First post here, I've been reading the forums occasionally and derive great benefit from the experience of the members here. Thanks, all.
The issue at hand involves trimming windows. I deal with small residential remodel projects as a sub - GC takes care of the sales, estimates, materials, paperwork, etc and I take the take the whole job for labor. The job I'm working on now was to replace windows, exterior doors, and siding on a small one bedroom home, including soffit, fascia cap, and interior trim. It's a job funded completely by a government grant, funded via a regional nonprofit, so labor intensive work is generally discouraged.
The house is a farmer built affair, and the job has gradually expanded due to improper building methods. This has caused a number of arguments with the homeowner, who states that the guy who built the place "was an engineer, because he built the house SO WELL"
...meanwhile, I've sheeted and reshingled the roof because there was no drip edge or gutter apron to direct water over the eave. Steel cap over fascia became new fascia and ply soffit. The eaves themselves were not part of the original build, but hung from 2x2's TOENAILED into the wall sheeting, which meant additional reinforcement. A lack of flashing on an add-on porch meant new sheeting and more unplanned repairs. So begins my list of problems with the home.
The homeowner has a number of concerns of her own, which I have been unable to alleviate due to a combination of limited hearing aptitude, willful ignorance, and my own impatience. I'm blowing in R45 in cellulose over the ceiling, but she's upset that I tore off the ancient brick-patterned asphalt 'siding'. Tearing off the old shingles also removed 'a lot of valuable insulation'. The brand new and perfectly plumb exterior door was installed 'crooked' because it did not line up with the leaning wall I placed it in or the well settled concrete steps leading up to it. My courteous attempts to explain basic insulation and framing principles have led to a great deal of tension on the jobsite.
If you haven't been pushed away by the windy background, here's the meat of my question: how to trim the windows. The interior walls are clad with some kind of loosely packed sawdust based sheeting. The wallpaper placed over this was cut to the edges of the old trim, and is barely hanging on the wall, and has been painted several times.
After replacing the windows, I am left with a curled edge of decaying wallpaper anywhere from 3" to 5" from the window jamb (with custom-cut jamb extensions to match varying wall depth.)
Standard practice on these jobs would be to mud to the jamb and use finger-joint pine ranch casing. I don't want to do this, because it seems likely my mud would fall off with the wallpaper. I can't peel away the wallpaper, because A. I'm left with a strange seam arbitrarily placed along the wall, or B. I have to tear off ALL the wallpaper, and mud/tape the entire exterior wall to make it presentable. These solutions don't provide the quality level I require, or the cost level the funding org. requires.
Finish work isn't really my thing, but I try when I need to and things usually turn out well enough. My solution was to use 1x4 trim, sometimes with 1x6 on the top and bottom, covering the wallpaper edge and leaving the appearance of a 'finished' wall - a solution the GC agreed with. After completing 80% of the trim, the homeowner decides 'the boards are too big' and indignantly requests I match the existing 2.5" trim. I explain my thought process, and that I didn't feel entitled to adding on another 5K or so of work, but that piece of the job soon grinds to a halt when the elderly homeowner's son places an irate phone call to the nonprofit's PM for the job. They're having a meeting tomorrow to decide the appropriate course of action.
How would you handle this?
The issue at hand involves trimming windows. I deal with small residential remodel projects as a sub - GC takes care of the sales, estimates, materials, paperwork, etc and I take the take the whole job for labor. The job I'm working on now was to replace windows, exterior doors, and siding on a small one bedroom home, including soffit, fascia cap, and interior trim. It's a job funded completely by a government grant, funded via a regional nonprofit, so labor intensive work is generally discouraged.
The house is a farmer built affair, and the job has gradually expanded due to improper building methods. This has caused a number of arguments with the homeowner, who states that the guy who built the place "was an engineer, because he built the house SO WELL"
...meanwhile, I've sheeted and reshingled the roof because there was no drip edge or gutter apron to direct water over the eave. Steel cap over fascia became new fascia and ply soffit. The eaves themselves were not part of the original build, but hung from 2x2's TOENAILED into the wall sheeting, which meant additional reinforcement. A lack of flashing on an add-on porch meant new sheeting and more unplanned repairs. So begins my list of problems with the home.
The homeowner has a number of concerns of her own, which I have been unable to alleviate due to a combination of limited hearing aptitude, willful ignorance, and my own impatience. I'm blowing in R45 in cellulose over the ceiling, but she's upset that I tore off the ancient brick-patterned asphalt 'siding'. Tearing off the old shingles also removed 'a lot of valuable insulation'. The brand new and perfectly plumb exterior door was installed 'crooked' because it did not line up with the leaning wall I placed it in or the well settled concrete steps leading up to it. My courteous attempts to explain basic insulation and framing principles have led to a great deal of tension on the jobsite.
If you haven't been pushed away by the windy background, here's the meat of my question: how to trim the windows. The interior walls are clad with some kind of loosely packed sawdust based sheeting. The wallpaper placed over this was cut to the edges of the old trim, and is barely hanging on the wall, and has been painted several times.
After replacing the windows, I am left with a curled edge of decaying wallpaper anywhere from 3" to 5" from the window jamb (with custom-cut jamb extensions to match varying wall depth.)
Standard practice on these jobs would be to mud to the jamb and use finger-joint pine ranch casing. I don't want to do this, because it seems likely my mud would fall off with the wallpaper. I can't peel away the wallpaper, because A. I'm left with a strange seam arbitrarily placed along the wall, or B. I have to tear off ALL the wallpaper, and mud/tape the entire exterior wall to make it presentable. These solutions don't provide the quality level I require, or the cost level the funding org. requires.
Finish work isn't really my thing, but I try when I need to and things usually turn out well enough. My solution was to use 1x4 trim, sometimes with 1x6 on the top and bottom, covering the wallpaper edge and leaving the appearance of a 'finished' wall - a solution the GC agreed with. After completing 80% of the trim, the homeowner decides 'the boards are too big' and indignantly requests I match the existing 2.5" trim. I explain my thought process, and that I didn't feel entitled to adding on another 5K or so of work, but that piece of the job soon grinds to a halt when the elderly homeowner's son places an irate phone call to the nonprofit's PM for the job. They're having a meeting tomorrow to decide the appropriate course of action.
How would you handle this?
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