Stripping the columns Pt. 1

I cut the curved section of the floor boards the other day but I didnt get any pictures of how I did it. I went back and forth on how to measure to get the perfect cut. The floor boards need to be 2 1/4" out from the joists, 1 1/2" for overhang and 3/4" for the facia board I will be installing over the joists. Because the joist is on a curve and the floor boards are straight you cant simply measure the distance out from underneath and subtract 2 1/4".



I toyed with a lot of ideas, all of them very complex but in the end what I came up with was very simple and worked perfectly. What I did was take an 8 ft section of quarter round and clamp it first on one end just before where the porch starts curving, 2 1/4" out, then bent the quarter round all the way around to the other side. I checked the measurement in the center of the curve to make sure it was 2 1/4" out from the joists. Then I traced the curve with a pencil to make my cut line.

Then it was just a matter of making the cut with my jig saw.

I still have a few small floor pieces I need to glue and nail at the center.

Next I turned my attention to the boxed beam in the gable section. Most of it was rotted and needed to be replaced. I took out the old beam and started installing the wood for the new one.

With that finished I could begin working on the columns.

I'm hand scraping for the most part. Stubborn areas get the heat gun.

Here is the upper section of the first column scraped.

The capitols are in really bad shape, they are covered with tons of layers of paint so I'm going to completely dismantle each one to strip the paint.

Once it was completely dismantled (didnt get a final dismantled picture) I started scraping each piece. I had to use the heat gun for most of it.

Here is one section stripped of paint and put back together.

This was as far as I got last night. Stripping all the columns is going to be a long, painstaking process but in the end it will be worth it.