Brice Burrell
Member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2007
- Messages
- 7,385
Arched hood dormer repair.
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I was exchanging PMs recently with another member and in the course of our conversation he asked why I never post any of my projects on the FOG. Well Mike and anyone else interested here’s one I worked on a few days last week, an arched hood dormer repair. The front porch dormer on this craftsman house was in pretty rough shape. The tin on the roof was not our end of the deal and it only needs small repairs to give it a few more good years. The tin flashing/drip edge was shot along with the fascia, soffit and moldings. The scope of the job was replace the damaged trim, any rotted framing and make a window sash to go in place of the of the stucco. The window will later get stained glass and will be backlit.
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Like almost every exterior repair I’ve ever done there was a limited budget. Not many people appreciate what it costs to maintain the architectural details of their homes. This job wasn’t your everyday run of the mill repair so we’d need to get everything right the first time around, and without a lot of head scratching to stay on budget.
This wasn’t my job, I was working for another contractor that I do a lot of work for. I didn’t look at this job or do any of the initial planning. We talked about the job a day or day before we started so I didn’t know what to expect until we got to the job on the first day. So we demoed everything and started to put together a plan. I didn’t really like any of the ideas the other guys to make the repairs. Thankfully, this contractor trusts my judgment and we able to quickly reformulate the plan to something I had some confidence in.
Step one was to make a wide Azek drip cap and install that as a base for everything else to sit on. Then we made an arched framing member out of several sheets of plywood laminated together. That started with pulling measurements to calculate the diameter needed for our arc. This is where the construction master came in handy since I can never remember the formula to do this on paper. Then glue and screw a couple of sheets of ply together, make a trammel out of a scrap of ply and rout out the arch.
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Below is the cut out arched framing member.
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We added a few lookouts to attach the arch and nailers for the soffit. Below John is installing the plywood arch.
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Next was to make the fascia out several mitered pieces of Azek. The miters were pocket screwed together and more of the same with the router on the trammel.
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The cut out fascia.
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The next step was to cut the pieces to make up the arched crown detail. We used several pieces of ¾” Azek laminated to make a 1 ½” thick piece with a ¾” round over on the inside edge for the upper piece of the crown. Matt is checking the fit of this piece.
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After that upper piece was installed a piece of scotia made up the bottom part. All the arched pieces needed to be cut on a compound angle to match the slop of the drip cap. Getting measurements for these parts was a bit of a challenge and we had too much time invested to screw up any part so it had to right the first time.
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The next task was to make a sash for the stained glass. I didn’t thing we could use Azek because of the expansion and contraction of PVC. We decided on spanish cedar instead. With the Azek pieces I didn’t mind having a bit waste but with 8/4 spanish cedar I wanted to be a lot more careful to not have excess waste. I ended up using Sketchup to layout the arch to be able to use the narrowest pieces of wood as possible.
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I dominoed the three pieces together with sipo tenons to make up the top part of the sash. I routed the arch but I didn’t have a bit long enough to out all the way through so I had to use the jigsaw and pattern bit to finish the cut.
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The lower rail was cut to size and it was Dominoed to the upper piece. The whole thing was assembled dry and test fit in place.
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It was funny, I was about to mix up some epoxy when I realized I didn’t have a way to clamp the sash. Some quick thinking on John’s part to use ratchet straps I had in my truck.
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Once the epoxy dried I sanded and routed in a rabbet for the glass.
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I put a coat of primer on the sash and then it was on its way to the artist and waiting for the stained glass. This is how it looks now, electricians will install lighting to backlight the glass and at some point before the snow flies the whole house is going to be painted. I’ll try to get back for pictures when it’s done.
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