One of the fastest ways to add curb appeal to a home exterior is to surround the windows and doors with decorative trim. Contractor Steve Roth tackled this project while transforming a front porch; he used decorative urethane millwork from Fypon to help the entryway and windows complement the overall look of the exterior. Fypon, which provided the product for the Roth porch transformation, offers thousands of decorative millwork elements in a variety of architectural styles. Each piece is crafted from urethane, making it durable and resistant to decay, insect infestation and water damage.
“We turned this home exterior into a lodge-style look, so the Fypon® Stone and Timber Collection products were an ideal complement,” says Roth. “The original trim had rotted and had been replaced with vinyl J-channel, which looked terrible. The urethane pieces I installed resist shrinking, splintering, rotting and swelling, so they’re going to provide long-term beauty and lasting results for this home exterior.”
Roth chose to use his creativity and crafted his own custom surrounds and crosshead for the door out of urethane flat trim. “Because I was matching this trim up to log siding material, I wanted a clean, simple look and fit,” says Roth. “The high-density Fypon products are so easy to work with that it was simple to cut the pieces to the exact look and size I needed.”
Start to finish, this project took a total of two hours to complete and required only a few basic woodworking tools, including a cordless drill/driver, a power miter saw to cut the trim lengths and a caulk gun.
The new trim transforms the front porch. The bold new molding is a perfect compliment to the existing door and log siding.
How to install decorative fabricated molding
Roth first ordered three pieces of Fypon® Flat Trim with a woodgrain finish (FLT111-12S) plus premium millwork adhesive for the project. He cut the flat stock pieces to fit under the window and on the sides of the window and door. He customized the trim by angle-cutting the ends of the crosshead pieces and by cutting a scrap of trim into a keystone pattern to attach to the center of the window and door crosshead.
Prior to installation, he painted the Fypon materials with one coat of exterior flat latex paint.
The first step of the installation was to install blocking around the perimeter of the window and door to match the thickness of the log siding material. The blocking, which was about 3/4 in. narrower than the Fypon trim width, gave him a flat surface to securely attach the final trim. The blocking also made it easy to overlap the cut ends of the log siding for a clean, finished appearance.
After dry-fitting the pieces in place, Roth then used PL Premium construction adhesive in a squiggle pattern on the back of each piece.
Roth secured the pieces in place to the blocking with non-corrosive deck fasteners.
The side pieces are installed first followed by the crosshead piece.
Once installed, finishing touches included spackling in the countersunk nail areas and then latex paint touch up.
Trim Installation Tips from the Pro
1. Install the wood blocking to build up the trim backing surface flush with the siding. This makes it very easy to install the Fypon trim around the windows.
2. Pre-finish your materials before application. The Fypon products come factory-primed and it’s much easier to paint the products before they’re installed than to go back and do light touch-up work afterwards.
3. Use non-corrosive fasteners or deck screws so your fastener heads do not rust.
SOURCES:
Fypon: Part of consumer products company Fortune Brands Home & Security (NYSE: FBHS), Fypon LLC is owned by Therma-Tru Corp. For additional information, call 800-446-3040 or visit www.fypon.com.
