I recently looked over a cottage which has been renovated. The cottage is in Old Town Pinehurst, NC, and has been reworked with great skill and sensitivity to design issues. The exterior of the building was done using cedar shingles and the facia, soffit, and other trim were all wood. The person who did the exterior trim/re-work included lots of crown moulding, all of which was skillfully done. However, all of the exterior trim work was wood ….. including half round which was used as a drip edge. The work had been completed within the past year and there were areas already beginning to show the effect of run-off from the roof. The re-work also included some porch/patio areas (some covered overhead …. some not) which are t/g fir. These appear to have been painted or paint stained with a UV covering which is now beginning to peel and the pretty wood and the initial lovely appearance are suffering. I should also mention that a garage (not attached) is, basically, new construction but is all wood trim and lots of it! Since the place is for sale and since I’m interested and since I haven’t totally lost my mind, I was looking for advice regarding the looking maintainance tasks to the gorgeous trim work ….. should I replace it with cellular PVC products particularly in the more water exposed areas of the house??? or …. get my paint tools out for the rest of my life ……???? I should also mention there’s approximately 500 feet of WOOD fencing …. all showing the skills of the craftsman via mouldings, etc. on the fencing!! Any words of wisdom and experience that folks might have to share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Jim
Replies
jim.. you sure picked a small font.. and crammed your message into a single run-on paragraph..
other than that.. welcome
it sure is a shame that people do that. ( not the font, the woodwork )
all of that work painstakenly cut and fit .. all going to hell in a handbasket
what is the roof material ?
if you can redo the roof edge you can keep about half of the water off of the woodwork.. we always use a metal dripedge.. on both the eaves and the rakes
i noticed a lot of roofs in NC that don't use a metal dripedge.. especially on the rakes..
inevitably some water gets behind the trim and pulls the paint off ... job looks like dog doo after a while
we pay a lot of attention to low maintenance.. and i guess that's what it takes
materials like koma (Azek ) can help.. but keeping the water off and backpriming all of the trim goes a long way
Mike ...
Sorry about the font but thanks for your reply .. 'tis appreciated. The roof material is asphalt shingles ... they appear to be of good quality and have been replaced as a part of the restoration of the cottage. All of the new exterior trim that was used appears to be pre-primed ...I can see this cuz the guy doing the restore is not yet finished the exterior paint job. The half-round used on the rakes (instead of a metal drip edge) is, at least, inch and a half material ..... all wood ....everywhere where water can infiltrate. Well, thanks again for your help. Jim
I would agree with piffin.
It is so obvious when you use fake wood for trim. Some people dont mind or think it looks solid, personally I think it looks like vinyl siding. Real wood has an air about it that screams beauty especially when details are well dealt with.
If you love the house, buy it. Get the guy off the job that is working there, and repaint. Repainting is a regular process, and some would say expensive, but others would say worth every penny.
In any account, if you buy the house, do your emergency work first. The most pressing would be the areas that are taking on water.... like the drip edge replacement, checking the roof. Plan to do the paint or sub it as soon as you can.
Sounds like a great place, just needs someone who will care. Oh and when you go to buy, point out the fact that the paint is falling off and is brand new.
-zen
If there is any way to post a digital photo or two of details and paint flaws, it would certainly be easier - more accurate to diagnose and recommend...
Here is what runs in my mind about this, correct me if i am wrong-
this place was just redone recently
now it is for sale
methinks that the redoer intended to sell as he was re-doing it
nothing wrong with any of that
But I have worked for a few people who do that - turn houses over with some level of imnprovement
and the thing they most commonly skimp on is the paint. They take the attitude that "anybody can paint" so they end up with a job that looks like anybody off the street painted it, instead of a quality job.
painters here can do a house and it will last ten years before needing touchup or another coat - in harsh coastal weather.
but when I see somebody try the shortcuts, the paint is coming back off in a year ot two
So I suspect that this job got some nice carpentry but no paint prep and maybe no primer or it was painted wet or it was cheap or bad paint, or half a hundred other things out of cheapness or ignorance.
Meaning that it might need to be stripped to the wood and done right.
Somethng else that moves paint off is a lack of backpriming or mioisture moving out thru the walls and lifting it
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Piffin ..
Thanks for the reply ....
You're correct that the person doing the restore now has it for sale ..... as I mentioned, the trim work was run (skillfully) on the interior and exterior. He used the same materials and techniques on the exterior trim as the interior .... the exterior paint job, not yet finished, shows that he used pre-primed pine (doesn't appear to be finger joint) ... I'll try to get some pics .... I'm most concerned about the half-round that was used in lieu of drip edge .... it's great looking but pre-primed stuff ain't gonna last long I fear. I would be concerned about the cost of removing, at best, redoing the entire perimeter of the cottage and the garage, which is a separate structure.
Again, thanks for the help!
Jim
jim... a half round is pretty unusual for a roof edge.. i can't picture how this would work ..
if the half round is nailed against the fascia and butted to teh bottom of the roof shingles, it almost guarantees that capillary action and wind will drive teh water behind the fascia..
it also sounds like removing the half round will provide just the right space to insert a metal dripedge..
we use the same color as the cornice material in most cases..
a lot of times we buy the brown and paint it to match the cornice.. the brown is a good base for most paints
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
OK it sounds like the half round is the worst of the problems. Shouldn't be a terrible high cost just to tear irt off and insert some metal edge to drip free. You might have to have it made custom at a sheet metal shop to fit the space.But even if this is pre-primed, and he has been on it for a year and just now painting, he has a bonding problem. Primer in most cases will only stand thirty days more or less, depending on weather and climate, before it need to be refreshed with sanding lightly and new primer. To ignore this means that a layer of oxidized paint dust is what he is painting the finish coat over. Poor bond = peeling later
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Piffin .....
Thanks for the info. I have attached some pics which (sorta) show the detail I'm concerned about. Not trying to make this into a big deal just trying to make as certain as I can what assets and liabilities I'm purchasing. The garage is a separate structure and is not a renovation ... 'tis new construction over the footprint of an old garage. Again, the guy used the same trim as he did with the cottage. Hope the pics make the trip!
Edited 1/4/2005 3:29 pm ET by JDD
the pics would have shown up as a yellow attachment icon... so they arent here.
-zen
When youdo an attachemneet here, it can take quite a while to load up. do a new post since the system doesn't allow attachments to amended posts, and when you select the attachment and hit the upload button, then you need to wait until the title shows in that window, hit the "done" button only after it shows the title. Then hit "Post"
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