Replace siding now, or wait for drout
holliwr
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Hello. I sure hope you can help mw with this one. I replaced the masonite siding on my house a few years ago with hardiplank, but messed up in trimming an upstairs window and it rotted. Water has ruined the whole side of the house. All of the osb is wet from the upstairs window down to the ground. I’d like to wait for a few weeks until the annual drout hits so I can do all the work with no rain. But I’m scared the wet osb will ruin the studs before then.
Please advise if it would be ok to wait a little before starting this. If not, I’ll have to figure out how to do it a little at a time, or cover the whole side of the house.
Thanks,
William Hollingsworth
Replies
My opinion is that you should buy a big blue tarp, and nail it to the underside of the soffits, creating a curtain under which your wet wall can be opened.
And you should do that starting tonight. The longer that OSB stays wet, the worse your studs will be.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.
Thanks. I think you are exactly right.William
If this has been leaking for a few years, a few more weeks won't make a huge difference. A lot more harm is done in the first month of wetness than the last.
If you do go with a tarp, the ones that are brown on one side and silver on the other last a lot longer than the blue kind. Use it silver side out to reflect the heat away, or brown side out if you want it warm.
-- J.S.
I am interested in something similiar and was just curious as to what part of the country you are in.
Jason
Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
I don't think waiting until the dry season arrives will make any difference at all. It will also make doing the project more tolerable.
I do suggest, though, putting on two or three tarps of different colors and leave them for a couple of years.
Grunge on. http://grungefm.com
Hey: I kinda like that idea....kind of a artistic statement while waiting for a better time/weather/mood....etc.Yo
I'd fix the problem that is letting water behind the siding now and let the rest go until the dry season. Studs aren't going to be damaged by a few more months of moisture, if it takes that long for them to dry out under the siding. You may find that there is less damage under the siding than you think. If it drys out relatively quickly with no complications I'd have a hard time tearing out the siding and osb. As long as the hardiplank wasn't falling off, it's going to function quite well for the next handful of decades.
Unfortunately, the house wrap is also put on in a way that isn't working. Water making it's way past the trim should still not be able to get past the house wrap.
Sounds like the window is improperly flashed.
Hello: I found the problem the other day because a trim piece on the bottom window was rotten and needed replacing. When I pulled it off, I noticed the osb behind it was wet and just crumbled in my hands. I cut ####2' section of hardiplank out ( above the window ) and the osb did the same. That's when I figured the water came down from the upper window and when I put a ladder up there and went up for a look, sure enough, the trim was rotten there too. I THINK what happened was this...when I resided the house a few years ago, we could not afford to replace the old windows so we left them alone. BUT, now that I HAVEW replace 2 of them elsewhere, I noticed that the new ones have a sill that sticks out PAST the osb and siding about 1 1/2 inches so the water drips off and never even hits the trim. Not so with the old windows. They have no such sill and the trim is actually thicker than the window so water actually hits the trim and somehow got under the window and into the siding. I THOUGHT I caulked it well, obviously not! So, now water has run down and saoked the osb from the window down, and I think it would be harder to pull off and replace JUST the siding below the window, than it would be to pull it all off and replace it. The hardiplank is just fine, but there is no way to get the face nails out of this stuff without damaging it, so I have to replace it all.Thanks for the good advise, I really appreciate it. William
Lesson learned the hard way. Don't rely on caulk to replace proper flashing. (Or, in your case, ANY flashing!) You may want to get a hold of the spec sheet for your windows to see how it is designed to be flashed so you don't have the same problem with your repair. Modern installation procedures rely on the house wrap, flashing, trim and siding all working together to keep moisture out.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Well, you got a point there, but since the window was already installed, how would I flash it? Are you saying you actually flash the trim boards at the bottom of the window? If so, how?All I did was remove the old masonite siding, install the osb, install the window and corner trim, and then istall the siding. There was nothing for me to flash.Or was there???Thanks,
William
"There was nothing for me to flash. Or was there???"
Yepper. It's kind of tough to describe window flashing. That's why I suggested taking a look at the manufacturer's info. Depending on the type of window, you may need to flash the sides and the top, and some call for Grace Shield as well, behind the siding.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Roger that! I'll check it out.Thanks,
William
Just read the thread and here's my two cents. Recently I renovated my house and on the outside, stripped off the old cedar shingles and removed the back paper as well. While there, I removed a sheathing plank or two (yep, real plank sheathing) and replaced the old fiberglass with blown in cellulose (love it!). Then I applied new housewrap on the sheathing and on top of that, installed 1x3 vertical strips of treated wood at 16" O.C. The new primed cypress siding was then nailed to the 1x3 strips.
The 1x3 strips hold the back of the siding away from the housewrap, providing a continuous ventilation space between the siding and housewrap and they create a clear drainage plane in that cavity. No matter what you do, moisture will get behind the siding either in a liquid state or in a vaporous state. Without proper drainage or ventilation (ability to dry quickly), the trapped moisture cannot escape and is held in contact with the siding for long periods of time. If the exterior air becomes dryer or warmer than the trapped moisture, it will moves toward that environment and if possible, right through your siding. Next stop, peeling paint.
I suggest you go look at Mike Smith's Adverse Possession Thread in the Gallery area, lots of great pics on window details and trim for hardi. That should open your eyes, esp the trex sills.
It sounds like replacing all the siding on that side is the way to go.