My plan was to put the siding on the north wall of the solar box horizontal to the ground (mimicking the wall facing it) rather than parallel to the roof, thinking that would have more eye appeal. I hadn't planned on it being such a pain. Actually, the plan was hatched shortly after the house was re-sided. At the time thinking about how to accomplish it kept me awake several days after the job was done and I had collected a miscellany of scrap and a couple whole pieces of the siding material. I got more supplies when some of the siding was replaced because of material oil-canning (which unfortunately came back in the same places). I also purchased some of the surrounding material, J-channel, to complete the project.
I cut a couple pieces of scrap last month to see if I had measured and computed the angles of the north wall correctly. When I slotted them into the low corner (the starting point of the work) it just looked wrong! I pulled them out and went back to check my measurements; they were correct. Up on the roof again with a level, and in spite of everything looking catti-whumpus, the test pieces tested level. So much for eye-balling it.
The first day's work.
Yesterday I laid out my material. I had enough for the north wall. Armed with the level again (to get the lines of the two facing walls at the same height) I got the measurements for the low piece. It looked bad when I installed it, but it did check out level. I measured out (twice) and cut the next piece. Installed (now a longer line to look at) it was as wrong as the test pieces, but level. I went to the street to see.
Today I finished the wall. On the Next to last full piece I made an incorrect measurement. The piece came up short . There was material enough to start with for a no-join run, but after the bad cut there wasn't. I had to slip in a small piece to cover the error. It's not noticeable until you're up there inspecting.
It turns out the angle of the cut on the west (starting) side of the wall differs slightly from the east side. That caused a small bit of trouble, corrected with tin snips and some judicial positioning of a piece. I got the last little piece in around 12:30p. I think it looks pretty good, even though the plywood I complained about before still influenced the result detrimentally.
Complete!
East/west material.
No comments:
Post a Comment