| The Look of the House: Finishing the Exterior |
From "Home IQ"
episode DHIQ-113 |
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With the brick, mortar, frieze and cement boards, aluminum trim and siding up there are only a couple of details left to finishing the exterior of the Oberg house.- Another new material -- medium density fiberboard (MDF) (figure A) -- is used for trim around the front windows of the house. This product is manufactured to look like wood and it's "much" less expensive.
- Unfortunately there were some problems when it came time to install the MDF on the Oberg house. The details on the house plan are confusing. If the plans are followed exactly the windows in the front won't match.
Troubleshooting: After pouring over the plans, the site supervisor comes up with a solution he's sure will please the homeowners. They set the windows up to scale to mirror each other, no matter what were on the original plans.
- With all of the exterior materials on the house, it looks done from the street (figure B), but there's one key step remaining to make sure all the exterior work lasts a long, long time --
It's important that all the exterior materials blend together well, which is why the final step is to add caulking (figure C) or flashing to the gaps between the materials (brick, aluminum, siding, etc.). Without the caulking or flashing or both, water can penetrate through the gaps into the home.
Windows and DoorsA rule of thumb concerning windows and doors is that they take up at least 10 to 15 percent of the cost of the home, which is why it's vital that homeowners do their homework and think long and hard when choosing both the doors and windows for their new home. Lynn and Brad Oberg were involved in virtually every aspect of the design process for their new home. And when it came to designing the front door Brad had a novel idea, which was to take a French-wood hinge door that would typically be used off a patio or bedroom and used it as the entry door (figure D). He had some side lights and transom windows added around the door to create a unique, and beautiful, entranceway. Now that the exterior is finished our attention focuses on the interior, and in the next episode of Home IQ, the homeowners' dream kitchen is cooked up!
RESOURCES :
Bricks
PF Cook Brick Co., Inc.
202 Commerce Park Dr.
Cranberry Township, PA 16066
Phone: 724-772-5999
Fax: 724-772-6677
E-mail: PFCookBrick@Hotmail.com
Brick Installation
Klobuchar Masonry
Phone: 724-443-7122
Siding Installation
M.A. Eck Contracting, Inc.
639 California Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15202
Phone: 412-734-3555
GUESTS :
Brad and Lynn Oberg
Homeowners
Company: IBACOS (Brad)
Title: Co-Founder/Chief Technology Officer
Website: www.ibacos.com
Henry (Hank) Swierczynski
President
Hendolhurst Homes
955 Markman Park Rd.
Baden, PA 15005
Phone: 724-935-5658
Fax: 724-935-0884
E-mail: buildm@zoominternet.net
Greg Allen
Site Supervisor
Hendolhurst Homes
955 Markman Park Rd.
Baden, PA 15005
Phone: 724-935-5658
Fax: 724-935-0884
E-mail: gcrbs@adelphia.net
Pamela F. Cook
President
PF Cook Brick Co., Inc.
202 Commerce Park Dr.
Cranberry Township, PA 16066
Phone: 724-772-5999
Fax: 724-772-6677
E-mail: PFCookBrick@Hotmail.com
John Broniek
Buildings Programs Manager
Ibacos
Website: www.ibacos.com
Patrick Janes
Andersen Windows
00 Fourth Ave. N
Bayport, MN 55003
Phone: 651-264-5150
Fax: 651-264-2068
E-mail: patrick.janes@andersencorp.com
Website: www.andersenwindows.com
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