How hard can it be? I live near a southern southeast coast neo traditional neighborhood- you know – green space, small yards and 800k to 2 mil homes mostly 2 and 3 story. Not tract homes built by one builder but by a small number of “approved” builders all to architectural plans.
95% wood siding to give the old time look-
the siding is failing on many homes less than 10 years old- typically a rotten place dinner plate size you can put your fist thru- , the cure always is strip it all off, a lawsuit and the builder or his insurance pays (I think). frequently all windows get replaced too- whats that about?
what are they doing wrong? – 1x 8 wood lap siding mostly square edge, some fancier designs. wood goes up under a band board at the top which is under soffit. no roofing work done so its not the roof. neighbors always say “water behind the siding”
Too much exposure lets water in during rain?
junk wood?
seem not that many thing can go bad?????
Edited 12/30/2008 6:02 pm ET by edwardh1
Replies
Was the wood back and end primed (all six sides) prior to installation? Probably not.
Runnerguy
If all the windows get replaced, my first thought would be improper flashing around the windows allowing water penetration. Of course, without seeing it, it's just a WAG.
Cargin and I have both done some photo threads here recently on rot we have been fixing lately. All of it has been from lousy workmanship and poor detailing/flashing as it was installed to begin with.
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bad flashing rots the windows
poor paint prep
poor paint/poor paint job (too thin makes it not last as long)
lack of caulk as part of the paint job
newer wood isn't as rot resistant as old growth but the paint should protect it (paint is the primary defense).
Home owner trying to stretch his paint dollars and not painting (with a good painter) every 5 years. I don't think I've seen a paint job that last longer than 5 here in the SE.
Jim Allen had a good description of it somewhere here. The paint and caulk acts like a protective shell covering the wood. Go cheap on that shell or skip maintaining it and you've lost your protection.
I agree with all the suggested problems, but I have to disagree with this statement:
"paint is the primary defense"
The primary defense is to keep as much bulk water off the siding with good overhangs and gutters (with downspouts that drain at last 10' away from the foundation).
Surface sealing (paint and caulk) are the secondary line of defense, and they have to be inspected and renewed regularly.
Third line of defense is good flashings, carefully detailed, to allow drainage to the surface of any water that penetrates the second line of defense.
Fourth defense is a drain-screen or fully vented rain-screen.
Fifth is the weather-resistant barrier, properly shingle-lapped.
Sixth is an exterior (warm-side) vapor retarder in a cooling-dominated climate or none in a mixed heating/cooling climate.
Sixth, during the cooling season, is maintaining positive pressure in the conditioned space to counteract the vapor pressure from the outside.
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All these home do have minimum or no roof overhangs- they pass it off as style thing- I think its a money thing.
they are all spray painted, usually the day after the siding is installed.
the siding installers and painters are from another country (maybe thats the same all over.
Some of the wood is preprimed before arriving on the work site (bought that way)
Are there gutters?
The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one. --Wilhelm Stekel
Gutters? sometimes but frequently not.
when present they are copper large and round, adding to price and the arch's fee
usually no gutters
Yeah, no gutters and no overhang will result in a lot more water hitting the siding. Will amplify any problems with window flashing, etc.
The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one. --Wilhelm Stekel
"Some of the wood was preprimed before arriving at the job".
Which means if a piece was field cut to length (and most are) the new end probably was not primed and sealed before installation....and end grain will soak up water like a sponge given the slightest breach in the caulk and paint.
I'm not a professional builder like most of you guys are but I have built three houses (for what that's worth). The middle one I used 5/4 spruce everywhere and maintaining it was a PITA. Despite my best efforts during installation I still had spot rot after 10 years.
In the last one (finished it last July) I used Azek everywhere. I swear, I can't tell the difference. I know some new communities like the authentic look but I don't understand not using materials that look the same when painted. For example, here in Annapolis, there's a big brewhaha over an historic district homeowner who replaced his rotted porch columns with fiberglass ones instead of wood ones. Painted up, they look identical to wood.
Runnerguy
Any chance you can post pictures of the houses and the bad spots?
If we could see we could help better.
will try
Making an overhang to keep the rain (often wind driven bringing it in @ 45°) would be pretty impractical, especially on sides of 2 or 3 stories. Keeping the water off of the siding with a large overhang is great in theory but not a reasonable reality.
bad details, bad materials, bad execution
siding materials in contact with horizontal srfaces, improper flashing... inappropriate material for a potentially wet location, failure to backprime
inattention to detail
failure to supervise
all of the above
When painters spray on paint it is very easy or tempting for them to just spruce up the color a bit. What I mean is they don't wet the wall with paint. There are small areas (pin holes) where the paint hasn't covered.
The only way to see these is to get real close to the paint and maybe use magnification. This happens a lot.
You see it more inside on walls. You paint a wall with a roller and then go back and look real close. The Wall has spots all over it that don't have paint on them.
The only way I know of getting around this is to wet the roller and wet the wall. And two coats with this wetting is almost mandatory.
How many painters are this detailed? Not many.
The same thing goes for caulking.