A Rotten Window

The window in this second floor bedroom developed a water leak that led to significant wood rot in the window and structural members surround the window. The leak first manifest itself with rain water coming down the inside of the window below the second floor. At least 3 years ago a hole developed in the soffit below and to the right of the window. The previous homeowner patched the hole with drywall mesh tape and drywall compound, followed by paint. This disguised the problem but did not resolve the issue. Extensive caulk was applied to the window sill and brick mold, but no repairs were made to rotten material already beginning to show.


Three months ago, following an extended period of heavy rains, the soffit patch failed and fell to the porch floor. At the same time the water that had flowed down the first window stopped. I was called to repair the soffit and any other damage that might have occurred due to leaky window.

On initial inspection, the brick mold on both sides of the window, the window nosing, both sashes, and the window frame had rotten areas. The sill plate and left leg of the window frame had rot perforation. The left and right legs and bottom rail of each sash had significant wood rot. By examining the hole in the soffit I could also determine that there was some wood rot in the rim joist between the first and second floors. I could not determine the extent of the structural rot until I opened the wall.

After the home owners gave approval to begin, I removed the casing from the interior of the window and cut out a portion of the drywall immediately below the window. This revealed that the jack studs, window sill 2x4, bottom wall plate, and the cripples had significant rot in them. The 2x4 window sill was soaked, even though it had not rained in the previous three weeks.

To make the repair, the entire window needed to be removed from the opening and the decorative 2x6 cedar boards picture framing the window had to be removed. The 2x6 decorative board covering the rim joist was also removed, and the remaining portion of soffit was cut out. This revealed that the OSB sheathing material below and to the right of the window were completely rotten. After consulting with a stucco repair contractor, it was determined that the stucco to the right and below the window needed to be removed and new sheathing applied.

The wall was opened up. The framing under the window was replaced. The subfloor immediately under the wall framing had rotted, but the floor joists and top plates from the first floor showed no evidence of rot or water damage. A new rim joist was set in place, and the wall was covered with OSB and 15# roofing felt in preparations for new stucco to be added. New decorative cedar 2x6's were installed replacing the old ones that also had evidence of wood rot. All 4 sides of the new decorative cedar members were painted with exterior primer before installation. New fiberglass insulation was installed in the wall cavities under the window, covered with 6 mil poly vapor barrier, consistent with the rest of the house. The drywall removed earlier was returned and the interior was prepared for painting.

Because of the extent of the wood rot in the frame of the window and in the sash frames, new members had to be used. The original frame of the window had the exact dimensions of exterior door jamb material. This was used to replace the sill from both sides of the window and to replace the left leg of the window frame. Because the material was already primed on all surfaces, the portion of the frame that would be inside the house was sanded to bare wood in preparation for stain and varnish.

Three of the four sides of each sash frame had substantial rot. Rather than salvaging the top member and replacing only three sides of the sash frame, a whole new sash frame was fabricated from cypress wood, known for its excellent resistance to wood rot. The old sash frames were used as models and the cypress was machined to match the dimensions exactly. The exterior, mortise and tenon ends, and the channel for the insulated glass unit (IGU) were primed, and the interior side was stained and varnished. During assembly, the IGU was caulked into the new frames, and the mortise and tenon joints were caulked. After assembly, finish paint was applied.

After completion of the repairs to the window frame and sashes, a new sill complete with nosing was fabricated, primed, and attached to the sill of the window frame. The unit was returned to the window opening, shimmed and centered so the interior and exterior trim would fit perfectly with its previous installation. In this way the paint lines on the inside would match perfectly. The gaps around the window frame were filled with "Great Stuff" insulating foam. The exterior was trimmed out with PVC brick mold and caulked in.

After the exterior was completed with new trim, caulk, and stucco, paint was applied. The stucco paint was applied to the patch and the rest of the stucco surround the window. The decorative trim and window were painted with the same material that was used the last time the house was painted.

Entertainment Center: Conversion of a Double Bookcase

This project involved modifying existing bookcases that flanked a brick fireplace. Each side of the fireplace features a 67" double bookcase. The homeowners wanted to have the lower 30" pulled forward, with doors and a countertop. The balance of the bookcases would appear to be standing on top of the countertop.

The right case would continue to have a divider in the middle separating the shelving. A ribbon light would be added to illuminate the top, with a wall switch hidden behind the face frame of the bookcase.

The left case would be modified more radically. Above the new countertop would be a space to house a wall-mounted flat screen TV, mounted on a full-motion articulating arm. Electrical and cable infrastructure would need to be placed in the lower cabinet modification as well as behind the TV. In this way the components could be housed in the cabinet and the cables would be hidden behind the wall. As seen in the photo, the flat screen currently sits on a piece of furniture. The cable wire is threaded up through a air duct. Power for the flat screen and the cable converter box comes from a wall receptacle with power strip.

After consultation it was decided that the opening for the flat screen should be proportional to the flat screen. In this way, a future larger TV could be placed in the opening with no modification to the cabinet.

In the after photo of the right bookcase you can see the modification described in the introduction. A wall receptacle that was 6 inches in front of the bookcase is now inside the lower cabinet. Power from the receptable was used to feed a ribbon light placed behind the top valance of the the bookcase. A switch hidded behind the face frame of the bookcase controls the ribbon light.

The left side modifications included electrical and cable TV connections. An electrical cable was run from an existing wall outlet through the basement into the wall behind the bookcase. Receptacles were added inside the lower cabinet as well as in the wall behind the flat screen TV. The cable TV was also routed through the basement terminating in a low voltage box behind the TV. Component RCA cables were run from the lower cabinet to the wall behind the TV to permit the future installation of a DVD player stored in the cabinet. Power was also brought to a location on the left side of the mantle with a receptacle to enable season displays with lighting to be placed on the mantle. The left side also features a wall switch hidden by the bookcase face frame controlling a ribbon light placed behind the top valence of the the bookcase.

The finished project now has symmetry on both sides of the fireplace, meeting the homeowner's wishes for a flat screen TV cabinet on one side and a lower cabinet with bookcase on the right side.

Disaster Recovery from Broken Water Pipes

This project began with a watter leak in the attic of the house. This two bedroom, one bath house is built on a concrete slab. The furnace and water lines ate in the attic. The hot water heater is in a closet in the middle of the house, but the water lines running to the bathroom and laundry, located in the attached garage, are in the ceiling. During the coldest part of the winter, in January, the furnace quit and it took three days for the service people to come to the home of make the repairs.

During that interval with no heat, the water pipes in the attic froze, and the ice forced the copper lines to split in four different places. After the furnace was repaired and heat was restored to the house, the attic warmed and the ice in the copper lines melted, and water came pouring out of the 4 splits into the attic. After a few hundred gallons of water, the R-7 insulation batts became saturated, and water began to pour from the one ceiling fixture in the living room, onto the hardwood floor. The waterfall narrowly missed the owners beautiful Steinway grand piano, but damaged the ceiling in the living room and dining room, damaged two exterior walls and one interior wall, and soaked through the hardwood flooring into the cavity created by the building convention of installing 2x4 sleepers over concrete prior to installing hardwood flooring material. Wall paper melted off the walls, and two Persian wool area rugs were waterlogged and almost ruined.

A disaster recovery firm was called that night and began to dry the house out. They removed all the insulation from the attic space and punched approximately 50 holes of 3/8" diameter into the ceiling to allow for water to drain out as well as for some air and heat from the house to enter the attic to help it dry out. A few holes were also punched into the cinder block exterior walls, primarily along the baseboard area, to help dry out the walls. A number of blower fans were put into the room and ran continuously for ten days to rid the house of the excess moisture.




I arrived that night with a plumber and we replaced the 4 split segments of copper piping with replacement material. This picture shows a sample of the splits in the copper pipe.



It took nearly a month for the insurance company to reach a settlement before I could start working on the restoration. I began by re-insulating the attic. I first applied a layer of blown in insulation to fill the ceiling joist cavities (about R-13) and then laid down sheets of 6 mil plastic as a vapor barrier. I then added layers of R-20 and R-13 fiber glass insulation batts to raise the combined insulation layer to R-46. The layers fiber glass insulation totally cover the water lines to protect them from intense cold. I layered the catwalk that leads to the furnace with 2 layers of 2" polystyrene insulation (about R-40) to complete the job.



Prior to beginning the repairs, all the furniture in the whole house was moved into the attached garage and a PODS storage container. The Steinway was taken by a piano storage firm and warehoused for two months during the recovery process.

Then began the job of repairing the holes in the walls and ceiling the disaster recovery firm had introduced, as well as repairing failures in the plaster in the walls and ceilings. I scraped a plaster texture off the ceilings, applied compound to get a smooth surface, and then applied a knock down orange peal texture to both the ceiling and the walls.

Because of the difficulty of pounding nails into the plaster and block walls for hanging pictures, I installed a moulding around the perimeter of both the living room and the dining room as a nailing rail to facilitate the hanging of pictures. I also installed a plate rail in the dining room so the owner could display her collection of anniversary plates that previously had been hanging from nails in the plaster walls.



The walls and ceiling were painted, and all the wood trim was given a fresh coat of white paint. The owner's married children came and painted the two bedrooms and small hallway, leaving me to paint only the rooms covered by the insurance settlement. As a nice extra, there was room in the insurance settlement to add crown moulding to the living room and dining room, something not originally there.

The oak hardwood floors are in all the rooms of the house except the bathroom and the small galley kitchen. With the hardwood in the living room and dining room needing to be refinished due to the water damage, the insurance company agreed to pay for refinishing the hardwood floors in the entire house. I sanded all the old finish and stain off the floors after the moisture content had dropped below 11%, filled all the holes and gaps, and then applied three coats of semi-gloss polyurethane floor varnish to the floors before re-installing replacement baseboards in lieu of those damaged during their removal from the house.

The furniture was returned as well as the Steinway, and after three months of being dislocated, the owner was finally able to return to her home, much lovelier thanks to 4 split copper pipes in the attic.

Screened Porch into Sitting Room

This project is a story about a Mother and her Son. A few years ago the Son bought this neat 2 bedroom house for his Mother to live in. It has a nice stucco exterior over cinder block walls, built on a concrete slab. The major flaw of the house was this screened in porch in the rear of the house.

The screened porch looked tired and in poor repair, as the picture shows. Screens were torn, the screen door was barely secured with one hinge, and there were a couple of holes in the siding below the screens.

The Son asked me if I could put a different style roof on the porch. The existing flat roof leaked, and he though it needed to be re-roofed. I got out a ladder, climbed up on the roof, and quickly saw that the roof had an issue: a sizable depression where a lake of water stood.

So I looked at the under side of the roof; at the ceiling of the porch. And it was a mess. The ceiling tiles were water logged and mouldy. Instead of being framed with a minimum of 2x6's, it was 9 foot ceiling span was framed with 2x4's, and a couple of them were broken and sagging. They would need to be replaced.

So I tried to figure out how I was going to get the current roofing material off so I could rebuild it. While I was thinking on that topic, I studied the structure, of the porch. I noticed that the exterior wood siding seemed to be blistered and bubbling, like plywood that was delaminating from excess moisture penetration. On a whim, I kicked a corner of the siding and my foot went right through the rotten siding into the wall cavity. I looked inside the wall cavity, and noted that the corner 2x4 posts had totally rotted away from the wall footings. There was nothing holding the wall and roof up but rotten plywood siding!

A little more investigation revealed termites, more rotten siding and 2x4's, and so I made the decision to pull the entire structure down and let the Son decide what to do after that. When I finally got the structure pulled down, and was able to see the reason for the roof failure. If you look carefully at the next picture, you can see the 1x8 roof decking material, covered by a sheet of plywood, then about 1 inch of hot melt tar/roofing paper, followed by a 1/4" layer of luaun underlayment, and then 2 layers of roll roofing material. The roof was so heavy that a 2'x2' square of the material weighed close to 100 pounds! A Kansas tornado couldn't have lifted that roof!



So after I got the entire structure torn down, a process that took only about 2 hours, I was left with what you see below: a concrete slab with 2x4 sleepers covered with 2x4 deck boards, bounded with an 8" high solid block foundation wall, and lots of left over debris.



The Son decided I should build a new screened in porch but with a gable roof. He liked the little gable that was over the entry door leading into the kitchen, and wanted me to incorporate that feature into the new structure. As I reviewed the plan with his Mother, she declared that if all she was going to get was another screened in porch, then she didn't want it. She hadn't used the last one so she wouldn't use a new one. She wanted the porch room to be more useful, possibly good for at least the spring, summer, and fall seasons. That led to a more ambitious plan, with 10 energy efficient double hung windows, a French door, insulated walls and ceiling, and a completed interior. In the process of tying the new gable roof for the "porch", now a sitting room, I discovered that the roofing material on the rest of the house was old, in addition to there being three layers of shingles on the house. So I tore off all the roofing material and re-roofed the whole house, complete with new gutters and downspouts.

So this is what the new Sitting Room looks like. This view shows seven of the 10 windows as well as the French door. The siding on the structure is a cement board made by the James Hardie Corporation.


This view shows the third side of the Sitting Room, with the other three windows.



This picture was taken from outside, through one of the new windows, at the old gable over door to the kitchen, as well as the ceiling and side walls. All the walls and ceiling are covered with V-groove pine boards. Each board is 7 inches wide, features beveled edges and a V groove down the middle. The boards were stained a complimentary color and then covered with two coats of satin polyurethane. The white stucco on the lower portion was painted the same color as the exterior by the Son after this picture was taken.



Looking up fron the kitchen door at the vaulted ceiling, the ceiling fan and the gable end over five windows.



The total room interior dimensions are 9.5 feet by 15 .3 feet. This picture is looking from the wall with 3 windows in it towards the new French door leading outside.




This picture is looking from the French door across to the other side of the room. An existing 20 Amp outdoor electrical circuit was used to bring electricity into the room, with a number outlets provided to allow for unlimited arrangement of furniture and lighting.

The Mother has since made this her favorite room in the house, moving in some comfortable furniture. The 2x4 deck boards are covered with a 6 mil vapor barrier and plywood underlayment before a Berber carpet was installed. By adding a portable space heater this room is now used a year long.

Entertainment Center (Built-In) with Storage Room

In this project, both Mr. and Mrs. HomeOwner had different goals that needed to be met. Mr. HomeOwner is in a rock band, which rehearses in the daylight basement of the home. Mr. HomeOwner wanted a secure storage room to house some of the band's equipment. In the same general area, Mrs. HomeOwner wanted a built-in entertainment center to host a large flat-screen television, creating a space the HomeOwner children would invite their friends to spend time in.

The basement had already been completely finished. The portion of the basement selected to meet both goals had a boxed-in support column that limited how the space could be used. The plan was to incorporate the support column into the new walls that would define the storage room as well as locate the entertainment center. The first image shows the planned construction. The solid lines show the existing walls.




The next two pictures show the area as construction of the storage room was beginning. The wall on the right is an outside wall.

Just out of view is a four panel French door leading outside to a patio. The four panel French door was reconfigured, with the two 36” x 78” fixed flanker windows replaced with a new double French door.

This picture shows the framing for the door to the storage room. To the right is the boxed in support column that will be incorporated into the new wall.

After the framing of the two new walls was completed, new electrical outlets were placed in the wall that would form the back of the entertainment center. A new light control for the storage room was installed and air duct blowing in the new storage room was relocated to outside the room in front of the door.

The wall with the door was covered with sheet rock on both sides, but the wall forming the back of the entertainment center was left open. The new entertainment center would cover the framing from outside the room, but Mr. HomeOwner wanted the framing to be accessible from the storage room. He then covered the wall with peg board, installed a soft covered work bench suitable for repairing guitars, and shelving to house sound equipment and musical instruments. After the walls were covered with sheetrock, they were prepared for painting. The carpet in the storage room was removed and the floor was painted.

After the wall construction was completed, the custom entertainment center could be built. The walls defined the boundaries for the entertainment center as 87.25 inches wide and 92 inches high, with a depth of 20 inches. Once the HomeOwners decided on the size of flat screen, the rest of the entertainment center design could be completed.

The unit is constructed of oak plywood with solid oak face frames and raised panel doors. The stain color is a match to the existing 20 year old
woodwork in the house.

The black center panel of the lower cabinet is actually a smoked glass door, behind which are housed the electronic components (cable receiver, surround sound, DVD and VCR players).

The center is actually constructed as two pieces, and then joined together in the final installation. The lower cabinets are one piece and made to fit the opening exactly. The base top was installed after the base unit was fit into the opening, and then varnished in place. After two coats of varnish dried, the upper unit was installed followed by the installation of the crown moulding.

To accomplish the stain color, a two step process is required. Step one involves applying a dark stain, which is then sanded off to leave only dark pigmentation in the grain lines. Then a second, lighter stain is applied to achieve the finished tint, after which two coats of semi-gloss polyurethane is applied.

Behind the raised panel doors flanking the electronics bay are two roll-out drawers for storing DVD’s and video’s.

This picture shows the finished project in its entirety. Both the storage room and the entertainment center arevisible. If one could look further to the left the band’s rehearsal area would be seen.

Finally, here is the reconfigured French door leading out to a patio. This reconfigured space has accomplished all that the HomeOwners wanted.

Tile: Kitchen Backsplash

The client featured in this project got new granite counter-tops for her kitchen. In an attempt to jazz up the kitchen, the area between the top of the old counter and the bottom of the kitchen cabinets was painted blue. The old rolled form laminate counters had an integrated backsplash. As part of the kitchen transformation, the client did a terrific job of painting the light oak cabinets with a semi-gloss in ultra white. The installation of the new counters revealed two problems with the previous painted backsplash. The first was the white band that the rolled backsplash from the old counter had covered. More glaring was the two voids where the sheetrock walls had been cut to enable a tight fit in the corner.

The client decided a new backsplash was in order. She selected a tumbled travertine stone available in a subway tile configuration. Two different varieties were chosen for added interest. A listello mosaic of 1 inch squares with different slates was chosen to complement the travertine.

Prior to installation, the voids in the sheetrock were repaired. The travertine was coated with an application of stone sealer help to keep mastic and grout from sticking to the stone. Mastic, rather than thin-set, was used to secure the stone to the walls. The travertine was placed in a running bond configuration, with the listello placed in the upper half of the backsplash area. The grout lines were limited to 1/16 of an inch. A day after the tile was installed, a non-sanded grout was used to fill in the voids between the stones and to fill voids that naturally occur in travertine.

After the grout had cured for 72 hours, the backsplash was coated with an application of sealer/enhancer. An enhancer product helps to accentuate the colors and leaves a slight sheen on the surface, adding to the reflections off the mirror-like granite counter, while the sealer helps to protect the grout and stone from staining.

Since this project was completed, the client has repainted the walls, introduced new lighting, and replaced the major appliances, yielding a bright, new modern kitchen.

Tile in the Rear Entry and Laundry

This project was interesting because of the things around it. A few years ago the client discovered that the floor in the powder room through the door to the right had failed due to a leaky toilet. The person they hired to make the repairs removed the hardwood and rotten subfloor from the bathroom, covered the new subfloor with cement board and then installed 18 square feet of ceramic tile. Mrs. Client liked the tile so much that, over the course of a few months, as budget would permit, purchased additional boxes of the tile hoping that one day the rear entry from the garage and the laundry room could be covered with the same tile. What she didn’t know was if she had purchased enough tile to do the entire space.

The rear entry was covered with finished-in-place hardwood and flowed from the rear entry into the kitchen and beyond. The floor in the laundry was a resilient flooring product installed over ¼” underlayment over subfloor.

First the hardwood had to be removed. A cut was made in the opening between the rear entry and the kitchen. The baseboards and shoe moldings from both the rear entry and the laundry room were carefully removed and labeled for future use. Then the hardwood flooring was removed from the entry and an adjoining coat closet. The flooring and underlayment from the laundry was removed after the washer and dryer were taken from the room.

To prepare the subfloor for ceramic tile, ½” cement board was applied, secured with fortified thin-set and concrete screws. Then a leveling compound was poured over the cement board to produce an almost perfectly level floor. After curing, the first tiles were placed adjacent to the tile previously laid years earlier in the powder room. This resulted in an island of tile being laid on the first day before the islands could be completed the second day. A sloped metal transition strip was placed between the tile and the hardwood floor in the kitchen. And Mrs. Client had guessed right on how much tile to buy: a half box remained at the end. After curing for 24 hours, grout left over from the powder room project was applied to the tile. The baseboard and shoe moldings were replaced. After another 72 hours of curing time, the tile was sealed and the laundry appliances returned to their proper place.

Entertainment Center #1

The owner wanted to have two entertainment centers built for his home. This post features the entertainment center built to house his 60” flat screen TV together with surround sound and other video playing and recording equipment. The home theater is in the basement of his home.

All the woodwork in this home is painted an off-white, and so the home owner wanted the same appearance for this fixture. He also wanted the entertainment center to have that “built-in” appearance.

The entertainment center is just over 12 feet long and 88 inches tall. The depth of the unit is 24 inches. While the ceiling in the room is 8 feet high, the height of the entertainment center is defined by the mechanical enclosure on the right side wall. Construction of the entertainment center is birch plywood with maple dimensional lumber for the construction of the face frames.

There are a total of six individual custom made cabinet boxes making up the unit. The unit is divided into two groupings. The lower grouping with the doors features three individual boxes with a single face frame joining them together. Behind the doors are adjustable shelf panels and the electrical supply for the electronics. The black rectangle in the middle of the unit, under the flat screen, houses a speaker. The speaker bay has a spring latch door covered with speaker fabric. The doors were custom made for the unit. The fixed shelf on top of the base group is edged with a simple ogee profile.

The upper grouping of open shelving and flat screen bay is comprised of three boxes with a single face frame unifying the façade. The shelving in the two side bays is fully adjustable. The center bay with the flat screen in it has a practical depth of 12 inches to enable the flat screen to be seen from the side without having a portion of the cabinet obscure the view. The two black bays immediately flanking the flat screen house tower speakers. The spring latch doors are covered with speaker fabric.

The crown molding at the top of the unit mirrors the crown molding trimming the room.

Entertainment Center #2

The owner wanted to have two entertainment centers built for his home. This profiles the custom units built for the hearth room adjacent to the kitchen and breakfast nook.

The fireplace, marble surround and mantle were pre-existing. While the kitchen cabinets are cherry, all the casework in the home is painted white. The owners wanted something that would match the kitchen cabinetry yet tie in with the white casework. The result is this.

The units on each side of the fireplace are 54” wide and made up of four separate boxes. The units are 96” tall, the same height as the kitchen cabinets. The unit to the left is 22 inches deep to fit inside the casework surrounding the adjacent opening. The unit to the right is 24 inches deep to accommodate the electronic equipment to drive the flat screen and surround sound. The base is made with two boxes joined with a common face frame and top surface. The upper cabinets are formed with two boxes and a common face frame, and are joined to the base units. The shelving in both top and bottom units are fully adjustable. The crown molding topping the units has the same profile as the crown molding in the room.

The units were made using birch plywood and maple dimension stock to form the face frames. The doors were custom made to fit these particular cabinets. Then entire project was painted with semi-gloss paint in a white tint exactly the same as the pre-existing case work.