About 15 years ago we did a major exterior facelift on our home. A large component of the facelift was a new covered front porch. It was fun to see the new look take shape as the eaves were extended and the porch roof installed.
By Douglas Heckrotte
I first saw outdoor ceiling fans while vacationing on Isla Mujeres, Mexico, just north of Cancun. These fans are ubiquitous and evidently inexpensive. Used both indoors and outdoors, they’re mounted on 3″x 3″ concrete beams. Some of those beams also support sun shades but usually, the fans are completely open to the weather. Continue reading
Wood has always been used in fiberglass boat construction, in stringers, and oftentimes as core in high compression areas such as under cleats, stanchions, and winches. Wood works great in these applications but we all know that the big problem with wood is the fact that it rots if it gets wet. Here at Gougeon Brothers, Inc. (GBI), we have spent long hours writing manuals and training people to use proper techniques using epoxy to keep wood dry and strong. Continue reading
Cover Photo: The finished 24′ front columns built by Pleasant Bay Boat & Spar Company.
In 2006, I was contacted by a wood consultant whose client was looking for a shop to turn solid Ipe architectural columns. He’d found out about our company through the Federal Reserve project. STA Architectural Group was the principal designer of a private residence under construction in South Florida. Their trademark motif was tropical hardwood architectural columns resembling palm trunks. This design called for unusual dimensions for eight columns.
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I needed to make a deck repair because there was wood rot at the bases of the support posts for my large, two-story patio deck. This bi-level deck has patio furniture on the top level and a built-in hot tub on the lower level. The deck is constructed of 6×6 support posts, 2×12 flooring supports and 2×4s for the finished floor. All of this is redwood. Continue reading
Last summer I used WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy to repair a small section of rot in a rough sawn cedar trim board on my house. Before gutter was installed, the trim board was wet frequently, but well ventilated. Only a narrow center section of the #2 grade, 1″×12″ board seemed to be vulnerable. Continue reading
Above: The shade slats on John Davis’s carport create a light and airy architectural element that will last a very long time.
These pictures show a recent project in which I put WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy to good use. The shade slats shown were attached to their notched supports by ‘blind’ nails (8D hot-dipped galvanized finishing, with the heads clipped after being driven into the notches halfway) and WEST SYSTEM 105 Resin®/209 Extra Slow Hardener applied in a two-stage manner. Continue reading
My porch railing at home was badly in need of painting even though I had painted it the summer before. After just one Michigan winter, the paint had cracked and lifted. I wondered to myself if coating the top rail with WEST SYSTEM® epoxy would improve this poor situation and decided to turn the top rail into a small R & D project. Continue reading
By Captain James R. Watson
Steve Taylor of Steve Taylor-Builder, Inc. contacted us before undertaking a rather interesting project. He was about to build a boat shelter on an island in the St. Lawrence River. The design called for a row of curved laminated wooden struts, or columns supporting curved laminated tapered beams that would cantilever over the boat. The 25′ tall, 60′ wide structure would support a weatherproof fabric that would shelter both the dock and the boat. Continue reading
After living in our house for eight years and watching the ends of the threshold slowly deteriorate away and a few cracks and checks develop, I decided to replace the storm door, and figured now was a good time to restore the threshold. Continue reading