Adding an Attractive Door Surround

Weather-ready Curb Appeal

By Paul Williams

One of the fastest ways to add curb appeal to a home exterior is to surround the windows and doors with decorative trim. Contractor Steve Roth tackled this project while transforming a front porch and used decorative urethane millwork from Fypon to help the entryway and windows complement the overall look of the exterior.

“We turned this home exterior into a lodge-style look, so the Fypon Stone and Timber Collection products were an ideal complement,” says Roth. “The original trim had rotted and been replaced with vinyl J-channel, which looked terrible. The urethane pieces I installed resist shrinking, splintering, rotting and swelling, so they’re going to provide long-term beauty and lasting results for this home exterior.”

Roth used his creativity to design his own custom surrounds and crosshead for the door using flat urethane trim. “Because I was matching this trim up to log siding material I wanted a clean, simple look and fit,” says Roth. “The high-density Fypon products are so easy to work with that it was simple to cut the pieces to the exact look and size I needed.”

Step-by-Step

Step #1 – Roth ordered three pieces of Fypon Flat Trim with a woodgrain finish (FLT111-12S) plus premium millwork adhesive for the door-trim project.

Step #2 – Prior to installation, Roth cut the trim pieces to size and painted the Fypon materials with one coat of exterior flat latex paint.

Step #3 – While the paint dried on the pieces, Roth invested an hour to install blocking around the perimeter of the window and door to match the thickness of the log siding material. The blocking, which was about 3/4-in. narrower than the Fypon trim width, gave him a flat surface to securely attach the new trim. This also gave the appearance that the Fypon product was standing proudly “on top of” the log siding material.

Step #4 – Roth trimmed out the Fypon flat stock pieces to fit around and on top of the window and door. For the crosshead over the door he cut the ends of the flat trim moulding at a slight angle to give the crosshead a bit of detail. He also cut a scrap of trim into a keystone pattern and added it to the door crosshead.

Step #5 – After dry-fitting the pieces into place, Roth then used PL Premium construction adhesive in a squiggle pattern on the back of each piece. He secured the pieces in place to the blocking with non-corrosive deck fasteners.

Step #6 – Once installed, finishing touches included spackling in the countersunk nail areas and then latex paint touch-up. Start to finish, the window and door surround attachment took an additional hour, making this project a total of two hours.

Tips from the Pro

According to Roth, this easy one-person project moves fast and has instant results. Using very basic woodworking tools, including a cordless screw gun, power miter saw to cut the trim lengths and a caulk gun, Roth was able to finish this project quickly. He offers these tips for contractors tackling a similar project:

Tip #1 – Install the wood blocking even with the siding surface. This makes it very easy to install the Fypon trim around the windows.

Tip #2 – Pre-finish your materials before application. The Fypon products come factory-primed and it’s much easier to paint the products before they’re installed and then to go back and do light touch-up work afterwards.

Tip #3 – Use non-corrosive fasteners or deck screws so your fastener heads do not rust.

Fypon, which provided the product for the Roth porch transformation, offers thousands of decorative millwork elements in a variety of architectural styles to enhance the home’s interior and exterior. Each piece is crafted from tough, weather-resistant, high-performance materials that resist decay, insect infestation and water damage for long-lasting beauty and low maintenance.

Hot Product

fence trac
FenceTrac Fence Systems

FenceTrac is a revolutionary fence system that uses patented U-channel rails and metal posts to create a secure and sturdy frame for any type of infill. You can choose from wood, vinyl, composite, bamboo, metal, or any other material that fits your style and budget. You can also mix and match different infills to create […]

Read More >>