Front Door and Roof to Wall Flashing

On the way down to site I stopped that the hardware store and met a friend at the hardware store. My front door was strapped to the roof racks of the car. She said to me "Are you going to put the front door in yourself?" "Yes" I replied and I did just that. My only previous door hanging experience was from a shed so I was a bit concerned about my lack of experience. My solution was to hand the door first then build the door jamb around it.

I bought the front door some months ago from The Door Shoppe at Richmond NSW. A shop that is only open on Saturdays and sells discounted, seconds and end of line doors. I finished the door with three coats of Cabots water based acrylic clear finish. Then installed the Lockwood Nexion all in one handle and lock. The instructions for the lock were easy to follow and this first part of the lock went in well. Next I used my sharp brand new chisel to cut out the housing for the hinges. It was worth buying a new chisel for the job as it made the work much easier.

I used Tassie Oak for the front door jamb as I had for the rest of the door jambs in the house. However Tassie Oak is variable in colour and the first batch I got was a medium warm brown colour similar to my window reveals, the next batch was a lighter brown but the timber I got for the front door was very light. The colour combination is not quite what I expected, now the door frame will be closer in colour to the rendered walls than to the door.

I measured the location of the hinges on the hinge side of the door jamb, remembering to leave a 5mm clearance at the bottom of the door, and chiseled out the housing for the hinges before I put the jamb up. Even taking into account the width of the jamb there was going to be way more room in the door space than the door and jamb could fill, so I attached a strip of 20mm to the hinge side of the door opening before I attached the jamb. After checking several times with the level the jamb went in easily and the door was able to swing on its hinges.

Hinge side jamb in place

Next came the closing jamb, where the only tricky park was finding timber the right width to use as blocking between the frame and jamb. Since the jamb on the lock side was much further out than on the hinge side I could not use the nail gun to attach it and resorted to some long screws. The top of the jamb was even further away from the frame and the long screws had difficulty going in, so this time I resorted to my favourite batten screws. The batten screw may have been a little bit too much as everything lines up neatly in the inside and I had tacked the top jamb to the side jambs with the bradder, but the batten screws were so strong that on the outside where the wedges I used to get the right distance for the blocking had not reached the screws bowed the outside edge of the top jamb up a little. Not a big problem as the door still close nicely and I got my 3mm gap between the door and the jamb right.

Lock side jamb in place

I then covered all my nails and crews and batten screws with the thinner pieces of the stops that were neatly attached with the bradder (fix out nailer). Disaster nearly struck when putting in the striker plate for the door lock. I snapped a screwdriver bit and the tip broke off in the screw while it was half way in. I could not get the broken bit of the screwdriver out of the head of the screw and could not get the screw out. The screw was stuck right where the tongue of the lock needed to go. Desperation called for invention and I got the thin disc on thee angle grinder and cut a new slit in the screw head. This now fitted a flat head screwdriver nicely. Not only did I get the screw out, after making the pilot hole bigger I was able to put the screw back in. I now have a nice lockable front door.

Finished front door

The damaged and fixed screw

Unexpectedly the scaffolding was still on site and I got a good close up look at the parapet flashing between the roof and the walls. The overflashing that covered the apron flashing had been cut into the hemp wall and attached with roofing screws. Under the upper windows it also left only a very small piece of wall about 25mm high that will make for some interesting rendering problems.

The overflashing was very close to the upper windows

Overflashing held to wall with roofing screws

Overflashing cut into hemp wall

Joint between clad section of wall and hemp wall

Awning Roof Goes On

Just over a year ago the roofing went on the main sections of the house and now the awnings have received their roof and guttering. We needed scaffolding again for this work to be done. It was an annoying expense, but as I was keen to have the professional roofers do the work so that I do not get any leaks, I had to provide them with scaffolding. I contacted Andrew again from Access Scaffolding at Wollongong and he sent his crew down to put up the scaffolding on afternoon before the roofers arrived.

Scaffolding goes up for the front awning

And the back awnings

The roofing (and scaffolding) had been put off for two weeks due to delays caused by a week of heavy rain in the Shoalhaven, so I was keen for it to all go smoothly. The day the scaffolding went up I phoned the roofing company, Kiteley’s, to confirm they were all lined up for the following day, only to discover at this late stage that they had booked the fascia and gutter to be done Friday and the roofing on the Monday. I wanted to be on site to discuss with the roofers the flashing of the awning roof into the hemp walls and quickly had to rearrange work and family to be on site on the Monday.

I had originally not wanted to have guttering on the awnings, in an effort to make them visually and actually lighter and because we have no storm water and any excess water, not diverted to the water tank, had to be dealt with on site. I also did not want the heavy look of downpipes coming off the awnings. But my concerns about the decks under the awnings rotting from the constant dripping from dew and rain caused me to change my mind and get gutters. I have also decided to use rain chains from the awning gutters and make a feature of and incorporate the use of the water in the landscaping.

The metal fascia and gutter, in Windspray colour to match the other gutters and window frames, started to go up quickly Friday morning, but rain threatened. It sprinkled with rain, stopped and sprinkled again, then a brief shower made the materials too slippery to put up and the roofers put off the job until Saturday, when fine weather was predicted.

The roofers were back Saturday and the remainder of the fascia and guttering were attached, save for the awkward join over the entry area that was not a standard angle and required a different piece to the one that had been provided.

Metal fascia and half round gutters go on the front awnings

And the back awnings

 Monday a different crew of roofers arrived and shortly thereafter so did the roofing. Discussions were had about how to install the flashing where the awnings abutted the hemp walls. I thought it would be easy to chase the overflashing into the hemp as I had had no trouble cutting the hemp with an angle grinder. What I did not know is that on a brick wall they normally chase in a thin groove and slide the overflashing into this and this holds it in place. The groove cut in the hemp walls was not such a tight fit and after discussion of possible alternatives it was decided to try to use silicon to try to keep the overflashing attached to the hemp wall and to have that flashing set in from the finished face of the render so if any water ran down the walls it would drip off the bottom of the render rather than running along the flashing and into the wall.

Some last minute work was needed adjusting the ridge over the entry section. In order to get the minimum 5 degree fall in the roof over the entry and bathroom the framing company had come up with a solution to push the ridge back slightly from the junction with the wall of the main pavilion. This however caused problems for the roofing because a valley commenced at this junction and it commenced any higher there would be water running toward the hemp wall above that junction. The solution was to put the ridge in line with this junction and have a stepped ridge. I originally thought this would look awkward but quickly realised that because of the angles of the roof you will not be able to see it. To then do this all I needed was to add some extra timber for the moved ridge capping to attach to. 

The next problem was that, while I had carefully put in my valley boards and cut off my battens 20mm from the valley boards, I had forgotten to put in the valley battens. So I commenced trimming all the battens and putting in the valley battens parallel to and 20mm out from the valley boards. Being an unusual angle I had to measure all the angles for the valley batten. There are three valleys in the awnings, one over the entry and two either side of the hallway. The valleys over the hallway had the added difficulty of water pipes running through the ceiling that needed channels cut away in the rafters to allow them to fit underneath the valley battens. The temporary roofing over the back valleys were all taken off to put the battens in and then put back on again as the roofers had to come back the next day to finish the back section and the flashing.

Finally a covering over the entryway

The two different height awnings in Shale Grey colourbond

Looking down the awning over the main room

I am keen to see what the house looks like with the awning completed, without the scaffolding in the way, and to see how the flashing to the hemp wall has turned out.