I am rebuilding my destroyed home from Katrina and have received several tips while in the process. One idea that seems to make sense is to trim my windows with brick mould on the outside. This would allow the window to be replaced if ever needing to without having to chip out bricks around the windows. I know you can cut the flanges and use replacement windows if needed, but the brick mould makes sense. My question is how will the Brick Moulding look around my windows on a new brick home? Will it look stupid? Most windows I see in Brick homes I see brick right up to the window and have the decorative shutters on the sides.I'm not just patching the house it is being re-bricked completely. The only thing left standing was the foundation, most studs and the roof. Thanks for your input and any other "wish I would have" when I built my house...SteveT3

Architectural trim and mouldings vary with the architectural style of the house. Colonials differ from contemporaries, etc. Generally speaking, base trim is often the largest, with cove moulding (where it may occur) often the second largest trim piece. Window and door trim (head, jamb, sill and stool) are generally somewhat smaller than either base or cove. Of course, there are all sorts of options and choices, so this is only a starting point. I would not make window and door trim equal in any sort of historic period house. I don't understand your last paragraph about window "inside" trim. Are you saying that you have no trim on your existing windows? Hope this helps. Good luck with your project.

While I've never used Dynaflex 230, DAP has made it to my "don't bother" list. Lots of poor performance from a variety of their sealants and I'm still annoyed at their tech bulletins which do things like say they are "ideal" for tuck pointing and then 10 lines later saying it's not recommended for tuck pointing. I did our house in Michigan and my parents house in South Carolina with OSI Quad. I found it far far easier to work with than any of the sealants that were supposed to be "easy" to work with. It's also been the only sealant that I have NEVER had a shrinkage issue with. A little bit of denatured alcohol on your finger will make tooling it very simple. Not sure about the Ace backer rod, but any big box store has closed cell backer rod in with the weatherstripping stuff.

Thanks, homebound, for the quick response. I suppose I should rephrase the "pretty clueless" to make it better understood. I know how to do a lot of things around the house - have painted and caulked many times before. Have laid tile a couple of times in small bathrooms. I have cut trim to make shelves and small items. I have changed out lighting fixtures and other odds and ends, but those seem very simple. However, I've not taken on projects such as these that would be outside in the elements. I have confidence that I could replace these columns with new materials, until the idea that something might be behind the molding that I don't know how to handle, and I don't know how that top "header" piece would come out. Also, I don't know that I really like the look of all that detail that's on there right now, in addition to the problems that come with all of the pieces patched together. I found some pieces of molding online (the long pieces added together are sold as full pilasters preformed out of polyurethane on some websites, so I wouldn't have to patch it together) but I wasn't planning on spending that much for them. I thought the cedar planks might be a much cheaper option. A handyman quoted us a price of around $400 to replace the pieces, but that seemed high also! I guess I can go back to the drawing board and come up with a better solution. I don't think leaving some of the pieces is going to work because 1) The piece right above the door will probably be destroyed when the storm door is replaced because it is sitting on top of the screws, and 2) Some of the wood is soft to the touch and is especially bad in the top "header" board. That is the main reason to replace (along with the fact that it looks really bad). Thanks again, and if you have any other ideas I'd love to hear 'em. -ll