I went to a Tudor Style home today to check out their defective siding. The house had Masonite Stucco Exterior Siding. I realize there was a class action lawsuit involving this siding, but the house was built prior to 1980……meaning exempt. No more then a foot up, around the perimeter of the house, the siding was rotting. The customer would rather not go through the cost of having to remove the siding and replace. I was thinking about cutting off the bottom foot, around the house, then replacing it with 1/2″ pressure treated plywood. I would then cover the plywood with the brown trim, typical of the Tudor. I would chamfer the top edge of the horizontal trim so water would run off. I’d silicone the heck out of the joint where the plywood and siding meet. The brown trim would be a synthetic board.
I guess what I’m afraid of is this problem recurring in the future. Have any of you guys had to deal with the hardboard siding problem that I am referring to? Any other solutions?
Thanks!
jocobe
P.S.- This was a real problem….so it appears
http://www.masoniteclaims.com/
Replies
Yes,
It happened on a friends house, exactly as you describe. It was installed during the claim time but something like 40% of the sheet has to fail before you can file a claim.
Anyway he cut the worst of it out, replaced it with plywood and feathered in bondo over the plywood and onto the good masonite, then repainted. 5 years and it's holding up pretty well. Every so often he'll find another bad area and fix it that way.
Ditch
Masonite siding, rotted sill plates, 3 layers of shingles over cedar shakes, stripped screws, rusted hinges, squirrel pee and rodent droppings, asbestos, lead paint, wonderful lead and galvanized piping, moldy walls, falling horsehair plaster, bees nest in the walls, wet basements, sinking foundations, tarred chimney flashings, puddleing rooflines, twisted frames, leaky windows, deteriorated bricks, strange electrical wiring, weak floor joists, crooked jambs, scraping doors, stained porcelin, lopsided stairways, rickity handrails.
Kinda makes you look forward to working on an old house. Got joybells ringing in my soul. Let the thunder crack and the waves roar.
We're going on.
Sounds swell. Your place might be worse than mine.
Roar! Sometime when I learn how to post a pic and there is a heavy hostility on the forum I'm going to post a picture of my place when I first took it on to give the guys some comic relief.
I'm glad to say I didn't have all those listed.
Man that masonite siding is nasty stuff. I'm glad I rarely have to deal with it. Mine had the 50ish asphalt impregnated fiberboard insulbrick product. Bout as bad except I've never seen anyone try to use it as a structual element. Sometimes it surprises you when you look under some sidings.
Let the thunder crack and the waves roar.
We're going on.
Edited 11/20/2002 11:44:01 PM ET by rez
Yeah, I could post a pic of my falling off mildewed masonite siding too.
Any chance of sliding a piece of flashing in there rather than trying to seal up with caulk?
Whichever way, I'd be concerned about getting the now cut bottom edge of the Masonite siding sealed as well as the seam/joint between the two materials or you could end up starting the old problem at the new height on the wall.
If it's got to be caulk, then I'd be inclined to use a good polyurethane caulk and leave the silicone in the tube.
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