10 Carpenter's tips for Exterior Window Trim!

They worked in the old days and they still work now!!!

[adampottmeyer]

Good on you bro for taking your boy to work. A couple days doing real work with dad is better than a couple months of school. I have great memories of going out with my dad, and taking my son out with me.

[jodysanders]

As a pretty much “ do almost all of it” guy like yourself, the one thing I take away from your videos is your calm demeanor and sense of balanced purpose. You don’t come across as a high stress guy about the work. Your tips have helped me enjoy my job a bit more—thank you!

[timothygavin]

Dear Ben: Over the past 3 months I gutted and rebuilt my kitchen to the studs. I followed your drywall, taping and mudding series and the finished product looks professional and great. Thank you for this information.

[johnbolongo]

Love this guy....he is a combo of new and old school....great stuff.

[monkeygraborange]

That nail-blunting tip is genius! I’m as old-school as it gets but I’ve never heard that little trick before! 👍

[mogoes]

Killer tips! Being a painter, I will say one thing.. We never caulk the bottoms of window trim so that moisture has an exit. Awesome tips!!!

[sawdustadikt]

Excellent tips! I have replaced many windows done this way. Some had a couple decades before I replaced them, some had a few years. I pay attention to what works and try to figure out why. I live in coastal New England and the seasonal temperature variation as well as humidity variation creates a lot of movement in your exterior cladding here. This movement in the cladding and the caulk shrinking as it dries and losing its elasticity with time kills caulk joints quickly. Taking what you have demonstrated a few steps farther, when you have the siding cut to install your trim, that is the time to scrape and sand the ends so you can SEAL the end grains with your primer so it can dry while you are doing other things and increase the adhesion of your caulk joint significantly. I would also employ back caulking along the ends of the siding to the sheathing before setting the outside corner in a bed of caulk making a gasket along the outer perimeter. Might be over kill for some areas but definitely helps with drafts and thermal draw if not keeping water out. Just a a few tips for anyone else that reads the comments like my self.

[wrdennig]

50 years ago, I was taught to not caulk the bottom of the apron (the lower trim board), so that any moisture that built up behind it, could drain out. Remembering that condensation and osmotic pressure, due to the temperature differential will force moisture from the conditioned space out into the atmosphere.

[altereggo]

I like, "do your best and caulk the rest." and your advice on blunting nails to prevent splitting.

[battletested]

Thank you for taking the time to pass on your knowledge and experience your videos have helped me many times

[audreybowles]

Thank you for sharing the details of trimming and rain protection of the window exterior. Another great carpentry tutorial and way cool getting your son involved in carpentry at age 12 years 😀

[wybesad]

Just watched this video (a couple times actually). I'll be doing old school cedar trim with sills on two of my exterior bedroom windows. Just what I needed. Thanks!

[bendaniel]

I’m hanging out waiting on hurricane Ida to hit watching this- bout to find out if my home builder did all this! Great time to check for leaks 😁😅

[andreaberryman]

THANK YOU for your dad's blunting tip!!! And yeah-prenailing boards.

[robertbamford]

Hey! Carpenter stuff. Nice. Back prime is essential with unprimed lumber. Got to remember to bevel bottom edges to reduce wicking Thanks for the video.

[gregallen]

Good video. I would have used fully dried out pressure treated (primed and painted) for the sill, however. All of my primed spruce started rotting out after 10 years and my PT sills look great. Vancouver weather is brutal.

[petemiller]

We were on fire...shout out from Osoyoos :) Cheers and keep up the good work.

[wrdennig]

Lastly . . . I like this kind of video. What I was taught about painting - scrape and sand, then prime, then caulk, then prime the caulk, then top coat. The first primer seals the wood and keeps it from sucking up the caulk and also provides "tooth" for the caulk to adhere to. Then, after caulking, prime again, so that the texture is consistent. The caulk will have a different texture than the primer.

[toddwilliams]

That's the way to do it--and teach it! Well done!

[bay]

Those old Vancouver houses seem to have a lot of character. Nice trimming, caulking and paint job