Water world: Do you need to renovate your siding?

Recently, BuildSmart got a call from a homeowner who was interested in replacing their siding. She was having the aluminum windows in her 1970’s rambler replaced. The window replacement contractor doing the work told her that her siding had “failed”. This of course created much anxiety for the homeowner. After doing a site inspection of the house; we realized that the window replacement company’s prognosis was based on the siding being worn in places. This was nothing that a fresh coat of paint wouldn’t fix. This sparked a conversation with the homeowner about when siding did need to be replaced and the knowledge base of her window replacement contractor.

There are really only two reasons to replace your siding.

1. You don’t like the way that it looks
2. It doesn’t work

You don’t like the way it looks

The look part is obviously subjective; if you don’t like the look of your house, the simple remedy is to repaint it. Sometimes though, the only way to re-image a house is to re-side it. This can be complicated and costly and is usually done as part of a major remodel. During a major remodel or addition, there are usually many changes to the exterior envelope such as changing window and door locations. If you’re not careful, all this patching can result in a “Swiss cheese” look, so the best course in these situations is to just re-side the house.

It doesn’t work

Before you can determine that your siding doesn’t work, consider what it’s supposed to do. In simple terms, siding protects your house from the weather; rain, snow, wind and wind-driven rain. Most residential siding is installed over a moisture barrier (either “tarpaper” or Tyveck house warp) the siding works together with the moisture barrier. Although there are now more advanced moisture control systems, the majority of houses in the country have some version of the above.

The principles at work are very elementary; rain is stopped by the siding and carried vertically down to the ground, assuming the ground around the house is sloped properly, then the water is carried harmlessly away. The challenge is that water is insidious. Unless your siding is properly detailed, water will find its way past the siding.

The detailing challenges for a properly installed siding system typically occur at windows and doors. Unless properly designed, these openings allow moisture behind the siding causing damage to the house. There are myriad resources for window and door details, the problem comes down to the people in the field doing the installation.

So, the good news for this homeowner was that her siding hadn’t failed. However, after the faulty diagnosis by the replacement contractor, she wanted to make sure her window replacement was done correctly and didn’t create more problems than it solved. Since the window replacement contractor was already under contract to the homeowner, our solution was to hire an architect to verify that the window details were properly followed.

This was an extra step but for the homeowner provided valuable peace of mind to make sure her job was done right.

BuildSmart can help you make the right choice when it comes to decisions about siding systems and exterior updates. We are turning owners into builders every day by enabling them to take the mystery out of renovation and remodeling.