Why I Need to Build a New Storm Window

The old storm window did its job for well over 13 years, but it had seen better days. If you look carefully, you can see some of the old felt weatherstrip hanging down behind the glass. I hope the new storm will look very similar, but much less rotten, and with all the weatherstrip still attached.

I took the window down soon after taking that picture. Here's a look at one of the joints once the window was in the shop:

Obviously it needed repair or replacement. Still, I wish I had been so curious about the strength of that joint. Two seconds later, having gently pried it apart with my fingers, it looked like this:

So now you know why I'm desperately working to finish the replacement storm. My "B" plan of using the old window no longer exists, and the weather is getting cold enough that water is puddling on the inside of the leaded glass and cold air radiates from it, as though it were an air conditioner. Happily, I'll be able to re-use the glass, and I'm not worrying that I might break it getting it out of the old window.

So far, the stock has been identified, and ripped to width, but I've run into some challenges, including the fact that the planer I inherited is at least temporarily unable to adjust due, I think, to rust. I'm going to have to surface the stock by hand, which means they probably won't be exactly the same width, which means I have to be more careful than I had planned with how I cut the tenons and saddles for the joints. I think I've figured it out, though, and if it works I'll post about it. And if it doesn't work... I'll still post about it.

No More Kerosene Tank; More Shop Space

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So here's two thousand words about what happened at my shop today:



Perhaps I will build a lumber rack here and free up a bunch of floor and wall space currently housing lumber.

Old Riser Removed, New Riser Installed

Yesterday I removed the rotting eyesore of a top riser and replaced it with the newly cut and primed riser replacement. The hardest part of removing the old riser was removing all the 3" air-driven wire brads that Bryan, our carpenter, put into it from all sides.

There were four nails into the end, eight into each side, four or five in the middle and three into the top edge through the stair lip. Much of the riser crumbled away from the nails, leaving them intact and unmoved.

Hear you can see the porch construction after the riser was removed and the nails pulled. When the old riser was removed, I discovered a good sized fungus growing on the back. Good thing I got to this when I did!

One trick I learned was for pounding out the long, flexible air-driven nails. They tended to bend rather than driving, but after nipping them to about half the original length, I could easily drive out the head to be pulled.

The riser was cut, then primed, then installed. This allowed me to prime all sides, including the cut edges, to protect it from the weather, and hopefully slow the rotting that lead me to this repair.

Notice that both ends were a good fit. I learned the hard way (by not doing it) that I should have shimmed in the riser like I did during the test fit. The gap at the bottom (which you'll notice was also in the original, because that stair step is slightly too tall) is not even all the way across. The good news is that no one but me will notice.

Notice the right side sits perfectly flush with the other board. When I fit the riser in, it fit perfectly flush on both sides. That demonstrated the value of marking directly from the porch. You may remember from my first blog post about replacing the riser, that after shimming it in for a test fit I marked the end from the porch, measured the width of the end board with my compass, and re-marked the line that much shorter.

If I had measured instead of taking a direct measurement, I would have marked the distance, marked and cut it square to the edge, and found angle was not actually 90 degrees. As it was, when I picked up the square to mark the line all the way across I almost marked it square anyway. Thankfully I trusted the line I took from the porch, turned the straight edge to follow the line, and cut at the angle I had scribed. One disaster averted.

You'll notice that I pounded the nails by hand, and I only used three stainless steel nails per support. This should hold just fine, and since they are ribbed and stainless, they shouldn't pull loose or rust through like some of the old ones (which were only galvanized). I hope to paint the riser this weekend and move on to replacing the front porch hand rail and an old wooden storm window.

Replacing a Rotting Stair Riser

The top riser of the back porch is rotting and needs replacing. Tonight I started that process by fitting the replacement riser.

Supplies needed:

6' length of 2x8 Pine
Shims
Drafting compass
Saber Saw or Coping Saw
Pencil

I discovered the hard way that even though Home Depot and Lowe's carry risers that are 48" long, your riser might require something longer. So, after two trips for lumber I was ready to start fitting using the 6-foot length of 2x6 pine I'd procured. I suspect that someday I will wish I had purchased poplar, but pine it will be.

The riser height was not exactly equal to the space (room for movement), so I had to shim it up into place to get a marking. Veritas has a fancy gadget, called a transfer scribe, for marking odd shaped ends, but I just used my standard compass. I set the compass to a width greater than the deepest section of the step against the house and simply dragged the tightener against the house while the pencil scribed the board.

I then cut the shape using a saber saw. I returned to the back porch and inserted the riser to see how well I had done.

The fit was good enough, so I went to the other end of the board and marked it directly from the porch. That measurement was not the correct length, because the end is capped by another board. So, with the direct scribed line, I knew I had to subtract the width of that other board. I Using the compass again, I set the compass arms to exactly the with of the end board, then used this setting to shift the mark to where my cut needed to go on my riser. I took it back to the basement and cut it square at the mark.

After tonight's work, the riser is ready to prime for painting, which I can do in the basement this weekend (even if it does rain outside, with the arrival of Tropical Storm Hannah). If all goes well I will be as happy with the fit of the new riser as I was with the old one (installed by a professional carpenter). So far, so good. Here's the before and after shots: