We have a home in the San Bernardino Mountains (that fortunately survived the fires out here) we are currently restoring and have a few questions about fiber cement siding installation.
1. When we started stripping the exterior wood siding we found that it had been applied directly to the studs over felt paper w/o OSB/plywood sheathing. We are installing half inch OSB sheathing to the 2×4 framing to increase the homes shear strength. Should we glue and nail the OSB to the framing or is the glue over kill?
2. Should the ledger board for our new decks be installed over the siding or against the OSB? Also should the ledger be installed over the Tyvec house wrap? Should the ledger board metal flashing be istalled over or under the Tyvec house wrap?
3. Any other pointers for installation of fiber cement siding you all may have would be appreciated.
Replies
Glue would be over kill. Stick to the nail schedule that code requires. fasten the ledger over the house wrap to the sheathing and cover the top of the flashing with house wrap. Always overlap from the bottom going up to shed moister. Be the water.
Hammer covered the sheathing attachment aspect...
As far as the deck, the flashing is applied on top of the housewrap, except that the top edge of the flashing goes up under the housewrap. Cut a slit in the housewrap to slide the top edge of the flashing into. I always say "think like a raindrop running down the side of the house. I would tape the housewrap to the flashing along this top edge using housewrap tape, but remember that you are not depending on the tape to make things waterproof, but rather the way the layers of material is lapped. This is the most important thing to remember when installing housewrap, felt, flashing, etc to a house prior to siding. The deck ledger then goes on top of the flashing, and a piece of 'L' flashing on top of the ledger is a good idea. The siding is then installed around the ledger. If you want you can leave a space above the ledger where your deck boards will slide in. I also like to hold the siding out 1.5" from the left and right butt ends of the deck ledger so the deck end joists can slide in there and give a cleaner look where the edge of the deck is attached to the house. This makes the end joist to ledger attachment stronger too.
Installing the flashing before the siding gives an excellent opportunity to "over-flash" a bit to be sure that water will not penetrate the building at that point and rot the sheathing and framing. Where I live they recently changed the code to where aluminum flashing is no longer accepted, because the chemicals in the pressure treated lumber corrodes the AL. flashing - I have seen this first hand. The new ACQ PT lumber is even more corrosive than the CCA PT lumber.
For installing the fiber cement siding, buy or rent electric shears. It looks like an electric drill with three fingers attached to the nose. The middle one vibrates between the two outside ones like scissors. It works so much easier than using a saw that there's no comparison. Outlasts dozens of saw blades and makes a clean cut. Around $300 to buy them, but worth it.
Bob I will have to disagree with your statement of shears over saw. I can cut 5 pieces at a time with a saw, if you use a diamond saw blade you will never dull it and if you have to rip or notch a saw is much more efficient. a shear will leave a rougher edge than a saw cut. Now the drawback to a saw is the dust so cut facing upwind or have a fan blowing it away from you and wear a good mask. Go online and find the clips that attach to the top of each piece and that will keep your spacing even and help hold your board while nailing off they also make H shaped pieces to go between your butt joints. They also make concrete corner boards and soffit material.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Andy-we are gettting ready to install hardi-stuff next week. Could you be more specific about the clip thingys and the H spacers mentioned in your comment. I'd like to explore those furthur. Anything to make this go more smoothly. Studwoman
the lap siding gauge I purchased is called the labor saver. try their website at http://www.thelaborsaver.com they also have an addin the latest fine homebuilding mag.
Anybody try the install gauges made by Snapper yet? Blurb on them two or three months ago in one of the freebie mags. Alot of Hardie coming up on two jobs and trying to decide between the Snapper brand and the ones mentioned here (been seeing them every issue in FHB)A shortcut is the longest distance between two points.
thanks Jim, I haven't gotten to the new issue yet. Maybe today as the turkey cooks!! happy thanksgiving.Maggie
Look up simplicity tool on the internet they have metal clips for the butt joints and aligning clips for the siding to set on the previous run.Make sure to level your first board and check your distances to the soffit so that you don't wind up crooked at the top.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Bob... we don't use shears either.. we have the Makita fibercement saw.. and a Fein Auto-vac..
much faster and NO DUST !Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Jim
I have a cabin in Big Bear Lake that I'm thinking about using HardiPlank. If you would like to get together and talk maybe we could help each other out.
Bing