Woodpeckers seem to love the parts of a house that are built or covered with cedar, like cedar beams and cedar siding. It’s too bad because cedar is really a beautiful building material. Maybe it’s because cedar is a soft wood and it’s easier to drill into. Woodpeckers will drill into the wood on houses […]
Adding a Decorative Skirt Panel to a Porch
A wood porch can add such architectural character to a house, and present great opportunities for adding detailing to your home. Porches, being at a higher elevation than the surrounding grade, use masonry piers or wood posts to support the structural framing for the raised wood porch (ledger boards are used also, but they typically […]
Outdoor Fasteners and Connectors for Different Types of Wood
A trip down the fastener aisle at the hardware store can be a bit overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with the many types of fasteners. If you have guessed that fasteners and connectors for exterior use may need to be different than those for interior use, you would be correct. Exterior fasteners and connectors […]
The Basics for Designing Outdoor Steps
Building correctly proportional steps is necessary for safety. Front porch steps, deck steps, or an outdoor stair way, all need to be designed for safe use. If you have a project coming up that will involve building a set of steps, there are important issues to understand. We rely on steps to be comfortable to […]