What is sexier than a mitre cut?

A coped cut.

Maybe not for the client. If done correctly, no one will know the difference either way. But for the carpenter, it’s a flaunting skill, that has its place. 

For all you fine people wondering what a cope is, it’s an undercut into the profile of material, that will allow the wood to form around a joining piece. Usually found on the inside corner of most trim work.

Where on most mitered corners, you will need two joining 45 degree cuts, this allows for one cut to be a crosscut, with the joining cut to sit on top of the flat piece.

Need that last minute holiday gift for that trades person you love so dearly?

Get them a wheelbarrow.

And don’t cheap out. Get the ‘never-flat’ tire models.

While most people are carrying one stick per hand, a trades person with a wheelbarrow can carry multiple sticks, in a giant bucket, on a single wheel!

The weight of the world is pretty heavy. 

Yet the weight of a misplaced post, supporting an oversized load, can be felt by all.

I’m sure y’all understand. Right?

That was the issue in the latest installment of ‘Why has this house not fallen apart yet?’. 

Water is this weird thing that will defy gravity.

Every plumber knows, that you need 1/4” of fall over a foot, for water to shed, but do they also know that you need to break the surface tension, or else that stuff will head uphill, backwards, and cross-eyed?

They probably do.

But for carpenters, it’s an easily forgettable thing.

But headaches always grew into eruptions.

The frustrations the clients would go through when their buildings failed. With only the smallest movement to a resolve. The impossible feeling of those corrections, when finding a trade. Even the insanity of dealing with our own internal politics. It would break those who were not ready, for the unknowing and uncontrollable stress.

I learned very quickly, that I did not have a chance of accomplishing a single job from my desk.

Not without the sweat of another on the project.

The past week, I had begun a complete fascia and soffit repair for Peach Roofing.

Peach Roofing will be replacing all the shingles on this project. But damage from a fallen tree limb, coupled with years of little maintenance, and various pest infestations, has caused the boxing (the term for soffit and fascia combined) to need replacing.

And the material of choice for this project is fiber-cement.

Windows bring the world around us into our spaces.

Allowing us to know that the structures we reside in, are more than just a box. A view that shows who is coming and going. The time keeper, that gives us an idea of our position in the day. The meteorologist, confirming the weather.

But it also provides protection. Giving us needed comfort to feel sound within the walls we reside.

Most windows will perform their jobs effortlessly over their life. Yet it is only time before our surrounding environment takes it toll. This can be blamed on poor craftsmenship, the material used, or the missed maintenance. But overall can be an easy fix, knowing the necessary approach to repair. 

For this, I will be going over one of the biggest repairs I perform on windows. That being wooden window sill. And my approach to providing the protection needed to maintain these units.

Roofs can take a beating, but years of abuse can show the flaws in the structural design.