready, siding, and painting on the prior project. When the weather and light didn't permit: prepping and priming siding. Each board was prepped with blopentine (boiled linseed oil and turpentine) front, back, edges, and ends. Then it was primed with oil based primer, ditto. That's an amazingly labor intensive job. In linear feet I probably did a quarter of a mile of board.
This all started because I had the windows to install on the gable end of the garage. The existing windows on the first floor were in really bad shape and I'd been intending to replace them for years. I decided they shouldn't go another winter. Usually you can pull old windows and replace them with new pretty easily. The trim comes off the inside, the trim comes off the outside, remove the sashes, remove the window frame, slide the new one in. Well, ours don't work that way because the previous windows were installed with the window trim inset into the sheathing and underneath the siding. So removing the window also means removing siding. With siding as old as ours is and as often re-nailed as our is, once you start removing siding it is really not easy to stop.
So to replace two windows I ended up stripping the whole end of the garage down to sheathing, adding new boards where the old window trim set in the sheathing, filling all the nail holes I could find, putting on new moisture barrier, flashing, installing three new windows, and residing the entire wall. All this was done with a bare minimum of ladders: step ladder, short ladder, medium ladder, big ladder which is too heavy to move. Putting siding on the 2nd story and peak from a pair of ladders is not a lot of fun and very time consuming. It was a constant case of always running out of something (painted boards, flashing tape, sealant, primer, turpentine, light) and getting rained on every time we got on a roll.
Along the way, I re-learned things that I hadn't done in 20 years, maybe re-learned things I hadn't done since I was 10, learned that some of the things I did in the past are no longer best practice (and maybe haven't been in my lifetime). If I was to do it over again, (I hope I don't have to do it over again) I would do several things differently, including not starting it in the fall when it's nearly impossible to complete any large project outside. I did end up making a very nifty little jig out of wood scraps which helps hold and end when you're doing 8ft pieces of siding by yourself.
Last weekend we finally got two relatively sunny weekend days and made a big push to get the last of the siding done. When it got dark on Sunday evening I had one piece left to put up on the very peak. It has rained every day since then and I still have one piece to put up at the very peak. We still have to put sealant on large portions, prime a lot of nail heads, and prime the sealant, then do the finish painting. I don't think there is any way that will get done before spring because there just aren't enough warm days left.
So that's why I haven't posted anything for months. I've been monomaniacally dedicated to getting the damn siding done and haven't had any life outside of that.
Having now learned just how much time it takes to prep the boards, I'm going to use the winter to prep boards. I have a room above the garage set up to be able to prep and prime and I will endeavor to get many boards done during the dark and cold months, so that come spring that will not be taking up my time. Because we really need to reside the barn, the rest of the garage, and some year the house. If I could get the barn and a significant chunk of the garage finished next spring, it would feel like a win.
This all started because I had the windows to install on the gable end of the garage. The existing windows on the first floor were in really bad shape and I'd been intending to replace them for years. I decided they shouldn't go another winter. Usually you can pull old windows and replace them with new pretty easily. The trim comes off the inside, the trim comes off the outside, remove the sashes, remove the window frame, slide the new one in. Well, ours don't work that way because the previous windows were installed with the window trim inset into the sheathing and underneath the siding. So removing the window also means removing siding. With siding as old as ours is and as often re-nailed as our is, once you start removing siding it is really not easy to stop.
So to replace two windows I ended up stripping the whole end of the garage down to sheathing, adding new boards where the old window trim set in the sheathing, filling all the nail holes I could find, putting on new moisture barrier, flashing, installing three new windows, and residing the entire wall. All this was done with a bare minimum of ladders: step ladder, short ladder, medium ladder, big ladder which is too heavy to move. Putting siding on the 2nd story and peak from a pair of ladders is not a lot of fun and very time consuming. It was a constant case of always running out of something (painted boards, flashing tape, sealant, primer, turpentine, light) and getting rained on every time we got on a roll.
Along the way, I re-learned things that I hadn't done in 20 years, maybe re-learned things I hadn't done since I was 10, learned that some of the things I did in the past are no longer best practice (and maybe haven't been in my lifetime). If I was to do it over again, (I hope I don't have to do it over again) I would do several things differently, including not starting it in the fall when it's nearly impossible to complete any large project outside. I did end up making a very nifty little jig out of wood scraps which helps hold and end when you're doing 8ft pieces of siding by yourself.
Last weekend we finally got two relatively sunny weekend days and made a big push to get the last of the siding done. When it got dark on Sunday evening I had one piece left to put up on the very peak. It has rained every day since then and I still have one piece to put up at the very peak. We still have to put sealant on large portions, prime a lot of nail heads, and prime the sealant, then do the finish painting. I don't think there is any way that will get done before spring because there just aren't enough warm days left.
So that's why I haven't posted anything for months. I've been monomaniacally dedicated to getting the damn siding done and haven't had any life outside of that.
Having now learned just how much time it takes to prep the boards, I'm going to use the winter to prep boards. I have a room above the garage set up to be able to prep and prime and I will endeavor to get many boards done during the dark and cold months, so that come spring that will not be taking up my time. Because we really need to reside the barn, the rest of the garage, and some year the house. If I could get the barn and a significant chunk of the garage finished next spring, it would feel like a win.
