Frieze Boards for Dummies

Location of frieze board

Over the years our staffers have discovered that a (not) surprising number of the freelancers who wrote for eHow.com were doing little more than parroting unfamiliar words and phrases scraped up in what passed for "research." It often took only a quick scan of the prose to recognize the limits of the writers' knowledge; the point at which they diverted from fact into confusion. In the case of Tanya Khan, our staffer recognized that point in the opening paragraph of her HomSteady.com post, "How to Install a Frieze Board." It just got worse from there.

According to Khan's introduction, 

"A frieze board is a decorative trim mounted over a house or building’s siding or soffit to enhance its appearance and make its overhang appear taller."

If, however, you read a definition written by someone familiar with the topic, you'll find that "[a] Frieze board is a type of trim that is typically installed between the top of a home’s siding and the soffit." Besides Khan's bizarre notion that a frieze is "mounted over [the] siding or soffit," she also omitted the reason for a frieze: they're not just decorative, they also cover the gap between the soffit and the the top of the siding. 

Khan claimed to have used the instructions for building a brick wall as a reference for her "work," but apparently found most of it elsewhere (probably in a site blacklisted by the owners of eHow). According to Tanya, after you "Extend a measuring tape along the lower end of the sides of the house or building where you want to install the frieze board" (eHowians often provided instructions on how to measure something as a form of padding), you must,

"Set the frieze board along the top corner of the house, directly under the soffit, or the space on the lower side of the eave. Line up the board under the soffit. Press the board against the corner of the house."

Please explain, Tanya: WTF is "the top corner of the house"? After that bit of inanity, Khan would have you,

"Hammer a column of three 2 1/2-inch siding nails 2 inches apart at the edge of the wood to secure the frieze board into place... hammer a column of identical nails every 8 inches along the board..."

Again, WTF is "the edge of the wood"? And every eight inches? really? Seems like some of those nails are gonna miss framing members, Tanya.

We did have to laugh at Khan's very eHow instruction to,

"Cut the last board to the required length with a circular saw so it fits the available space."

We aren't certain why 1) eHowians like Khan were unaware of any type of saw other than a circular saw and 2) why Tanya found it necessary to include that redundancy. Perhaps she should have addressed the corners: miter? butt? And what about frieze boards on gables? How about caulking joints?

It's pretty clear Khan had no idea what frieze boards are before "claiming this title," and also that our Dumbass of the Day didn't understand the bulk of whatever reference she used... if any of it at all.

DDIY - SIDING