Renovation 4th Edition
Page 25
Apply another 1⁄4-in. layer of mastic over
Foot traffic or roof decks placed directly
the webbing, feathering its edges so it can
on the roof membrane. Roof decks should be
shed water.
supported by floating posts fastened to rafters
A three-course patch also is effective on failed
through the sheathing and flashed correctly.
flashing, where dissimilar materials meet, and
for other leak-prone areas.
repairing roof blisters. If there are no leaks
below and the blister is intact, stay away from it.
tiLe and sLate Roofs
Don’t step on it, cut it, or nail through it. However,
if it has split, press it to see what comes out. If
Tile and slate are relatively brittle, expensive, and
the roof is dry, only air will escape; if the roof is
easily damaged if you don’t know what you’re
wet, water will emerge. In the latter case, let the
doing. And they’re slippery when wet. In most
inside of the blister dry by holding the side open
cases, hire a pro to make repairs.
with wood shims; if you’re in a hurry, use a hair
Tile and slate are so durable that they often
dryer. Once the blister has dried inside, patch it.
outlast the underlayment and fasteners. So when
Professionals repair split blisters with a three-
repairing or replacing these roofs, prolong the life
course patch, which requires no nails:
of the installation by using heavy underlayment
102 Chapter 5
(30-lb. building paper or a self-adhering bitumi-
shanks may prevent sliding a full-length replace-
nous membrane), copper attachers, and copper
ment piece into place.
flashing. Although these materials are expensive,
That done, align the bottom edge of the
if the roof lasts upward of 60 years without leak-
replacement slate to others in the course. Predrill
ing, it’s money well spent.
two nail holes, each one 1 in. from the edge and
about 1 in. below the course above; you’ll proba-
roof tiles weigh about three times as much as
bly be drilling through two layers of slate, so take
asphalt shingles. So if you’re thinking of install-
it slow. (Use a cordless drill with a carbide-tip
ing a new type of tile or tiling a roof for the first
bit.) Size the drill bit just slightly larger than the
time, have a structural engineer evaluate your sit- thickness of the nail shank. Because this pair of
uation. Your roof framing may need bolstering to nails won’t be covered by the slate above, caulk
support the additional load.
all holes with urethane before inserting nails.
Tiles are available as two-piece mission-barrel
Drive the nails down just snug and no more so
tiles; as one-piece low-profile concrete tiles; and as you don’t split the slate.
flat-shake tiles, which mimic wood shakes. Tiles
overlap to direct rain into tile channels.
Individual mission-barrel tiles are
Traditionally, tiles were set without nails on wood
irregular, so it’s smart to snap
battens or skip-sheathing. But today they are
horizontal chalklines to align tile
courses and vertical lines to line up
commonly nailed to plywood sheathing, especially
trough tiles, which are nailed directly
if the roof pitch is 5-in-12 or steeper. Two-piece
to the roof deck. Cap tiles, which lie
mission tiles are nailed in two manners: Trough
atop trough tiles, are secured to the
tiles are nailed directly to sheathing. Cap tiles,
roof deck with copper wire. To
which sit atop trough tiles, are attached to inter-
prevent galvanic corrosion, use nails
vening copper wires nailed to the roof.
and wires of the same material.
slate roofs are most often damaged by tree
limbs. You can usually make repairs safely if the
damage is along an edge and hence reachable
without requiring that you walk on the roof. If
you note a number of missing slates and rust
stains on the roof, the nails may be rusting
through, creating an extremely dangerous situa-
tion. Call a slate specialist at once.
To repair incidental damage, buy a slate hook.
Work the head of the tool up under the damaged
piece until the tool’s hooked head catches a nail
shank. Then strike the handle of the tool with a
hammer to cut through the nail shank. When
both shanks are severed, slide out the damaged
slate, being careful not to disturb adjacent pieces.
Once the damaged slate is on the ground,
transfer its dimensions onto a replacement slate.
Then rent a tile-cutting saw to cut the new piece,
wearing goggles. Or ask a tile dealer to cut the
piece for you. Ideally, the new piece should be the If properly installed over a durable membrane—such as the
same size as the one it’s replacing, but old nail
fiberglass-reinforced underlayment shown here—a tile
roof can last 80 years.
tile-Roof underLayMenT
When replacing sections of slate or
slatelike materials, alternate slate
A rubberized asphalt underlayment reinforced with fiberglass, layfastSBS® is getting
courses with strips of 30-lb. building
a lot of buzz among professionals. Specified for tile roofs, it’s installed in two layers
paper. Century-old sheathing boards
(double-papered) with 36-in.-wide sheets overlapped 19 in. Tiles often gouge build-
can become pretty hard, so if copper
nails bend or deform, use stainless-
ing paper underlayment during installation, but not this stuff, which is also specified
steel roofing nails instead.
for shake, shingle, and metal roofs.
Roofs
103
Doors, Windows,
6 and Skylights
We ask doors, windows, and skylights to do a installing prehung interior doors and then move
lot. They must be durable yet movable, let in light on to exterior doors, which require additional
yet keep out rain, admit guests but deny drafts.
weatherproofing steps. But first a few words
Mediators of outside and in, they largely decide
about selecting and sizing doors.
how comfortable, healthful, and energy-efficient
a home is. Choosing and installing these units is
Ordering Doors: An Overview
complicated, and you’ll find related information
Door frames consist of several pieces: two side
in several other chapters: flashing in chapters 5
pieces, or side jambs, and a head jamb (or frame
and 7; openings in exterior walls, repairing rot,
head), running across the top; exterior doors also
and structural elements in chapter 8; installing
have a sill spanning the bottom. (The sill may
casing in chapter 17; and energy conservation
also have a threshold, but more about that later.)
and air quality in chapter 14.
Jambs are further distinguished by the hardware
I
’ll take this chapter in order: doors first, then
they bear: The jamb on which the door is hung is
windows, and finally skylights. Proceeding from
the hinge jamb, whereas the jamb that receives
simple to more complex tasks, I’ll start with
Getting ready for liftoff: The rough
opening, wrapped in flashing tape,
awaits a prehung triple-casement
window. After removing the
protective plastic and shipping
blocks, the crew will test-fit the unit
in the opening.
104
the latch is the latch jamb (also called strike jamb
or lock jamb).
On a common frame-and-panel door, the
zzzzzz Door, Door Frame, and Rough Opening
ROUGH OPENING
thicker vertical elements are called stiles; hence,
hinge stile and latch (or strike) stile. Horizontal
Cripple stud
elements are called rails. Glass panes in French
DOOR FRAME
doors are called lights, and the thin wood strips
DOOR ELEMENTS
between lights are called muntins.
Head jamb
Consider the following factors when order-
Head rail
ing doors:
Top
Interior versus exterior. Exterior doors are gen-
plate
Header
erally thicker (13⁄
Hinge
4 in. versus 13⁄8 in.), more expen-
stile
sive, more weather-resistant, and more secure
than interior doors. Exterior doors may have
King
water- or UV-resistant finishes and often are insu-
Lock or
stud
lated and weatherstripped. Don’t use interior
latch rail
doors outside—they won’t last.
Prehung. Prehung (preframed) doors come fit-
ted to a frame, with hinges mortised into a jamb.
Sole
Ordering prehung doors can save huge amounts
Panel
plate
of time. However, if doorways are already
framed, specify unframed doors (see “Hanging a
Door to an Existing Frame” on p. 128).
Hinge jamb
Knockdown prehung doors arrive with the
Bottom
Jack stud
Latch stile
frame head cut to the correct width and all other
rail
(trimmer stud)
parts milled with correct clearances around the
Latch jamb
door, but the parts are not assembled. This allows
you to trim the jambs down to the right length
for your flooring and threshold heights.
Suppliers will cut exterior sills to fit if you ask
them to, but many contractors prefer to buy sills
doors 7 ft. high, so that size is still widely avail-
separately and fit them on site.
able. Of late, 8-ft.-high French doors are in vogue
Width. Door widths increase in 2-in. increments. because they allow light to penetrate far into liv-
When door dimensions are stated as a pair of
ing spaces. Of course, you can special-order a
numbers, width always comes first—for example, door of virtually any size if you’re willing to pay
2 ft. 8 in. by 6 ft. 8 in. (this is sometimes abbrevi-
for it. Salvage yards are excellent sources of odd-
ated as 2868).
size doors.
Standard interior doors are 2 ft. 6 in. and
Jambs. Wall thickness determines the width of
2 ft. 8 in. wide. For doors leading to busy hall-
door jambs if you order prehung units. Interior
ways, or if you need extra room for a wheelchair door jambs are commonly 49⁄16 in. wide, which
or walker, architects often specify 2 ft. 10 in. or
can span a 2x4 stud wall (actual width, 31⁄2 in.)
3 ft. 0 in. You can also special-order interior
with 1⁄2-in. drywall on both sides—leaving 1⁄16 in.
doors 3 ft. 6 in. wide. Narrow doors (2 ft. 0 in. to to spare. Typically, interior door jambs are built
2 ft. 4 in.) are available for half-baths and closets; from 3⁄4-in.-thick stock (nominal 1 in.).
even narrower ones (1 ft. 4 in. to 1 ft. 10 in.) are
For 2x6 walls (actual width, 51⁄2 in.), specify
for linen closets and such.
69⁄16-in.-wide jambs, which can accommodate
Standard exterior doors are 3 ft. 0 in. wide,
two wall-sandwiching layers of 1⁄2-in. drywall
although side doors are sometimes 2 ft. 8 in. or
or—on an exterior wall—1⁄2-in. drywall and 1⁄2-in.
2 ft. 10 in. wide. You can special-order extra-wide plywood sheathing. Jambs for prehung exterior
42-in. exterior doors, but their greater weight
doors are usually fashioned from 11⁄2-in.-thick
requires larger hinges, and, of course, extra-wide
stock, rabbeted with an integral doorstop to
doors need a greater area of free space when they receive the door when closed.
swing open.
Standard-width jambs won’t work if your
Height. Standard door height is 6 ft. 8 in., for
old house has full-dimension lumber and plaster
both interior and exterior doors on newer houses. walls or if you’re covering walls with 5⁄8-in. dry-
Older houses (1940s and earlier) sometimes had
wall. Your choices then become (1) jamb exten-
sions to increase the width of standard jambs,
Doors, Windows, and Skylights
105
(2) custom-milled jambs, including 1⁄8 in. extra
to accommodate wavy walls or twisted lumber,
and (3) split jambs, which are interlocking half-
zzzzzz Interior Wall Cross Section
1/2-in. drywall
jambs that can be adjusted to the width of a
2x4
wall. (An integral doorstop covers the gap
(actually 31/2 in. wide)
between sections.)
Doorstop
Swing. Door swing indicates which side you
want the hinges on. Imagine facing the door as it
swings open toward you: If the doorknob will hit
your right hand first, it’s a right-handed door; if
your left hand grabs the knob, then it’s a left-
P R O T I P
handed door. Another big distinction—usually
ignored—is whether a door swings in or out. The
Double exterior units such as
vast majority of residential exterior doors are
French doors have an active door,
inswings, but outswing doors are better at sealing
which usually opens, and a semi-
active one, which opens only
out drafts and water, as explained on p. 126.
when the throw bolts are
Type and style. Hinged single doors are by far
retracted. When specifying hard-
the most common type, but they need room to
ware, indicate which door is
operate. If space is tight, consider sliding doors,
Shims
Jamb casing
active because it gets the cylin-
pocket doors, or bifolds. For wide openings,
der or mortise lock. And make
note that hinged double doors individually weigh
sure the door stile is wide enough
Frame jamb
less and take less room to swin
g open than one
to receive that lockset: French
massive door.
door stiles are often narrower
A standard frame jamb, which is 49/16 in. wide,
than those of hinged single doors.
Try to match existing doors in the house or
can span a stud wall sandwiched between 1/2 in.
those on houses of a similar architectural style.
drywall panels.
In general, frame-and-panel doors tend to go well
with older houses and flush doors have a more
contemporary look. For that reason, flush sliding
doors on older homes are usually placed on the
back of the house so they don’t look inconsistent
with the front and side facades.
Installation, in a Nutshell
Most doors, windows, and skylights are preassembled in fac-
tories and delivered prehung, which makes installation much
As you level and plumb windows and doors, use pairs of tapered
shims to hold units in their rough openings. Installers often use
easier. Basically, you screw or nail the unit into a rough open-
8d finish nails to tack jambs in place, but this photo shows a
ing (RO). If the opening is in an exterior wall, weatherproof it
carpenter using trim-head screws, which are easier to remove
first—wrap it with building paper, apply rigid or flexible flash-
when adjusting shims and less likely to bend than finish nails.
Their small heads are easy to sink, fill, or cover with a stop.
ing, and install cap flashing over the top. Rough openings are
typically 1⁄2 in. to 1 in. wider and taller than the outside
dimensions of the door or window frame that you are installing.
Rough openings are rarely square or perfectly sized, so you
need to insert pairs of shims (thin, tapered pieces of wood)
between the square frame and the often out-of-square opening.
Shimming takes patience. But if you install shims carefully,
doors, windows, and skylights will operate freely, without bind-
ing. Once a prehung window or door is installed in its RO, stuff
loose insulation or spray low-expanding foam insulation
between the door or window frame and the framing to seal air
drafts, then cover those gaps with casing.
106 Chapter 6
If your exterior door has glass panels, they
should be double glazed at the least; triple glaz-
ing is more energy efficient but costs more.
zzzzzz Positioning Door Hardware
Double glazing and a storm door may be a better
1/8-in. gap between
choice. Finally, prefinish exterior doors with a