house siding material?

[brian h]

What type of siding to use when renovating our house? I am trying to decide whether i should go with my preference of natural cedar shingles with a sikkens type finish for that adirondack look or vinyl shingles for less maintenance. I don't mind some level of maintenance but don't want it to be my lifes work. Any experiences with maintaining natural cedar would be appreciated.

[BroadHopper]

I did a lot of research on this subject when building a home a few years ago.

The two methods I had to decide on:

Red cedar shingles from the west coast dipped in DukBak stain/preservative. The shingles were stainless steel nailed to a grid that will allow air to flow between the shingles and Tyvex.

Fiber Cement shingles, custom made with my choice of shingle cut style and stain.

Both promise ultra low maintenance and many years of protection.

I decided on the natural look. It's been 5 years and the shingles looks great and the rain beads off.

I have a farmhouse that was shingled in fiber cement. Its been almost 20 years with no sign of weathering.

[ishoot308]

Hi Brian;

I recently remodeled our island home with "Certainteed Cedar Impressions" siding. Looks like shakes but is completely maintenance free which is what I wanted. I couldn't be happier with the product. While it is not cheap, it is very durable and almost unbreakable. It has not faded and really does look like a cedar shake / shingle. http://www.certainteed.com/products/vinyl-siding/shake-shingle-siding#

I had a home previously with true cedar shakes and I felt it was a lot of maintenance to keep them looking good.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Dan

[tis]

Hi Brian;

I recently remodeled our island home with "Certainteed Cedar Impressions" siding. Looks like shakes but is completely maintenance free which is what I wanted. I couldn't be happier with the product. While it is not cheap, it is very durable and almost unbreakable. It has not faded and really does look like a cedar shake / shingle. http://www.certainteed.com/products/vinyl-siding/shake-shingle-siding#

I had a home previously with true cedar shakes and I felt it was a lot of maintenance to keep them looking good.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Dan

I agree. They don't look 100% like the real thing but I like the tradeoff for maintenance reasons. I think they look pretty darn good. Years ago they looks awful. I am all for maintenance free anything now.

[DickR]

Since you will be residing, take the opportunity to be sure that the tar paper or other weather resistive barrier (WRB) is properly installed, or better yet replaced. Be sure that all windows and doors are flashed properly, with WRB lapped shingle-style over flashings. If you go the route of cedar siding, do it over a "rainscreen" gap, provided by furring strips, to give you an air gap behind the siding, with screened vent strips at top and bottom. This will give you rapid drying of the back sides of the siding, prolonging the life of the siding and any paint applied. Note that if you go the vinyl siding route, that material has cavities behind it, sort of built-in rainscreen gap.

[Belmont Resident]

I'm a painter and I wouldn't think of using anything but vinyl especially the new stuff that looks real until your within 10 feet of the house.
There isn't much out there now that will protect wood siding for more then a few years if that.
All the new VOC laws have stripped the products of the materials that made them last longer.

[ApS]

I'm a painter and I wouldn't think of using anything but vinyl especially the new stuff that looks real until your within 10 feet of the house.
Vinyl is what I would pick; however, it's too easy to damage with a Weed-Whacker.

We don't get Texas-sized hail, but hailstorms can be a problem for vinyl:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/chipmunkwhisperer/ENLARGE_04hailsiding1_zps6114ebc7.jpg

[fatlazyless]

Heath's Hdwe, Centre Harbor, sells their returned "misstinted" quarts and gallons of paint/stain for $2.50/5.00. About two weeks ago: I got lucky, I picked up a 40-dollar gallon of chocolate brown Sikkens opaque solid latex stain from their misstint collection for just five dollars. Wow......what excellent coverage for just five bucks......and oh yeah.....Heath's is the only hardware around that serve free cups of coffee all day long.....my type of hardware store!

Paint and stain has become unbelievably expensive.....it's gone frome 10 to 20 to 30 to 40 dollars/gal and even more.....unbelievable! It's just a crummy gallon of paint?

[tis]

I'm a painter and I wouldn't think of using anything but vinyl especially the new stuff that looks real until your within 10 feet of the house.
There isn't much out there now that will protect wood siding for more then a few years if that.
All the new VOC laws have stripped the products of the materials that made them last longer.


I agree. It seems you have to paint all the time now. Wish they would let us have the OLD paint back.

[fatlazyless]

...creosote wood preservative!

Back in 1969, I can recall getting two gallons of creosote wood preservative, made by Park's Solvents, for 8.95 each plus the Massachusetts 3% sales tax, at the local hardware store on Cape Cod, and using then to paint and preserve a three section, all-lumber dock for a small pond, Long Pond, in Barnstable, and that dock must have gone for maybe 20-years of seasonal summer-winter removal use before it needed to be redone. Only, by 1989, creosote preservative was no longer available. That creosote was extremely smelly; it has an intense odor, sort of like ammonia, and after working with it for a time, your eyes would start to burn, but it sure as heck did a good job of preserving 2x6's, and pine boards which were not pt lumber, just regular untreated lumber.

Over at Ashland Lumber in Ashland, NH, they have for sale as of last week; some real, used railroad ties that are something like 10"x10"x9', and were originally soaked in creosote preservative. No telling how old they might be, and they have the railroad inventory numbers stamped into the end grain; they could be maybe 75-years old or so, no telling, but they are still very usable for landscape timbers today, plus they look really good, just like some old railroad ties should look!

[Belmont Resident]

I agree. It seems you have to paint all the time now. Wish they would let us have the OLD paint back.

I have had excellent luck with Sherwin Williams products, both interior and exterior.
I have found the key to a great paint job lies in the preparation, something that many homeowners and painters alike fail to do properly.
And a good quality oil base primer on all open wood.
Even though they say that some of the new paints are self priming they are still latex and latex primer does not hold up on exterior wood.

[TheProfessor]

Cedar shingles come in various grades. Best check up on that.
The Sikkens process can be quite labor intensive. Read up on the proper procedures for correct application or you will waste a lot of money.

Vinyl siding comes also in various grades of quality. Best read up on that.

The good vinyl products have come a long way. Some look as good as shakes.

[gf2020]

I re-sided my 50+ year old cape with Hardie-Plank (http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/products_siding_hardieplankLapSiding.py?utm_source =vanity-domains&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=HardiPlank.com) siding. It's a cement based product, as mentioned above. Definitely worth looking in to if you want an alternative to vinyl.

[DickR]

OK, here is my final contribution on this residing thread, a link to a good article on the subject of providing a drainage/breathing gap behind siding, from an expert at buildingscience.com:

http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-038-mind-the-gap-eh

[brian h]

Great feedback! As much as i love the look of the natural cedar, i think a high quality vinyl shingle style may be best seeing i am not getting any younger. Looked at the hardi plank shingles, not sure i like the look of those but they certainly offer low maintenance as well. Thanks All.

[NoBozo]

As I remember it.

1. RED Cedar is THE BEST but MUST be painted.

2. WHITE Cedar will grey over time to look like ....."Weathered Shingles"....like on Cape Cod... Good for maybe 20 years...this is what I have in RI....House CLOSE To....but not ON the coast.

Southern exposure (Bright SUN) will curl up first. My North side of the house is original at 38 years and still looks good..like the other three sides which were replaced maybe 15 years ago. It's a match.

I don't think I would use White Cedar in the Woods. BUT: NH may be different. When I replaced my shingles on three sides of the house ~15 years ago they were "MAIBEC..PR Grade "A" NANTUCKET Eastern White Cedar"..Treated with bleaching oil. These shingles are supposed to be RE-Treated with bleaching oil every so often. I have never done that. They will outlast ME. :look: NB

[hemlock]

White cedar is a great option. I used white cedar shakes(shakes are 5/8 shingles are 3/8) on my house on Lower Beech Pond. They will turn gray over time and need no treatment or painting.
Check this link for photos.

http://www.dowseasternwhiteshingles.com/gallery.asp

[DRH]

Hi Brian;

I recently remodeled our island home with "Certainteed Cedar Impressions" siding. Looks like shakes but is completely maintenance free which is what I wanted. I couldn't be happier with the product. While it is not cheap, it is very durable and almost unbreakable. It has not faded and really does look like a cedar shake / shingle. http://www.certainteed.com/products/vinyl-siding/shake-shingle-siding#

I had a home previously with true cedar shakes and I felt it was a lot of maintenance to keep them looking good.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

DanI sided both my house and garage several years ago with the exact Certainteed product ishoot308 recommends, and can't say enough about the product. It is much thicker than the standard clapboard-style vinyl siding, and each section interlocks not only at the top and bottom but also at each side. I consider it to be a permanent solution to weatherproofing your home, and would definitely use the same product if I were going to side a future house.

[SAB1]

Vinyl all the way. Who wants maintenance at the lake. To much other fun stuff to do than paint. Vinyl now is great looking compared to days of old. The shingles look best I think but I just did a garage with Certainteed Monogram siding and folks love it. They key to Vinyl siding is make the overlap point away from the direction you must frequently approach the building. That way you don't notice the seams. I got pics of my garage if you want to seem em.

[Pineedles]

If you can still find it, steel siding is the way to go. At 40 years there was very little fading but we wanted another color so we painted over the steel with a bonded paint sprayed on. Four years later it still looks great.:D

[willcastner]

The CertainTeed Cedar Impressions stuff is very very nice. They also carry a lifetime warranty on all of thier products. I am a rep at Quality Insulation in Meredith. I can show anyone that is isterested some samples and a free estimate if interested.

We did the cedar impressions on Broadview Condos in Gilford if anyone would like to take a look at the product and/or our work. They are on the left heading twords Alton after the set of lights by Patricks.


Will