Time for a new front door

[Gothichome]

Paul, those boards look to have been sawn with a frame saw, probably water powered. Some were with in a days wagon ride there would have been a local saw mill. Also, what’s going on with the vertical slats at the base. Are they just hiding the crawl space?
The bones of your home look great, I think it has had good owners all it’s life.

[PaulJohnson]

There were sawmills nearby back in the day, as were iron forges.
The verticals are shingles that kick out the first coarse of clapboards. They were in place and I left them as a time saver.

The house fell into disrepair back in the 80-90’s. The previous owners focused on the bones and infrastructure. They spared no expense bringing it back. The east side wall is 7” out of square and the west side wall is 2” out. For a house built in the 1750’s, I am ok with that small amount.

We are lucky that none of the restoration is heavy construction. The exterior is roof, siding, trim, and window sashes. The interior is restoring the original horse hair plaster. I shot some “how to” vids on the process we used for our dining room if anyone is interested.

Thanks for the questions, feedback, and encouragement.

[Gothichome]

Paul, you should post a link to your videos. Between your legs forts and those of your predecessor your home is in good hands.

[PaulJohnson]

Below is the link to the first video in the series. They are definitely not high quality cinematic works of art. It was my attempt to chronicle the work and help anyone who may be interested.

https://youtu.be/cr68w_PFn8Q

There are a few other updates and other topics there, too.

[phil]

in doing my roof I encountered a little issue that I wasnt' quite sure how to deal with and I see yours is similar and probably lots of us with old houses see it.

originally our houses had wood gutters. alunimum box gutters did not exist.
Later on most everyone went to duride shingles or something similar.

This seems to leave the fascia boards protruding. on mine the fascia boards have slots cut in them to support a board that ran just under the gutter which is long gone and I think many of us , if we have original fascia boards may find they were cut off shorter.

the issue is that with the fascia board projecting out further than the roofing it is now susceptible to weather and we get icicles.

I have noticed some other buildings that have one longer shingle stuck in there to try to help resolve it.

I did similar and I tried to bend up a metal cover to deflect this rainwater from the top of the fascia board into the gutter. It didnt seem to elegant to me but I also didnt' want o start trying to change the design. Im wondering if there is another solution that would look a bit more professional...

I'm not knocking the way yours is done it just seemed like one of those little issues that dont get considered much. I think most hire roofers and they deal with it by just adding a bit of roofing to get it to drip away rather than soaking the fascia but then ice may pull on that bit of shingle and then perhaps pull it off due to the weight of the ice.


Phil

[PaulJohnson]

I love these discussions. There is always something new to learn. I did not give this any thought.

The rule of thumb I have always known is for the first course of shingles to extend over the fascia by 5/8-3/4 over the gutter.

We had wooden gutters and chose to replace them. They were not deep enough to handle the volume of water in a heavy rain. My first choice was a wooden look-a-like made of fiberglass. Due to cost my wife convinced me to go with the aluminum. Our contractor agreed.

The fascia was replace with Azek, so I am not concerned about rot there. Given the flashing, two layers of shingle on the first row, and the ice and water shield - I do not see me losing any shingles to the icicles. This could prove very wrong.

Can you share a pic of your solution? I am very curious.

[phil]

I can try to take a pic of one of the corners.
Paul thanks for posting the Video. I sort of chuckled as it turned into a work project, typical old house owner cant' keep his hands out of it lol I had lots of wallpaper but it was tougher to remove I eventually realized making the room damp like a sauna and keeping it like that for a while really sped things up and the plaster isnt' really damaged by water just have to watch any rooms below etc. bucket and a hot wet mop might help.

I put a metal flashing just above the gutters. its about 4 inches wide or so and goes under the roofing and over the gutter to help keep the plywod dry , also used a drip flashing on the gable ends. what I did was cut a little stick 1/2" x 1/2" so every time I start of finish a row I place it up against the flashing and lay the shingles flush by feeling the stick,, to keep the distance of overhang equal and even. I think you can go about 1/4 to 3/4. If you want to lay a ladder agaist the gable end they could be cut shorter I guess, otherwise you might need a block to stop the ladder from damaging them or put the ladder somewhere else. maybe youd want more overhang inthe absence of the flashing which is optional. I didnt think the flashing did much for the old look but it might help the sheeting last more. in some of the videos from windy areas they put the flashing then lots of roofing goop from a can with a trowel, before the shingles so they dont blow off. the last area I did I was careful and put a bead of roofing compound on the edges of the shingles. I dont really thing they are in danger of blowing off. I think the steper the slope the less likely they are to lift but if its a windy area you need to go further with getting it all stuck down. from the references I found it seems common to put the flashing on the gable ends then the roofing membrane then the flashing above the gutters goes under the membrane. I used a BASF membrane. It comes in a big roll about 8 inches diameter and it took 2 rolls for the whole roof. if there are valleys or if you want o go a step further there is that stic on membrane. all that is required here is one row of felt above the gutters. a membrane isn't needed by code. because I was alone and working sporadically the membrane helped because once that's on its rain proof, plus its a bit of extra insurance. the membrane is a bit grippy so its easier to walk on but it is sugested to use a nail pattern and plastic cap nails with pretty close spacing. I followed the grid because I didnt wan tthe stuff tearing out under my feet but I think most roofers would do a lot less nailing of it. I wondered if maybe the plastic caps also create a little gap of space to break the capillary action in places so if water does get under the shingles it can leave easier but I might be making that up..

a lot of videos show roofers just laying them over the edges and trimmming them all at once. I didn't have success doing that. I'm using the architectural shingles so they are a bit thicker and they sure dont cut like in those videos, but if they are a bit warm its easier going than if they are cold. I found it easiest to pre-cut as many as I could down on the ground.