Clapboarding front of Garrison colonial
I’m residing my house with clapboard and I’m wondering what to do with the bottom most piece that sits on the horizontal trim board that runs along the bottom of the part of the structure that sticks out the front of a Garrison colonial. The gap between the existing clapboard and the trim just looks to be caulked, but I’m wondering if I should use a drip edge or something like that. Any help you can provide will be much appreciated.
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It sounds like you're describing what's sometimes called a "water table". When attention was paid to details you'll often see these slanted, to drain naturally. But you sometimes see them installed with a z flashing, especially when the board is fairly narrow and not slanted.
>>The gap between the
>>The gap between the existing clapboard and the trim just looks to be caulked,
So tha any water that finds it's way behind the clapboards (think wind storm) will be kept from draining out?
Bad idea....
There may be a different term for it in that location, but it's the same thing, functionally. When not there for purely decorative purposes it serves to kick water flow out away from the area below (which needs this because it sticks out a bit from the plane of the siding above).
I believe that the best stuff was milled into kind of L shape, with the short leg of the L serving as the "starter" for the siding above it. Until the stuff split at the corner of the L (which probably happened eventually on 20-50% of the stuff) the resulting joint was pretty foolproof.
JD, is this style (I had to look it up) a cantelevered 2nd floor
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I tried to post an online picture, but that doesn't seem possible on our forum anymore.
At any rate, is the trim you are mentioning a sq. edged 1x4 or 6, with the siding sitting on the top edge? If so, you're idea of flashing is sound. The original water table trim had a lip on the back side that did two things-held the first course of siding out (sort of) and more importantly provided a "drip stop"-keeping water from going back up hill (it was slanted) and getting behind.
A Z-flashing that hopefully slants down on a slight angle will do what you expect-shed water so it doesn't sit up against the bottom clap and protect from water intrusion. It should have a kick down at the edge and be just proud of the face of the trim.
This article might be of interest:
http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/exterior/trim/water_table/pvc.htm
Also, look at the "drip cap" in this PDF:
http://www.reisterstownlumber.com/images/AZEKmoulding.pdf