DRIVEWAY

Operable windows 101

Next to the front door we are building a sidelight with a fixed upper unit and an operable lower unit. I was not sure how to glaze in this unit until Todd over at Walker and Laberge showed me this gasket material. It's basically a rubber boot for the glazing unit that seals it to the frame. (In our case a Douglas Fir wood frame.) We are using a standard piano hinge that will hold the frame about 1/8" off the outer frame. This will give us just enough room for a weather seal all the way around the unit.

We held the gasket to the glazing unit with tape until the frame was on. Afterwards, we cut the tape out with a razor knife.

After the door and sidelight frame was in we built the return wall on the right side of the porch. The return is about 14" deep and will eventually have a bench in it. This is where we will leave our dirty boots when we no longer live in a construction site. The sidelight will be finished later once we figure out what type of latch to use on the operable unit.

TRIMMING QUARTER ROUND.....

In order to increase the energy efficiency of our salvaged wood door we replaced all the single pane glass panels with 1/2" insulated glazing units. When you do this you have to take 3/8" off the trim pieces that hold the glass in. This wouldn't have been a problem if I had the New Yankee Workshop in my back yard.......but I don't. On my table saw there is a 1/2" gap around the blade that grabs little quarter round pieces, chops them up and shoots them out in a million pieces. So we made another jig with some 3/4" plywood. The bottom layer provides a base with a narrow blade opening, the long strip beside the blade serves as a fence and the little square (with 2 black screws) holds the cut piece down so it doesn't fly back and hit me.

Here are the finished pieces ready to be installed on the door. We had the glazing units sandblasted at Sandblasting Experts over near Norfolk. Apparently they can sandblast anything into a piece of glass. I have lots of ideas now for future projects!!!

The glazing units were set in a bead of glazer's putty before we installed the trim. This will keep the glass from moving around as well as seal up any air leaks. The two wood panels at the bottom of the door were held in place in a similar fashion. Foam insulation has been sandwiched in between the panels to reduce energy loss.

Before we could build the door frame and hang it we had to square off the top and bottom. This old door must have been scraped along a floor for years! The hinge side (at the bottom) was about 5/8" longer than the door knob side.