Hi — another question,
I just replaced the aluminum slider windows in my house with larger vinyl, double-hung ones. They look great! But what about exterior trim? What’s the best material? I want a classic, older-home look with simple, substantial trim (painted blue). So I was going to construct the trim out of 1x4s (with the “sill” made from a 2×4) . I also want something that will hold up well. I thought about using pressure-treated wood, but you can’t paint that, right? And regular construction-grade boards are full of knots (which I worry will show through the paint) and might rot quickly. Cedar? Some kind of composite? My house is sided in vinyl, but I am thinking about getting it stuccoed in a year or so (when I can afford it).
I’d appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks!
Kris
Replies
for sills we rip Trex 5/4 x 6 in half and rout it
for casing we use GP Primetrim.. usually the 5/4 thickness
we backprime and end-prime everything..
Thought you might be interested in the above post.
Definitely don't use pressure treated wood or pine. Neither hold up to weather well. There are a number of synthetic trim boards, any one of which would be fine. Trex would work but the surface texture is rough for some peoples' taste, and the heavy rounded edges can make fitting joints tricky.
I am building some houses and trimming the windows out with a product called Miratec 5/4 x 4, which is essentially a different brand of the product that Mike Smith recommended for the side and head casing. The plastic products cited above (like Azek) are probably better, but are at least 2x the cost. Miratec has a 25 yr warranty, so it's good enough for me. Above the windows is a site bent AL drip cap which fits this particular application a little better than store bought drip cap. For the sills, I'm using KDAT (Kiln Dried After Treating) PT 2x4 lumber. I tried using Trex like Mike does, but couldn't get the profile I wanted out of the 5/4 x 6 boards. The KDAT lumber takes paint much better than regular PT and I'm very confident that this solution will last years and years. You have to be careful what primer you use though. My painters are using something called gripper. As a matter of fact, we went on vacation to the beach this summer and I noticed that several different builders were trimming entire houses out with this KDAT lumber...
Also - I live in the SE US so the PT lumber we get is much more acceptable from an aesthetic standpoint than that incised stuff they use out west.
Attached are some pics - 2 of window trim on 'my' houses, and I threw in a third that shows the PT trim I saw at the beach. All of these houses are Hardi plank cement siding homes. Mike was instrumental in getting me pointed in the right direction to getting a good look on the window trim. Notice the door trim shown on the green house - this is Azek - I ordered the doors with this casing already applied.
BTW - these trim techniques that are being discussed here in this thread are pretty much incomparable with vinyl siding - unless you wrap the trim with 'J'-channel to receive the siding.
If you did want to stay with the vinyl siding they do sell vinyl 3.5" "lentil" material, which is basically like a 5/4 x 4 with a built channel to receive the vinyl siding. The houses I worked on that used this stuff had PT wooden sills wrapped with al. coil stock. One has to be nearly a vinyl & metal wizard to pull this one off though. The lentil material is much harder to get it to look right than 'J'-channel and the metal work is for people who have above average skill with a metal break.
Edited 8/29/2005 7:10 am ET by Matt
hey, Matt... nice details..
i picked up a small lift of discontinued Trx with the old 1 1/4" thickness.. so we have a good supply of sill stock..
the new profile is only 1" thick.. so it's not as easy to get the shapes we want out of itMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Nice work. I love the colors.
Thanks Wayne...
I wanted to put something in the photo gallery, but my digi camera broke... :-(
> I live in the SE US so the PT lumber we get is much more acceptable from an aesthetic standpoint than that incised stuff they use out west.
The incised stuff we use is Doug fir. You have SYP, which absorbs the chemical treatment very deep into the wood. But with DF, the pressure treatment barely pushes in 1/16". The incising is supposed to get more of it into the wood. You can mill SYP without cutting the treated part off, but not with DF.
-- J.S.
I was a hardcore wood guy until I began to trim a few houses with azek.
now, I'm so sold it'll be tough to convince me to use anything else despite the cost.
I put azek on my house with the confidence that it won't leak, rot or ever need painting. I will paint it sooner or later, but even then, 2 coats of latex, no primer needed. the joints are glued with azek glue and virtually become one solid "surround". it mills like white pine and nails easily with stainless siding nails (unlike Hardi crap which I will never ever use again)
redwood or clear heart western red cedar are great too but still, I don't see how they can compare.