Am in the process of designing “faux” columns on the outside of my now enclosed front porch between the windows and main door to give it the old bungalow look?
Want to build them about 12-15″ wide with a raised panel look. The columns will be painted and I do not want the associated expansion problems if I were to use a “true” panel on the inside. I was considering MDO as a base for the “panel” and using pine or GP Prime Trim for the “framing”. The edges will also be routed to complement the raised panel look.
Can anyone reccommend any other methods of making “weather friendly” faux columns and with what type of material. Want it to be as sealed as possible from the elements for long paint life.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Tom Turci
Replies
Might be easier just to use lumber. A traditional weather resistant lumber. Might find wood movement easier to cope with than trying to "seal up" those columns. Being so exposed to the elements makes that close to impossible.
I use select pine. I know there more weather resitant material but it is nice material to work with and if do put a good heavy coat of primmer on all sides, glue all joints and paint soon after completion it will last. Any piece that comes in contact the floor I like to impregnat into a bed of caulk nail it and clean it up. I like to think the caulk bed stops the bottoms from rotting out. Check out FHB 9/04 165 Exterior trim that wont rot, all about synthetic exterior trim.
I like the MDO idea for your panels. You must have lost me with the GP primetrim as "framing" because I wouldn't frame a birdhouse with that stuff. Or did you mean the "frame" around the panel? It would be good for that. Use a good exterior glue for all your joints, consider biscuits too. Will these columns be tapered?
Another thing to keep in mind is to allow ventilation, best to allow a space for air to flow top to bottom and vice versa.
If they don't need to be structural, I'd definitely consider a cellular PVC product like Azek, Koma, Kleer, etc. Even structural, I,d design the Azek around a PT 4x4 or 6x6 or whatever your needs are. All the companies make the stuff in sheets, and it can be routed, cut, pocket screwed, nailed or glued with PVC glue.
At this past weekend's JLC show in Providence, R.I., they had examples of columns, panels, radiused trim pieces formed by thermoforming. It's very versatile stuff and is pretty much impervious to moisture and does not need to be painted. (Providing you like white)
I've done a fair amount of standard trim and corner boards with it, but after seeing it at the show, I'm going to get a bit more creative with it.
Yes, I thought about Azek trim. I have a sample of it. It looks as if it would route very nicely. It is not cheap though and I have 4 columns to build. I would like to paint my columns a particular color and I just dont think this stuff would hold paint too well. Even the product flyers dont really promote that their stuff is "paintable", but thats getting away from the reason why they make the stuff in the first place...."maintenance free" no painting required. Yea white just wont cut it for this application.
Thanks for your reply,
Tom
Painting azek is fine according to the spec literature. They list moisture cycling as a major reason for paint failure in wood. No cycling in the pvc product, thus longer lasting paint finish. This from the company. Check it out a little closer.
My experience with it has been for porch post construction, however this was not raised or recessed panels. Had very good luck with it. The customer elected to not paint, the white was good enough for their application.
You are right the cost is up there, but weigh that against maintainance. If your material order could be such that you had little waste, you could be in essence saving money. They have sheet goods available also in 1/2-1". Odd sizing in the sheets, 4x8,4x10, 4x12 etc.
This from a minimal but satisfied Azek and Koma user.
Best of luckRemodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Tom, are you considering wrapping the edges of the mdo with primetrim, & then "raising" the trim with a panel raising bit?
I've done exactly what you're (I think) suggesting, but I biscuited f.j. redwood to the mdo instead of primetrim - it worked great. Primetrim is basically medex (exterior grade mdf) & you can buy sheets of medex if you want, make your panels out of it, & skip the mdo all together.
If it were me, I'd probably go the mdo & redwood route, since I don't trust medex for high moisture applications.
Greg,
Yes, I was considering using the Primetrim as a "cabinet door" type frame which would most likely be glued and biscuit joined with exterior glue.
Did you biscuit join your redwood frame directly to the backpanel at the back of the frame? Any pictures?
I think a sheet of Medex sounds like a possibility as a backpanel source since the columns are not structural. Lumberyard order? I am not going to taper the columns, they will be straight to make the trim around the windows look cleaner. I just want "wide" 12-16" to make them "pop". The porch is facing north, doesnt see much direct sun and is pretty dry because of the roof overhang. I want to avoid any expansion splitting of the paint /caulk joints to prevent water entrance. I will definitely look into the ventilation options available. I know there was an article in FHB about this.
Thanks for your suggestions all!
Tom
Did you consider marine plywood? I'm about to do the same project, so anxiously following this thread to see what you decide. In my case, I need the 'box' to have some structural integrity so I can attach the railings to it. Bill.
PVC is where I would start. There are some router bits out that imitate the raised panel look in a solid piece by "hogging out" the area around the "panel".
The result is good if your not matching anything else and there are no joints or seams to let moisture in.
Garett
Tom, sorry, no pictures available. I did it on a house I built about 70 miles from here, & didn't have a digital camera with me.I'm still a little confused whether you are going for a raised or recessed panel look. No matter which look though, you can just build a frame out of a wood that will perform well outside (or even better, azek) using 4/4 or 5/4 stock. You might consider using pocket screws on the backside of the frames, & then rabbeting them to accept your panels, or you could just apply the frames directly on top of the panels, securing them from the back if you are doing a flat recessed panel. Since you don't think the columns will be getting too wet, medex might be okay for the panels. It wouldn't hurt to prime & finish all 6 sides before inserting them into the frames.Check with your local lumberyard on the availability of medex. Around here, it's stocked by some of the yards with a better selection. Also, we have a few plywood distributers that sell to the trades we can get it from.Hope this helps.