Range Hood Vent
Let's back up and look at last weekend. Last weekend I pretty much only got one thing done all weekend. But it was a big thing. I installed the vent for the range hood.
This is a problem I've been worrying on for a while. How do I penetrate the back wall and finish it off with a cap?
I didn't want to just try to drill a round hole and sit the cap on the angled siding. I'd have to try and fill all the gaps with backer rod and caulk. And eventually that stuff would crack and then water might follow the pipes right into the wall.
At first I thought I could just flip a piece of siding upside down and it would level out the bevel and give me a nice flat surface. It was the first solution Bryan thought of too. But when I tried it, I realized I forgot that since the siding is overlapping it makes the angle more severe.
I realized the best way to do this was to cut a square out of the siding and place a block out of wood I used for the trim into it. Then cut a round hole in that mounting block. But that's easier said than done. How was I going to cut a hole and not crack a clapboard or leave scratches and gouges in my beautiful siding. There was no margin for error.
So for this I got a little crazy.
I built a model of my siding to practice on. I nailed a few narrow pieces of siding to a 2x6 and proceeded to try cutting it every way I could think of. The reciprocating saw was way too rough and uncontrollable. The jigsaw was pretty good but still could jump and fly off course chopping nicks where you don't want them. The chisel was pretty good but couldn't be used for everything because there was too much hammering involved and it would split the clapboards. The hand saw was nice and precise but limited to cutting vertical cuts in whole boards. I also realized I needed to use duct tape and aluminum flashing to keep stray cut and marks from screwing up my siding.
I ended up going with a combination of the hand saw, the jigsaw, and chiseling.
About the time I had gone to home depot to get some better jigsaw blades, I thought it would be funny if I documented every single step it took to get just one thing done on my house. Kind of like a how to book. I guess someone else would have to photograph me doing it all, but it would be a long drawn out process. Something like this:
- Step 1: Measure and cut a piece of wood to fit.
- Step 2: Trim down the piece of wood you cut because it's too big.
- Step 3: Cut a new piece of wood because the piece you trimmed down is now too small
- Step 4: stand back for a moment and make sure you're not going to screw something up by attaching the wood there.
- Step 5: Go to Home Depot and buy something you forgot.
- Step 6: Go to Lowes because Home Depot is out of what you need.
It would go on forever like that. Renovation just isn't as simple as they make it seem on TV.
Now that I know what I know now, I watch those shows and I can see where they totally aren't showing you what happens when the cameras aren't on. Like when they come back from commercial and the door that didn't fit before is now miraculously in place without any explanation... movie magic!
The other say I saw a decorator on TV helping this couple assemble chairs and set up their room when they still hadn't put up the baseboards! You know someone had to move everything out of the way again the install the baseboards after they turned the cameras off. Arg. It's infuriating.
Anyway, all that practice really paid off. I managed to cut a beautiful hole and not damage the siding at all. It looks pretty good. Not too intrusive, I think. I'm going to paint this big ugly thing brown to match the siding too so it's less noticable.
Actually, I was in Home Depot yesterday and saw a nice thin 3 1/2 x 10" wall cap. Very low profile. Aluminum exterior. And I realized I just as easily could have installed one like that... in fact, it might have been easier! oh well. I guess if I was really crazy, or it really bugged me, I could go back and try to swap them out. No no! Quit while you're ahead!
I also installed the back doorbell. That went pretty smoothly until the very last step. As I was screwing the doorbell in the heads on the screws both broke off. Even tho I pre-drilled the holes, these tiny crappy screws both broke just as I finished drilling them in. I couldn't move it somewhere else, so I had to dig holes in the trim and twist the screw shanks out with pliers. Then I filled em in with caulk and put much bigger exterior trim screws in their place.
Oh well. It's in now. It's cute too. Like a little night light.