December 12th, 2017
Most of us have worked on old homes where the exterior trim and siding were still in great shape: no cupping, bowing, twisting, or rot.As often as not, the wood is old-growth Doug fir, and none of it — the back of the siding, the back of the brick mold, the back and bottoms of the exterior jambs — is back-primed. In many cases, not even the bottoms of the doors were painted! Try that today. Lumber these days is hardly even “new growth” — a lot of it is more like “instant growth.” Just look at the growth rings in a piece of siding or a 1×6 trim board.All this new-growth wood requires new building practices. We can no longer install doors without priming and finishing all six sides. In fact, most door manufacturers will no longer guarantee doors finished in dark colors or installed without adequate overhang protection.