Friday and Saturday I worked on putting up the cedar cap rail that will be above the rock veneer and below the shingles on the front and south sides of the house. The rock goes over tar paper and a coarse wire screen, which provides a base for the mortar (scratch coat) and rock. Bill (Bubba) McCutchen made the cedar cap for us, about 120 ft worth (not cheap but knot-free and straight). Its 2.5" wide, 1.5" thick, and has a 15°bevel on the front edge and a little groove on the bottom front, which serves as a drip guide. The cap rail wraps around the house at the same elevation, just below the window in the sunroom and bedroom. On the garage, the cap rail intersects the windows so we had to picture frame these by dropping the rail about 8".
Now it may seem to be an easy job to just nail this stuff to the side of the house, right along the top of the tar paper. But not so quick. Did I mention that there are 13 corner miters and 3 splices involved. Thank god for power miter boxes, like by 10" Dewalt. You can cut at 1/2° increments, but luckily most of the corners came out at exactly 90°. A few were 1-2° off, not because of poor framing, but wood shrinkage and twisting. So these miters became a bit more of a custom job. Nevertheless, with about 10 hours of labor I got them all up and looking good. Screwed the rail to the siding and studs with 3" square drive screws, angling up through the cap so that the screw head is buried in the rock and mortar and doesn't come up through the rail. Mr. Bill the cabinet maker would even approve of this job, I hope. Check out the photos.
Friday and Saturday I worked on putting up the cedar cap rail that will be above the rock veneer and below the shingles on the front and south sides of the house. The rock goes over tar paper and a coarse wire screen, which provides a base for the mortar (scratch coat) and rock. Bill (Bubba) McCutchen made the cedar cap for us, about 120 ft worth (not cheap but knot-free and straight). Its 2.5" wide, 1.5" thick, and has a 15°bevel on the front edge and a little groove on the bottom front, which serves as a drip guide. The cap rail wraps around the house at the same elevation, just below the window in the sunroom and bedroom. On the garage, the cap rail intersects the windows so we had to picture frame these by dropping the rail about 8".
Now it may seem to be an easy job to just nail this stuff to the side of the house, right along the top of the tar paper. But not so quick. Did I mention that there are 13 corner miters and 3 splices involved. Thank god for power miter boxes, like by 10" Dewalt. You can cut at 1/2° increments, but luckily most of the corners came out at exactly 90°. A few were 1-2° off, not because of poor framing, but wood shrinkage and twisting. So these miters became a bit more of a custom job. Nevertheless, with about 10 hours of labor I got them all up and looking good. Screwed the rail to the siding and studs with 3" square drive screws, angling up through the cap so that the screw head is buried in the rock and mortar and doesn't come up through the rail. Mr. Bill the cabinet maker would even approve of this job, I hope. Check out the photos.
