I am in the process of installing T&G VJ cedar siding horizontally. I am alternating 4″ & 6″ on some walls and 6″ & 8″ on others (see attached photos). I understand that anything wider than 6″ should be face nailed. I started face nailing with an Hitachi siding gun using stainles steel siding nails, but the depth is hard to control and the boards are getting damaged (I did practice on scraps beforehand). As per some earlier post, it seems that the general consensus is to hand nail. Could I get away with 1 face nail and 1 blind nail on the 8″ boards? And are there siding nails available with small diameter heads that are effective?
Also, I neglected to ‘bed in’ the caulking at the corner trim boards thinking I would apply it later, but since the cedar is being left natural I doubt I will be able to match the color. I did get some ALEX ‘cedar tan’ which looks more like chocolate. The wrcla.org website recommends against using clear caulking. Is there any application method or color that might be suitable? I treated all the boards with Penofin and intend to re-apply every couple of years, assuming I can afford it, so it won’t be greying in a hurry.
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lee valley tools sells stainless steel "finishing" screws with a very small robertson head, just used them to do a similar job ..
I sided a school a few years back, 1" x 6" pre-finished ship lap cedar, beautiful stuff. I bought a Bostich N60 and N50 finish nailer and face nailed the whole thing with 2" aluminum finish nails. I would not use ####siding nailer on it with those big headed siding nails.
I didn't say anything to warrent that ####. But give me a sec and I will think of something.
tgny.. our bostich guns will set to the correct depth
both the CN 64 & the new CN 66 ( sweet gun with dial in depth )
and we can get a nice small head SS ring shank siding nail from bostich also
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mike as per the other part of my question, do you think I can get away with 1 face nail and 1 blind nail?
tg.... i don't think so.. the nailing is not the problem.. the problem is the material..
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that is STK .. there are going to be so many splits, checks, and missing knots that i think the siding will eventually have to be covered with something else
your work looks very nice and well done.. but the siding choice is not a good one..
maybe i'm wrong.. but i don't think so ... sorry.. and i do hope i'm wrongMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
For what it's worth, that's what cedar siding looks like out here in red cedar-land, where I can see the trees right outside my window. You could get slightly cleaner material by picking thru a huge stack, but it's all STK. Or, you could order it run in clear dry material and pay... what... $4-5 per LF for 1x8 siding. Plenty of houses here sided with STK and it looks rustic and Pacific Northwest-ish.
Looking at the pic that Mike reposted and I see a little 'Dupont' logo along the right hand edge... hoping that's not Tyvek under all that cedar.
so, dave... 8" blind nail and one face nail ?
or ... it ain't gonna matter?
me .. i wouldn't use a 8" board.. the only way to keep it flat is with a blind and two nails.. and it's going to split as it shrinks and expands..
for horizontal siding .. i only want one nail in the board.. the blind one thru the tongue and i think that limits it to 6"
or.. if it's clapboard..... the single nail in the butt just over the tip of the course belowMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Last I installed was 8" channel siding as part of a repair, maybe a couple hundred feet of it. The original stuff, 20 years old, same STK but fewer knots than today, no backprime, exterior face painted, face nails only and one per stud, about 1-1/2" above the butt line. It was flat and looked fine (except where the original builder made a huge flashing mistake and the framing behind was pulp).
I did the same deal, except I backprimed with Moore #100 oil. The material was well air dried when I got it, about 10% MC, and the painter painted it within a week. Still looks fine a year later. My suspicion is that two nails across the board would not cause a problem, because the material is soft enough so that the grain will crush in response to shrinkage or expansion rather than causing the board to split. Like you say... hey, whadda I know?
David, yes you do see Tyvek. I wrestled with that one too. Intended on putting on felt, but needed to keep the house weather tight for a couple of months before the cedar went up. The cedar I got was very dry and I culled out any bad pieces. I considered clear, but as you pointed out it is very expensive, and I actually wanted some character. Cedar is quite common here in the Hamptons, and I've seen this material used before albeit less than shakes or clapboards.
Typical hand-driven siding nail around here is stainless ring skank with a cross-hatched head about 5/32" diameter. They work fine in cedar siding. Your siding gun doesn't sound right... should be able to drive them consistently and it shouldn't be too hard to control. I know some folks like the Max guns.
You're saying that you didn't put caulk on the back side of the cornerboards before you installed them, and now you want to put it in the inside corner on the face of the siding... probably not worth it, and it will look marginal on an unpainted house even if you do a really nice job. I question whether or not caulk is really necessary behind those corners anyway, because your felt should be wrapped around the corner very carefully behind the siding so as to be waterproof. You can't use caulk to keep water out forever, so the felt is your line of defense. Caulk left exposed to the weather (and sunlight) will degrade fairly quickly and become a maintenance item anyway.
But the caulk keeps the felt from being exposed to the weather and degrading. Your better caulks will last 10-20 years now. I doubt that exposed felt will last that long.
I'm missing something here... how is the felt exposed?
The siding coming from one side laps over the ends of the siding coming from the other side, hiding the felt. Then the corner boards cover that joint, back 2-3" in both directions (depending on what you use, typically 1x4).
I always put a 12" wide piece of vycor up vertically on the corner first, going 6" either way... then felt.