Hot answers tagged siding
8
Adding a brick facade to the lower front of your house may not be as easy as you may think. Your contractor may have issues with installing a footing to support the weight and proper backing to attach the brick ties, not to mention building out all the window and door jams to match the new depth. This could be a very expensive change.
As far as adding ...
7
Spraying inside the hole with spray foam such as great stuff then after letting it dry using some wood putty seems to be the best solution I've found.
As for woodpeckers, there are typically two possible reasons they've decided to decimate your house. First is insects. This was our main problem, we had a bad carpenter bee problem in our fascia and the ...
6
I really think a palm sander is the wrong tool for this job. Palm sanders are great for finishing with finer grits but lack the power to remove layers of paint quickly. The siding job you are starting would go a lot faster with a 5 or 6 inch dual action (DA) sander with prepunched velcro backed sandpaper disks. There are several nice ones for under $100 and ...
6
The purpose of the extension on a frost free faucet is to get the valve itself in a heated space inside of your home so that it could never freeze (see the below diagram). If you only have an inch or so of insulation that's being penetrated by these plumbing pipes, it's likely that the valve would still reach the freezing point inside of your wall. So any ...
5
I like clear silicone caulk for this kind of job.
It will remain flexible after curing, so if the pipe gets bumped or moved around it won't break or crack like expanding foam. And the clear caulk won't stand out since it cures to a translucent light grey color which is similar to the siding.
4
If you're trying to cut in place, I'd personally go with drilling an initial hole, and then cutting the shape of the vent with a "sheet metal nibbler".
The nibbler will let you cut from one side, as there's a small bit that you insert into the hole, and sheers off a small roll of material (somewhere near 1/8", depending on the exact pair). You can also ...
4
Werner makes ladder leg levelers (say that 5 times fast) that fit their ladders. I'm not sure if it's the safest solution for a pitched roof though. If you did decide to do this, I'd really consider having a temporary stop beneath the bottom foot of the ladder and possibly on the wall you're leaning it against as well.
Another solution would be an ...
4
I don't think your friend's suggestion is bad, but I'd still want to be sure the caulk extended all the way to the exposed surface of the siding. Better not to let water get into the crack at all than to let it get in and stuck between siding and trim but blocked from penetrating further by caulk.
Why?
Because in winter, water that's in the crack will ...
3
"Siding Corner Caps"
Or often just tin caps. They should be available. Or you could have some fabricated, or perhaps adapt some intended for other siding materials.
Install by running a thin bead of caulk along the end of each clapboard, slide the top under the upper course and press into the caulk. Nail underneath at each corner with a small corrosion ...
3
It's mostly aesthetics, so opinions may vary.
I don't what your budget is, but I see many ways it could be improved:
The white siding part could be changed to match the beige siding to the right, or if the foundation allows it, replace the white siding with the same brick as the rest.
The white door could be painted (or changed altogether) to match the ...
3
You'll absolutely need to cut back the siding and attach directly to the home. For the siding, you need two custom tools. The first is a small hook for unhooking a piece of siding from the piece below. Use this to remove all the pieces that are currently where you want to install the plate. Get a role of tyvek tape to cover up all the holes left from ...
3
I lived in a house growing up that had some diagonal board & batten siding that had gone to a shade of grey like an untreated cedar fence, and I know it wasn't painted, but it's possible it was stained.
But I'd agree with DA01 -- there's lots of types of 'green building', and I'd rather go with long-lasting and locally produced (to minimize shipping) ...
3
If it's real cedar, it shouldn't be more complicated than scraping, sanding, and restaining. You'll have to sand down to bare wood before restaining. Depending on what kind of siding you have, it might be hard to sand it everywhere, in which case painting it might be a better option. For paint, you just have to make sure you scrape/sand to the point where ...
3
I would suggest using composite or PVC lumber in this application. Composite boards are moisture and rot proof. They are made with wood fibers and recycled plastics. Most are paintable so you can match colors. The other choice is PVC boards. Some are paintable, but most should be used in the factory color. If you do paint PVC, use a product that is ...
2
I don't know. But I'm not aware of any reason not to put treated wood inside a home, and treated wood inside against masonry has been recommended numerous times by others on this site and elsewhere.
2-4. Electrical boxes, piping, and panelling must all be mounted to a stronger surface than poly insulation, as you suspected. You would need to mount to the ...
2
Rather than trying to cut holes and add vents, you could also replace these with vented soffit skirting. E.g. This one can be picked up from your local HI store:
2
Have you thought about using hardy board siding? You can get the same look and feel of wood without the risk of mold or termites. The price would not be much different than a good quality wood siding. It is not that difficult to install either, so labor cost should be no different. It is also easy to remove and replace incase there are any future ...
2
If you can remove one panel carefully you might find the manufacturer stamp on the back. It will narrow down the search down a little bit. Otherwise just a small sample would be nice to have when visit the stores. I've seen websites on the web that identify manufactures based on the sample that you send. Both Lowe's and Home Depot sell some vynil siding. Not ...
2
I once rented a home that had a serious woodpecker problem. Fake owls were useless. Repairing the holes with spray foam insulation and painting it resulting in the foam being torn out within a week. Covering the holes with metal resulted in really loud hammering and dented metal (apparently the males like the extra noise to show off to females). IIRC our ...
2
At least in this area, those holes are from carpenter bees. Well, it is their fault. The woodpeckers are just the end result.
Carpenter bees drill holes into facia boards on cedar siding, perfectly circular ones, about 1/2 inch in diameter. Then they make a right turn and drill galleries (nests) parallel to the grain of the wood, just below the surface.
...
2
I'm a little lost. First, what are you using to attach the furring strips to the concrete? I'm hoping some construction adhesive and a few concrete screws/anchors to bear the weight You could use the same thing to attach the Hardee-board directly to the concrete (with a layer of moisture barrier separating them to keep moisture from the concrete seeping ...
2
The faucet in the outside wall is probably piped from a water line in your basement or crawl space. It was probably poked up into the wall before exiting to the outside wall of the house so that it would be at a reasonable working height above the ground.
There is no real workable solution to get any type of frost proof faucet to work in the current faucet ...
2
The pieces you need are called Hardieplank corner pieces. With a little research I found Simplicity tool.com. They come in a variety of sizes based on exposure and thickness. Long term you need to address the dog run. If you can get it close maybe a sixfoot fence post right at the corner would protect the siding.
2
I would recommend reading up on vinyl siding. It's really not as maintenance free as its manufacturers claim - it fades and becomes brittle. And unlike wood it can't really be repaired.
Not to mention it looks pretty ugly and fake.
Also if your house has any architectural details, then they would probably be covered up by the vinyl installation, ...
1
For my money and best looks, (if the wood is mostly sound) I would scrape and convert to an solid stain.. Won't peel, can be refreshed over old stain with minor prep (compared to paint)
Fiber cement siding would be my second choice, best durability, low maintenance, bit higher initial cost
Vinyl is not a personal favorite, would depend on what the ...
1
While CDX (rated Exposure I) has exterior glue, it is not intended for prolonged weather exposure. You should use a panel that has a true exterior rating, even if it is rated for sheathing and not siding. Try looking for APA Rated Sheathing C-D Exterior plywood. You can use any panel thickness with a span rating for 16" spaced studs, but with 24" studs, use ...
1
It will depend on the type of product being used to fill the hole - some are better suited to small holes while others can handle larger holes. Products that don't (or resist) shrinking will be better for larger holes where the shrinking would be more noticable and might result in cracks.
Check out the products at your local home center and read the labels ...
1
The moisture barrier would generally go between the furring strips and the concrete and would be attached to the wall simply by attaching the furring strips to the concrete. If you wanted to really seal the area you could run a bead of adhesive sealant between the moisture barrier and the wood.
6mil plastic is a "vapor" barrier, not a "moisture" barrier. ...
1
First off, never assume anything. You should take some pictures and know the basic dimensions of the house. You could talk with some local contractors, armed with pics and dimensions and get some ballpark prices. New siding on an existing building can go $250 to $400 a square (10ft X 10ft), removal and replace.
Just because your inspector found some rot, ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
