Copper siding over old wood – restorable or sell?
kyrral
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I am buying an old cabin that has copper siding over old wood with a couple of layers paint. Is it worth trying to restore by sandblasting? Would it be feasible to strip and sell it for metal value. It looks servicable but is just an ugly gray color and not at all ‘woodsey”. Is it maybe better to just put new siding over it?
Replies
The copper is worth a pretty penny. I'd suggest you take a sample to a scrap yard and ask them how much it would bring.
And be aware that the paint almost certainly contains lead. Sandblasting would be a bad idea.
are you suer it is copper?
Are you sure it is copper? WOW! never heard of such a thing. I suppose it is possible as there are copper roofs.
Dont know. But underneath looked like a new Lincoln head
Local handyman with bad teeth and I assume good skills not learned at 4 year schools offered that gratis. He flipped up a siding shingle and it shone bright copper. I tried to taste it for proof but cut my tongue. Back in the day it might have looked copper shiny but kind of out of place. nothing is really high end here. So who knows. right now my thought is to just side over it.
hmmm....
I've never heard of copper siding [ what's new] but if i encountered it and it was still working I'd strive to see it was kept.
I think you'll find the salvage value is not all that fabulous but I could be wrong. Rough guess would be 16 oz. copper might bring $1.50 sq. ft. at the salvage place [#2 due to paint]. Replaced with anything the cost is greater fguring labor and material.
I'd be very surprised if it was rwlly copper but who knows? In any case its scrap value wouldn't cover the gas to take it to town . I'd certainly try stripping it first. If it really is copper it should clean up with stripper pretty easy. you can also mix Red Devil lye and wall paper paste and a pressure washer to get it clean.
If you strip it you turn the place into a superfund site. From the description I'm guessing the paint is at least 50 years old and is no doubt loaded with lead.
You're reading pretty deep there but even if that was so a layer of plastic on the ground solves that problem. Most of it will drip off onto the plastic, a little scraping or wire brushing will remove the rest and the pressure cleaner will finish it off. That's the way pros do it.