Installing Your Door
There are different ways to install a door, but a prehung, insulated wooden door is a reasonable compromise between good looks and ease of installation. Installing the door is pretty much the same as with windows, too. Set the door in place from the outside, anchor it with wedges, then seal the gap with foam. Although polyurethane spray foam is strong enough to secure a prehung door on its own, there are two reasons to secure the jamb with screws before foaming. Besides the added insurance that the door frame won’t come loose in the future, screws driven through the jamb and into the underlying rough frame braces the jamb against bending inwards under pressure from the foam. Even low pressure, low expansion foam can sometimes exert enough pressure to cause a prehung door to bind against the jamb unless the jamb is braced while foaming.
Installing the Drainage Layer
This is the last task to complete at this stage, and there are a couple of ways to make good things happen. The idea is to create some kind of surface to support the cedar shingles that also allows any leaked water to drain down harmlessly if it ever does get past the siding. As I mentioned before, we used DELTA-DRY over top of the breathable, waterproof underlay fastened top of the wooden walls. The dimpled feet on this product create two drainage layers – one directly behind the cedar shingles that go on next, and another behind the DELTA-DRY itself. Both are open at the bottom and top of the wall to allow liquid moisture or water vapour to escape, while insects can’t get in. Cedar Breather is a different kind of product that works in a similar way. It’s a resilient, non-woven mesh that’s stiff enough to support cedar shingles and hold them away from the underlying sheathing, even after they’re nailed or stapled down. One way or another, don’t take the very tempting shortcut of installing siding directly against sheathed walls. Even if they’re protected with some kind of wrap, trapped water will still cause trouble that could be avoided entirely by a proper vertical drainage plane.
Milestone #6
Door and windows installed, along with weather-proof membrane and drainage feature on walls.
