Starting the process of residing my house located in northern Missouri with vinyl siding. The house was built in 1964 and the original siding is a hardboard lap siding. After beginning the tear off of the original siding, I discovered the sheathing is a blackboard type labeled, “Johns-Manville Nail-Base Strongboard.” It appears these1/2″ thick, 4×8 vertical panels were prefabricated, mating the panels with the studs in the factory, and then putting up the panels to make the wall assembly on site. The studs are steel with a stud on each edge of the panel and one in the middle, centered on the panel. This makes the studs about 22 inches on center. The original siding was face nailed into the sheathing and there is no felt paper or housewrap under it. My questions:
1) I am thinking I will try to attach the siding on the steel studs with screws and use ring shank nails into the sheathing between the studs to maintain the recommend fasting schedule for the vinyl siding. Does this sound like a reasonable idea?
2) What type of fasteners would you recommend? My theory would use exterior fasteners, self tapping screws and ring shank nails.
I did contact Johns Manville tech support to ask about the sheathing and the only information they had was from an old product directory from 1961. It said “An extra strong 1/2″ insulating board sheathing made of bitumen-impregranted wood fiber; comes in 4’x8′ and 9′ sizes; used as a sheathing for exterior walls and as an interior or exterior siding for utility structures; combines exceptional nail holding strength with insulating value.”
Thanks for the help!
Sam
Replies
How was the old siding attached, and how well did those fasteners hold? And maybe you should try driving some nails (would you normally use roofing nails?) into it and pulling them out to see how they hold. (Keep in mind that you should never drive the fasteners tight on vinyl anyway.)
Old siding
The old siding was faced nailed with #6 ring shank nails, not galvanized, into the sheathing. There were no attachment points to the studs and lots of rust on the nails. I did find a couple different self drilling stainless screws to try. As for the nails I want to stick with the ring shank type and all I could find were some rubber washer equipped ring shank roofing nails, like what is used on a tin roof. I think I will remove the washers and use the nails between the studs. I did try hammering one in today and it seemed to hold pretty well. Much better than a smooth shank roofing nail does.
Keep in mind that the nails must have large heads, or the siding will come off.
Similar experience
Celotex, Boise Cascade & others made similar products. I had it on my house. I'm about 50% through tearing it off and replacing it. The stuff is very weather resistant, but will not hold on to nails (or screws). That may not be an issue in your case, but in mine, where I have gable roof-lines instersecting walls, there was no backer of any sort to nail the siding into. As a result, the tapered siding ends would just pop up as the siding dried and twisted or wrapped.
In my case, I decided it was best to rip it all off and go back with CDX and housewrap, and also install backing plates or blocks for nailing up corner boards and other trim pieces.
If you have something solid to nail, or screw, into at all the critcal places like the ends of siding runs and for the trim pieces, that sutff will last almost for ever. Otherwise, I would recommend installing some sort of nailing blocks or, at least, plywood where you need to rely on the sheathing as an attachment medium.
Ed
It sounds like he has something different from your standard fiberboard sheathing. I agree, the standard "buffalo board" sheathing of the era will not hold nails at all, but his stuff is advertised as holding nails.