So...why the heck is it taking me so long to get the siding up? Could it be a my constant battle with overkill? Nah! - Every window is being framed with pre-finished 5/4 x 4 stock. The stock is painted and sealed on 3 sides; the face and both edges. I do have bottles of touch up paint, but I really want to take advantage of the factory finish whenever possible. To do so on the window frame work, I have to mitre all the corners. Besides, the mitred corner is a classier look. We are using biscuits at every corner. - Each window has a vinyl nailing fin about 1/8" thick. It runs around the entire perimeter of the window and is how the windows are nailed to the framing surrounding the rough opening. This fin protrusion creates an uneven surface for the siding framework, so we have to relieve the back side of every piece. - Each siding window frame is assembled, one at a time, with glue and the biscuits and tightened together with a long band clamp designed for making pictures frames. We adapted it with another band and got a suitable length to encompass the entire 206" perimeter. - -
Then....laying out the installation lines. The housewrap is supposed to be semi-transparent to allow the ability to see the nailing layout marks on the sheathing it covers. This would theoretically allow me to know where every stud is located. It is imperitive that each nail used to hold not only the siding but the siding trim hits a stud. Well, this ability to easily locate the layouts thru the housewrap is sketchy at best. I can't afford to hit and miss, so we go ahead and use a chalk line and sharpie marker to re-create the centers of all the studs. While we are at it, we use a story board (an 11' long stick with layout elevations marked on it) to mark the tops of all the courses of the lap siding in numerous locations of the wall. - - This layout procedure takes about an hour and half, but makes the installation part go much easier. It's nice to have an easy-to-read road map. The window frames...well...they take a little longer. Oh, and btw, there are 9 windows on the first floor and 11 upstairs. The picture windows will be a chapter unto themselves.
