Porch and Skirting - Redwood Salvage

April 2011 -- Eel River at Fernbridge

After the earthquake in 2010 we had a foundation put in to replace the old post and pier that was knocked over by the quake.   We salvaged about half of the redwood skirting – we cut off the rot, cleaned and sanded some of the old paint off.    Now its going back up – primed and fresh painted.  

The reclaimed skirting was also used on the new porch. All the redwood needed oil based primer, which we love putting on, only drawback is we were painting inside in the winter and we had to shut the heater off to avoid the huge fiery conflagration.

The end of the rains.   We have had months of regular rainfall on the North Coast.  The rivers were all running high, as you can see the Eel River is big and muddy.  Now that the rain has let up we were able to get out and put some paint on the porch and install more of the skirting around the foundation.

Original redwood skirting cleaned and trimmed - ready to put up on new porch

Here's a warning.  As we cleaned and trimmed the old siding I thought it would be easier to nail the skirting up and then sand them in place --- bad idea --- the belt sander is heavy and designed to be used on a flat surface --- not in a vertical position where the weight just pulls you down.   I also got a face full of paint dust and chips.  

 

New Nail Gun!

There has been an exciting development in my world of historic renovation. New nail gun! Here I am breezing through some home repairs! We had to take the skirting off of the house to replace the foundation, but its going back on, thanks to my new nail gun.

Foundation Work is Underway - first things first

More unsolicited advice to home restoration fans.   A new foundation will just make you feel better.  Even if its not the most visible or glamorous part of a remodel, the real aficionados of vintage houses will always comment on a new foundation.  So the Eureka Redwood Victorian has a shinny new concrete diameter foundation and a 3 ft wall.    The house has another hundred years.

Despite the great work that George is doing on foundation work, we still have some troubling jobs.  The house has several feet of skirting around the base of the house.  This all needs to be removed and hopefully replaced once the foundation is poured in place.   Unfortunately we see a lot of nice new foundations covered by pretty unsightly paneling and siding.     Our plan is to carefully rescue the 3 to 4 inch vertical skirting, clean it up, remove a fair amount of rot and then re-install as much as we can.