Doors and Lintels

Today we installed the last of the ‘windows’. The wall between the living room and the south patio is a row of four French doors. The outer two open and the inner two are fixed. Because they are mostly Thermopane glass, they are made by the window company. We got the two fixed ones installed yesterday. Today we installed the two that open.Installing doors is one of my least favorite activities. They have to be level, plumb in all directions, square, and the reveal between the door and the jamb must be the same all around. And, oh yes, they must open and close smoothly. House doors (as opposed to cabinet doors) must be sealed all around against moisture, insects, and air leakage. I’m glad that Eli is an expert and I only had to follow his direction today!

Now the only remaining holes are the front door (which likely won’t come for six weeks) and the garage door — which I have not even ordered.

While we were playing with the doors, or I was raking rocks out of the soil or picking up trash or sweeping the floor or fetching tools for the carpenters or a multitude of other minor tasks, Lalo and Jake were installing the lintels and finishing the sheathing above the lintels.

Part of preparing the lintels is routing a groove at the bottom outer edge so that water that runs down the face of the building will drip off the front of the lintel and not run in to the window. Above is a photo of the porch beam where it meets the corbel. You can see the rounded corner and the groove just 1/4” inside of the edge. We wrapped this detail around the corbels more because it looks nice than to act as a drip edge, but that is important, too.

You may have noticed in yesterday's post that the space above the window does not have the green sheathing on it. We have left space for the 4x10" lintel beam and, above that, for more 'cripple' studs and sheathing. But we needed to seal the area behind the beam to the top of the window frame before we installed the lintel — just in case water gets in behind the lintel. These large beams can warp or twist over time, making them hard to seal for a hundred years. Sealing behind them is one way of protecting the inside against the elements.

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