Flower Box Help Please!!

[MJBaldwin]

Alright quick question. The Fiance wants to have some flower boxes under our windows in the front of the house. I plan to make them out of like a 1X6 piece of wood with maybe a chair rail along the top (my ol’ man made this style for my mom back in the day that’s how I figured I could make some cheap ones). My question is not how to build them as I know how to do that its more how to attached them to the house. I have vinyl siding on my house and not sure quite how to do that. As when I helped my dad they has masonite siding and just screwed right into it. Please help I was planning on making them today and possibly hanging them if time permits!

 

This is my original plan let me know if it sound right. Find studs on the inside of the house (how do you do this when you have plaster walls) next I would transfer those lines to the window and then transfer those to outside along with onto the flower box on where I want to pre drill the holes. Then I was just going to attach with small lag bolt. And apply silicon on the top of the flower box where it meets the window. My concern is where the siding is at an angle to attach them I don’t want to screw it tight and have it be unlevel…. Any help would be great! I’ll keep my phone on me and check back thanks guys in advance!

 

[SkunkedAgain]

I was going down the same path as you but eventually relented and let Mrs SkunkedAgain spend about $100 each on three flower boxes. This was a few years ago. I have to admit that nice flower boxes can really increase the curb appeal of a house. For the ones we bought, everything was prefabed of course but came with nice long lag bolts, washers, etc. I bought an exterior caulk and caulked all of the seems but also the bolt holes. You don't want to create a new entry point for insects and little critters!

Good luck. Post some pictures when you're done.

[LightningBG]

Couple thoughts.

Unless you have some sort of support from below, you'll have to make that box very strong to support the weight of what ever is inside.

Make sure you put some drainage holes in there. Last thing you want is to have it fill up with water and tear off the house.

On each side of every window, there should be at least 2 studs (a king stud and a jack stud). sometimes there will be 3 studs there. These will butt up the window casing, you'll have to guess how thick the casing is, use a studfinder to figure it out, or take off the trim on the inside of the window.

[Tom7227]

My first suggestion is to use treated wood. Second would be to attached some fairly heavy pieces of angle iron to the house using the method you described and the great diagrams the Lightening provided. Screw/lag bolt the 6 x 6 angles to the house. Then set your box on those pieces of angle and screw them in place. That way the weight is on the angle and not on the box. I would space the angles not more than about 18 inches apart if you're going to make your box 6x6. Finally use potting soil with some perelite in it. That results in lighter soil that holds moisture well and you won't have to worry about the stuff drying out every day unless you have it in direct sun.

I probably have confused you with the reference to angle iron. I mean those ready made jobberdos that you can buy at any hardware store, not some big honkin piece of material that looks like be belongs in a skyscraper.

I would forget the caulk. Let the water from the window run between the house and your box. You don't want the box water tight as it will kill the plants. In fact I would put some garden fabric on the bottom and drill some holes in the bottom to let water out.

[MJBaldwin]

How did you attach them to the vinyl siding? I just got mine built going I paint them tonight and then plan to hang them tomorrow!

[LightningBG]

If you're planning on attaching the boxes directly to the house (vs using a bracket of some sort), figure out where your studs are, predrill with a bit smaller than your fasteners, (maybe 2/3 the diameter). Go straight through the siding, sheathing and into the studs (gotta make sure you hit those studs and hit them in the center)

Then shoot a bunch of silicone into the hole, hoist the box up, insert a galvanised lag bolt though a predrilled hole in the box (same size as the lag)(with a galv washer inside the box), tighten with a socket wrench (but dont tighten so far as to crush the siding.

(also, if your bolt is going to be where the siding is closest to the house, you could put some galv washers behind the box to keep it pushed away from the house.)

[LightningBG]

If my only choice was to attach the box directly to the house, I think I would go for something like this.

But, there is going to be a lot of torque on that box, so you really need to make sure its well built.

The other option, which i think would be preferable if you dont mind spending a little money is.

[MJBaldwin]

LightningBG, perfect thanks for your input along with you others guys! I do not want to do the brackets as I don't like te look of those I plan on doing your first diagram! I think my hardest problem is going to be findin the studs that's what I'm worried about I have an old house with plaster inside alOng with no stud finder I just not sure if I want to rip the molding off on the inside as well but

Know it is crucial that I hit those! I got 1/4 galvanize lag screws with galvanized washers I think this will do the trick... Like I said its those studs I'm worried about...

[K_Josh87]

no matter what, you should have a 2x under the sill of the window, if nothing else, hold it tight to the bottom, and lag it into those. If you have vinyl pop a piece loose and fund where it is nailed, or use a nail to locate your studs, and mark, and then reinstall the piece you took off. They make a 5 dollar tool for taking it off, or a small wonder bar works... slide in it the bottom of the piece and pull down to unsnap the piece, likewise, reinstall the piece and use it to pull the bottom of the top piece down to snap back in... if ya follow :0)

[LightningBG]

Old houses are tricky. I think you'd have a tough time with a studfinder even if you had one. Lathe and plaster just has a lot of material to mess with the the machine.

One the plus side. Depending on the age of the house, if its really old, it might have some pretty beefy sheathing (which back in the day was often 1x6 boards, oriented horizontally or diagonally.

Depending on the size of the box and the # of lags used, just attaching to these 1x6s may do the trick, but it's still be nice to hit those studs so you dont have to put as many holes in your siding.

[cavalierowner]

One of the first things that I was concerned about was that the house has vinyl siding. I would be very concerned about putting much pressure against that vinyl. Some of that stuff can get very brittle, especially in the winter, and I would worry about it cracking. My limited experience with vinyl tells me there's probably no solid backing behind it where it's at the furthest projection from the sheathing.

Off the top of my head I don't have a good answer, except possibly some small pipe sleeves that lag bolts go through back to something solid. Mostly I guess I'm just causing trouble by warning about possible problems down the road.

[MNice]

I simply would not mount it to the house, period. Just asking for trouble IMHO.

[K_Josh87]

I simply would not mount it to the house, period. Just asking for trouble IMHO.

This would be fairly sound advice, but if mommas happy, everyones happy....

[cavalierowner]

I am trying to think of a way you could hang the boxes without touching the vinyl siding in any way. Quite honestly, I think that's asking for trouble. Can you post pictures of the window sill and the lower two sides of the window? It has occurred to me that there may be a way to attach to the window sill and with diagonal braces up at the two ends that would screw into the brick mould (if there is any).

I should also ask how large the planter will be (all 3 dimensions) to get a feel of how much weight is involved.

[PurpleFloyd]

If you want to do it right, then take off the siding where you want the boxes and screw a treated 2x whatever directly to the house using premium deck screws into the studs. You make the 2x a bit larger than what the box will be. Then you install a piece of drip edge over the top of the 2x to take the water away. Silicone around the board and then use J channel to frame around the 2x. Paint the 2x the same color as the flower box, caulk around the J channel, cut the siding to fit around the flower box and reinstall and mount the box to the 2x.

If you just drill through vinyl siding you need to drill the hole oversized to allow for the expansion and contraction of the vinyl or you will have it buckle in the summer as it heats or possibly crack as it tries to shrink in the winter when it is brittle. Plus you will never be able to remove the flower box in the future due to the holes and the way the siding will fade around it.

[MJBaldwin]

Well guys I got them installed this weekend I think he turned out well I guess weather will tell us all but they look good I siliconed the screws entering the hole as well as the holes prior to putting them in. Also did the hex head inside the box. Let it all dry over night and she planted the flowers the next day... Is there a way to post pictures on here from my phone?

[Tom7227]

Ok, nearly two years later, how did things turn out with the passage of time?  Lots of advice to not do it so you could help if you clued us in on who was right and who wasn't.