LESLIE: Nadia in Maryland, how can we help you?
NADIA: Well, I’ve got this really funny problem. I got a fancy window box for my birthday and I …
TOM: You got a window box for your birthday?
LESLIE: Well, happy birthday?
TOM: What a great birthday present.
NADIA: Yeah, well I was really excited about it. I couldn’t wait to get my herbs in there and everything. And it took a little while for my husband to get around to installing it. So I went to the hardware store and I bought some kind of quick taps concrete screws.
TOM: OK.
LESLIE: OK.
NADIA: And I kind of assumed that there’d be something solid underneath the siding of my house.
TOM: Ah.
NADIA: To my shock …
TOM: Silly you.
NADIA: … a four-inch screw went through the siding and into nothing. (chuckling) So I’m wondering – so I figure, “I’ll look under the siding without damaging the siding.”
TOM: Well, this is a window box so you want to try to catch the framing that’s around the window. Your average window has studs to the side of it; usually two studs wide on either side.
NADIA: OK.
TOM: And it’s going to have a sill under the window. So it might be that you don’t want to drill up close to the windowsill that you can see but below that you’ll hit the framing.
The best way to do this, I would think, Leslie, is with a stud finder so that she can locate where the solid material is.
LESLIE: Yeah, you should be able to deep scan right through that and find exactly where things are.
NADIA: God willing, there’s wood under there somewhere, right?
TOM: There has to be.
LESLIE: Well, if there isn’t, that window’s not staying up.
TOM: Nadia, if you can’t find the wood from the outside because the siding and stuff …
NADIA: Mm-hmm.
TOM: … look on the inside of the house and use a stud finder. It’s going to be the same stud throughout the whole surface.
NADIA: And then could you recommend what kind of hardware I should use to try and get through …?
TOM: Well, once you identify it then you’re simply going to use a – you’re going to probably use a long drywall screw or something like that.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. Because as long as you’re going into the wood, you don’t need any sort of special, you know – what’s the word I’m looking for?
TOM: You need – you don’t need a special fastener. You just really need a regular screw tread (ph).
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Yeah, you won’t need any special – anything to hold it in.
NADIA: Alright. That sounds super. Thank you.
TOM: Alright. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply