Hey all, first time poster.
I am going to be building a home outside of Chicago, IL and I would like to hear some opinions on exterior siding.
The home I am building is a custom contemporary design of my own. The main exterior wall cladding will either be cedar or Ipe wood siding. My main dilemma is wether or not to face the building with a rain screen or a t&g application. If I use a rain screen I am looking to have zero gap between the horizontal boards. I do like the look of rain screen with seperation between boards, however I have witnessed several cases of just too much debris getting in between the cladding and ruining the clean look. T&G would eliminate any chance of gaps, I know. However is there a downfall to butting rainscreen tightly together? Should there be room left for expansion? breathing?
I am a big fan of the appearance of rain screen walls but is it worth it for a chicago home when t&g or similar can give almost the same appearance?
Replies
I'm having difficulty picturing your design. How are you defining "rain screen"? SFAIK, a rain screen wall is one that has furring strips against the sheathing and the siding installed on the furring strips; it's not visible from the outside (you can use T&G or lap on the outside and it looks the same as any other house), and there's no way for debris to get into it unless something terribly wrong has happened.
dito previous poster
How about posting a pic of what you are calling rainscreen?
I would have a problem with tightly butted wood, but Ipe is very stable so it may work. I'm not as sure about cedar. I like the look of "rain screen siding" on modern and contemporary style homes. I believe the use of "rain screen" is confusing because it is a term describing the technology rather than the appearance of the siding. I believe you are describing modern flush slats, such as the following picture. This siding has the gap that you were wanting to avoid.
http://www.fabprefab.com/fabfiles/fabschool/UKansasStudio804/modular1pics/Studio-804-003.jpg
This website shows a tongue and groove style cladding with clips so there are no visible fasteners. I like the look of no visible fasteners. http://www.abswood.com/pages/rain-screen-siding.htm
Thanks
He had me confused but the second link is certainly an eye-opener. Great look and something new to me. Not much if any of that around here. And if it is, probably behind a fence and closed gate.
Ya Mark you hit the nail on the head. Sorry for the confusion I made some posts way too late into the night... Hell my other thread I can barely understand...
I was talking about flush slats, yes, built using rain screen vs t&g using the same process.
I too prefer hidden fasteners and will probably be going with something very similar to your second link. As much as I like the flush slats method, I can't do it after seeing how it can potentially look after a while.
Thanks
Confusion
You seem to be saying that t&g cannot be part of a rainscreen system. If so, I don't believe you are correct.
A rainscreen wall is simply using a WRB over the sheathing, then spacing an exterior cladding out from that (and not in contact) by the use of battens. The cladding can really be most anything including t&g (any species of wood). The cladding is only there to give an outward appearance and to give physical protection to the interior WRB.
I think you have your terminology mixed up. A rain screen is not visible, it's a method of furring out an exterior wall before installation of horizontal types of siding. Sounds like you are talking about reverse board and batt siding. The batt goes on first and the top boards are attached to the batt, leaving a space between the face boards.
Take a look at MarkH's link
You can find it here- http://www.abswood.com/pages/rain-screen-siding.htm
Us backwards people need to expand our experience.
Yes, I am aware what rainscreen is. You must not have read my response.
"I was talking about flush slats, yes, built using rain screen vs t&g using the same process."
Both flush slats and t&g using the same process, that being rain screen.
Thanks for your responses nonetheless