Garfield siding - warping after priming

[firsthouse]

Hi, Everywhere I read, it said I should prime everything before I do anything. I read in several places that a mixture of 1/5 shellac and 4/5 denatured alcohol works well. I spent a small fortune on siding, the sheets not the individual strips. So, I sealed them today. To my horror, after I had done 15 sheets, I saw they were warping - bowing with the sides of the long way turning up into a long, shallow, 'U' shape. What did I do wrong? What do I do now? Should I have sealed them at all? Did I use the wrong stuff?

Right now, they are resting under weights and I am hoping they will flatten. Is this a step that various online help sites assumed I would have the brains to do without being told?

I hope someone out there can help me. I am feeling stupid and discouraged. Thank you.

[KathieB]

Hi Carol and welcome!

If weighting doesn't help, you might try putting the shellac/alcohol mix on the backside of one of the bowed sheets and see if it helps to straighten it out. Also, when you glue it to the side of the house, you can weight it down until it dries.

I'm sure others will have other suggestions. Good luck with it!

By the way, which house are you building?

[Charlene]

Hi Carol! Now when horrible things happen to me, I scream and throw things -- just out of curiousity, did you? :lol:

Your siding is NOT DESTROYED. Take a deep breath; have a few sips of wine; relax and repeat after me: "I am NOT stupid". Inexperience is not a sign of lack of intelligence, girl! We ALL have disasters -- that's how we learn!!!!

Keep in mind that when you're working with wood, the thinner the wood the less moisture it requires to warp. Soooo, you need to do exactly what Kathie said -- always coat it on both sides. Then, place the wood on flat surface and put a really huge book on top of it -- we're talking encyclopedia size here and Tolstoy's War & Peace is an excellent choice -- and let it dry flat. Kinda like a press for wood. When you glue it onto the house, warping should not be a problem if you use a good glue, apply it to both the house and the siding and either use really strong tape to hold it firm or weigh it down until dry. If you're nervous about it, weighing is the safe choice.

That being said, I wasn't even aware that you could still buy shellac -- hmmm, I live in a fantasy world, so I'm not up on a lot of things. I would have opted for a more standard sealer.

Smile & let us know how it works out.

[Lisa_F]

Hi Carol! Now when horrible things happen to me, I scream and throw things -- just out of curiousity, did you? :lol:

When I get frustrated - some of the things that come flying out of my mouth aren't fit for human ears!

While working on my nieces dollhouse - the San Franciscan, there were many pieces that were warped right out of the box (in my pre-dollhouse obsession days I didn't store it right so it was probably my fault) - yet when I glued them together & weighed them down (lots of heavy books and large cans of food on top of the books!) they looked just fine after the glue dried. Even room dividers that were horribly warped came out just fine after weighing them down and then gluing them into the house and wedging pieces of wood against them until the glue dried them into the right position. A little glue, a lot of weight and a hefty amount of determination will see you through this mini crisis Carol and we're all here to cheer you on!

There have been several times during the construction of this house that I came very close to hefting it over the railing on our deck! But I have a stubborn streak in me a mile long and I refuse to admit I can't do something - so I'm still plodding along on it. You can do it too - and just think how proud you will be of your accomplishment when you see it all come together the way you want it to!

[Shakyshaky]

Carol don't be discouraged. There is almost nothing that can't be fixed. The weights and glue should straighten everything out. :lol:

[firsthouse]

Hi All You Nice People that answered me so quickly,

You have pulled me back from the brink. Now that I know I have not just destroyed $60 worth of siding, I am building up my courage to go back out there and paint the sealer on the rest of the pieces of siding. Knowing that glue and weight seems to solve most ills gives me a lot more confidence. One of you asked which house I am building. It's the Garfield. Nothing like starting with the biggest, and to my first-timers eyes, the most compicated. I really wish I had started smaller now, but in for a penny, in for a pound, and after investing my children's inheritence in building supplies, etc. I can't back out now -- Can I?

[uppitycats]

Hey, I was a first-timer two years ago -- and also, on a whim, bought a Garfield -- on line, sight unseen, not knowing how BIG and COMPLICATED it was.

Here's my house, now: http://community.webshots.com/user/uppitycats not yet done, far from perfect, but I've had a lovely time building it.

And yes, there have been SEVERAL times in the past couple of years that I was ready to smash the whole thing and turn it into kindling....but now I'm glad I didn't...

[gemlady]

Hello from another Garfield owner

They tell of a list of tools to get

I found one of the most useful tool is a old Iron that they would heat on a wood stove

the kind that weighs a ton I use it for a lot of things,

I had the same thing happen when I made my floors I use the irons to set the floor in the house after using water base glue it did the trick and the floor are nice and flat.

[sharon]

I am building my first dollhouse also, the Bellingham by Duracraft. Well I primed and painted the main pieces of the house before assembly. I thought that it would be easier and I would not get any paint on my fondation bricks during construction. You probably know what happened next, the main pieces warped. ;) Well a trip to harbor freight to buy a box of large clamps, a lot of masking to hold it together, and the house was glued together. I too was really upset when it happened. But clamping top and bottom of the pieces fixed the warping.

[Roni]

Carol, I remember reading somewhere when applying sealers to siding to coat each side equally, coating half of the siding on one side, turn it over and coat the other side Of course you would have to stand it on end to dry, but this is supposed to alleviate the warping problem.

[havanaholly]

stand it on end to dry

Actually after you seal/prime/stain one side, lay it FLAT on a layer of waxed paper over newspaper. When it's dry, turn it over and seal/prime/stain the second side and let it dry FLAT, also. If there's still any warpage, lightly pat it with a damp paper towel and lay your old nursing textbooks, whatever you have to weight it down with, and it ought to do the trick. Standing flat pieces on end to dry made them warp for me...

[IAK]

Fellow Garfield builder here and yes it was my first. I did not side the house fully (just put shingles in the peaks) but yes it is big and yes there were times when I wanted to throw it in the firewood pile. When you hit a snag, 1st walk away for awhile then 2nd ask as many questions as you want on this site because you will always get helpful answers. This site is the greatest to any dollhouse builder.