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I recently undertook a simple repainting of my house. It is a 75 year old brick bungalow with a hip roop and a “double-gable” front. (Forgive me if I get the terms wrong, I’m still learning the lingo.) I removed the aluminum siding that was over all of the wood on the soffits and all of the wood between the brick and the roof. Rotten…I was prepared to scrape and paint, but there was too much water damage to repair, so I ripped everything off. Fortunately, the roof and framing are intact at approximatly 10 years old. Everything I ripped out is over 20 years old. (See pic for what is left)
I’ll break this message apart into sections, so it will be easy to answer.
First….I’ve reno’ed the entire inside of the house including new copper plumbing, electrical, tile, kitchen (complete reno), new bath, etc. So I’m not a newbie….however, I’m not a professional, just a determined homeowner who is fascinated with fine homebuilding and woodworking. 90% of the work done by me working alone. I am new to the outside of the house, however…
I am back-priming every piece of wood that goes on the new construction and I’m using 30# paper behind all of the new gable construction and I’m using premium oil-based primer. I’m also keeping in mind water drainage and prevention from setting water. (Caulk and drainage.) (Based on what I’ve read in print and these discussion boards. Thanks!)
Finally..the questions!
1) I thought it would be really cool to use my lock-and-mitre bit to lock the new soffit boards (the 1×6 on the outside of the soffit and the 1×12 under the soffit) however, I can’t get a consistent cut from the bit on my router table and I end up having to fill the gaps with wood putty. I know traditional construction calls for a simple 45 degree cut. Is the lock-and-mitre idea just extreme overkill?? It would be easier to get consistent cuts from my plunge router, but the bit is too big. (I’m using the one that is 45 degrees with the inner joint cut)
2) Is it proper to use tongue and groove on the angled soffit of the gable and switch to 1×4 gapped strips on the horizontal soffit around the rest of the gable. (I want to vent the roof, but the soffits are so visible from the street that I don’t want to interrupt the flow with standard rectangular soffit vents.) One idea was to T&G all of the soffits and install vents above the windows in the recess before they meet the soffits. This might not work due to some out of square conditions I have.
Thanks for any input!
Mark
Replies
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Mark - using a lock mitre bit takes some practice. It's really a better technique for a 1/2" shank shaper or really heavy-duty router than with a 1/4" shank / lightweight router combination (assuming that's what you have), especially on longer boards. For longer work, you really need infeed and outfeed supports/tables with the router table mounted in between; a good featherboard is necessary and even a stock feeder isn't excessive. Remember that the lock mitre is for vertical (90 degree) joints, not horizontal ones (I couldn't tell from your post - but if you are locking the
i fascia
(vertical) boards that is proper use, not the soffit (horizontal) boards. In any case - yes that is overkill - if you want to get a good joint that won't open up use polyurethane glue (Gorilla, Pro-Bond, etc.).
Soffits - In the 1920's there was a lot of bead board used and it's still available. I've been using it on one project lately - we sawtoothed it at the cornice returns (no mitres, just steps) which looks very nice.
Venting, if you insist, for soffits like these needs to be handled carefully. Gaps look really obvious - another way is to use nice-looking grilles or even sections of perforated grille framed in with wood moldings.
This started as a simple repainting? OK you get the "Midas well" award. Or did you just use a mechanical paint stripper and overset the depth gauge?
Jeff
* yes, definitely overset the depth gauge. I do use the 1/2" shanks (CMT or equiv) on a Porter-Cable fixed or Bosch plunge router. However, I don't have the proper infeed/outfeed equipment. I'll save the lock-mitre for furniture/cabinets! You CAN use this lock-mitre for horizontal joints. You just cut both joints, then flip one board over and join. I agree that it does take practice. I went through several pieces of scrap before I got the height set properly. But it is more trouble than it's worth for this application, so I'll go back to simple 45 degree cuts with Pro-Bond glue. My goal is to achieve a smooth transition from one board to the other and remain smooth over the life. I see many boards on homes that are just butt jointed, and after a few months or years, it is obvious where the boards are seperating on the joints. The sawtooth on the cornice sounds like a good idea. I'll try.On the soffits, if you have the Jan '98 issue of Fine Homebuilding, on page 108 lower left corner, that is what I am planning. It's basically 1x4s run parallel to the facia with a 1/4" gap for venting. I've seen this on several houses in my neighborhood, but I've been told it's not as easy as t&g or just slapping up 1x10 (and 1x10 would be boring). I do currently have ridge venting on the roof, and it does get hot in the attic in summer, even with the vents. Also, doesn't the venting prevent moisture from getting trapped in the soffit area and rotting the wood? I suppose I could use some decorative, cast-iron vents spaced appropriately along the soffit for venting. (To be fair, I've only been looking at what is available at Home Depot specifically for soffit venting, and it's less than what I want to use)Thanks!Mark
*Solved the lock-mitre problem! The router table from JessEm puts the router on a slide so you move the router across the work instead of the work across the table. It works Perfect!! I tested two frieze boards today and the joint locks in seamlessly! Awesome. http://www.jessem.com/17jpg.htm
*how much for the table?
*It's around the $450 area depending one where you buy it, and if shipping is involved. Amazon carries it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000022438/qid=1002973942/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/104-6391181-1119951 I bought mine at http://www.highlandhardware.com for $449 Price seems high until you factor in the capabilities the fence/table/system at cutting box joints and dove tails of multiple configurations with no jigs (jigs are $$$), plus a few other things. And a terminology update. The pieces I'm joining are the rake boards, the fascia boards and the frieze boards. For the soffit on the gable-end between the rake boards and the front of the gable-end, I'm using t&g. (Just butt joints on these in the typical random fashion of t&g installation).I'm still debating the best way to handle the soffit between the facia and frieze down the sides and back under the hip roof. I will probably use t&g with decorative vents and space decorative angle brackets along the frieze and soffit to "hide" the vents and a few recessed lights. I've already attached screen to the exposed rafters, so I could still do the 1/4" spaced 1x4s.
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I recently undertook a simple repainting of my house. It is a 75 year old brick bungalow with a hip roop and a "double-gable" front. (Forgive me if I get the terms wrong, I'm still learning the lingo.) I removed the aluminum siding that was over all of the wood on the soffits and all of the wood between the brick and the roof. Rotten...I was prepared to scrape and paint, but there was too much water damage to repair, so I ripped everything off. Fortunately, the roof and framing are intact at approximatly 10 years old. Everything I ripped out is over 20 years old. (See pic for what is left)
I'll break this message apart into sections, so it will be easy to answer.
First....I've reno'ed the entire inside of the house including new copper plumbing, electrical, tile, kitchen (complete reno), new bath, etc. So I'm not a newbie....however, I'm not a professional, just a determined homeowner who is fascinated with fine homebuilding and woodworking. 90% of the work done by me working alone. I am new to the outside of the house, however...
I am back-priming every piece of wood that goes on the new construction and I'm using 30# paper behind all of the new gable construction and I'm using premium oil-based primer. I'm also keeping in mind water drainage and prevention from setting water. (Caulk and drainage.) (Based on what I've read in print and these discussion boards. Thanks!)
Finally..the questions!
1) I thought it would be really cool to use my lock-and-mitre bit to lock the new soffit boards (the 1x6 on the outside of the soffit and the 1x12 under the soffit) however, I can't get a consistent cut from the bit on my router table and I end up having to fill the gaps with wood putty. I know traditional construction calls for a simple 45 degree cut. Is the lock-and-mitre idea just extreme overkill?? It would be easier to get consistent cuts from my plunge router, but the bit is too big. (I'm using the one that is 45 degrees with the inner joint cut)
2) Is it proper to use tongue and groove on the angled soffit of the gable and switch to 1x4 gapped strips on the horizontal soffit around the rest of the gable. (I want to vent the roof, but the soffits are so visible from the street that I don't want to interrupt the flow with standard rectangular soffit vents.) One idea was to T&G all of the soffits and install vents above the windows in the recess before they meet the soffits. This might not work due to some out of square conditions I have.
Thanks for any input!
Mark