Garage trim outs - part 1

(July 15 photo) One of the things the builder kept promising he would do (and of course he did not do), was complete the garage trim-outs. The material for the build-outs is 3/4" MDF (with a saw kerf out of the back to fit into the slot in the window, and 1x4 for "trim" around the windows. We are also going to put some 1x4 around the bottom of the wall as "baseboard" because we need to cut the drywall up a bit more, as the water climbs up the wall in water (snow melt water) and soaks the drywall. The inspector we hired said this would happen, and the builder said "no it wouldn't:. Well, guess who was right, and no prizes for the correct answer.

Because we would not be able to fit a 4'x8' sheet of anything in the car (let alone a sheet of 3/4" MDF which weighs about 80 lbs, depending on the humidity), we needed to get the sheets cut. I took measurements and figured out how many pieces we needed for the build-outs and the fewest cuts needed to get the most out of the sheets. We ended up needing 4 sheets. First we went to the Orange Borg, and before we started loading the sheets on the cart, I said to Freda that we should check that their panel saw was working. We walked to the back and saw the "out of order" sign - that was good that we hadn't wasted our energy lifting those monster sheets.

So we hied off to Rona. They guys at Rona had trouble with their saw and it took them about an hour to make all the cuts. We didn't complain about this because the people at Rona were very nice and charged us only $10 for the cuts (cost is $1/cut, although usually the first cut on each sheet is free). I think we had 22 cuts in total. We spent a few hours a day over the next week priming and then painting a coat of semi-gloss paint of the MDF sections and the 1x4s.

This is what the window sections look like now. The window is installed in a "window buck" with spray foam. The vertical side pieces and the top piece of the window buck are solid 2x12 lumber, but are severely weathered as you can see. The bottom of the window buck is two 2x4s with a gap in between so the concrete could be put in there properly. Exposure to UV light has changed the foam from a pale yellow to an ugly dark yellow-orange colour.

(July 17) This is what the window looks like after the build-outs have been installed. As the walls are not straight, I had to cut the build-outs at an angle (about 3/4" in 5') so they would sit flush with the drywall. I installed the build-outs with 2" finishing nails - you can see the nails in this photo.

This is the same corner as above. You can see the shims on the vertical piece, where I had to put some backing behind the board so the build-out would be square. I have not installed the 1x4 here yet.

I was unable to do anything more today due to my severe headache and the constant rain all day. (MDF makes a tremendous amount of sawdust so I need to be able to cut it outside. BTW - MDF is made out of fine sawdust and glue.)