New Siding

[JohnC]

My house is going to have new cedar siding this spring. (It needs it!) I live in a condominium association very near the Ocean (18 units-cape houses with full rear dormers with full basements about 2100 sq ft) we are going to install Maibec double dipped Kennebunk cedar shingles. All the trim, garage trim, fascia and soffits is going to be replaced with PVC (Azek) using stainless steel fasteners and painted with two coats of latex paint, installing one piece corner boards. We are also installing pre-fab window trim on all Anderson 200 series. All bay windows, etc., will be trimmed in field. The cost of our project is about $390,000 including removal of old shingles trim and cost of material plus installation (tyvek wrap, tape seams, grace ice and water shield, stainless steel staples, staining all cuts etc.) (Final estimates from our two contractors (out of originally 5) coming in about two weeks) We did all the roofs two years ago which came out great. The structures were built in 1985. My question is one of the contractors is recommending a mesh shield, this will up the cost about $22-24,000. I am not that familiar with this. I did to some research and talked to a few reliable people I know (some like it a lot others never heard of it.) Here is a link to the product Keen Driwall CDR: http://keenebuilding.com/commercial-walls-siding.aspx . It seems worth while to me after my research for this type of project but what do you think? It should be an interesting spring and summer!

John Callan

www.customizedhomeinspections.com

[Chad Fabry]

I think you have a smart contractor.

[kurt]

Me too.

I wouldn't install cedar shingles without some form of breather mat. Given the magnitude of the project, omitting it would be false economy.

[Jim Katen]

I agree. Siding details that include some kind of rain screen are the future.

[Tom Raymond]

Aren't cedar shingles a rain screen by design?

I don't disagree that the drainage plane is a good idea, but I've seen untreated, unpainted, inferior white cedar last a century or more on the coast without any paper under it. It's funny that because the buildings are sheathed in OSB we suddenly need a plastic brillo pad and chemical preservatives to make a 300 year old siding design feasible.

Where are the New Englanders? If anybody knows shingles....

[kurt]

The old stuff, triple coverage, 1x6 sheathing, sure. The new stuff, half lapped on OSB or foam, not so much.

If you put it over Tyvek, there can be extractive bleeding that rots out the Tyvek.