I’m preparing to paint the exterior of my 110 yr old home in Colorado. It’s all wood siding. There are gaps where the siding is overlapped by the frieze (see photo). In newer construction I never see these as it’s always tight. I’m very tempted to caulk all these spaces as I often have wasps and such nesting in these spots. I know that often times spaces are left under some surfaces to serve as weep holes, but I’ve never seen moisture come from these areas on this house.
Are there any reasons I wouldn’t want to caulk these areas closed?
Thanks!
Seth
“Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and there is no fail . . . there is only make.”
John Cage
Replies
In my experience, that gap is perfectly normal and is considered a good detail. Clapboards, like shingles, aren't flat obviously, so the trim can't lay against them continuously.
I suppose if the aesthetics really bug you it wouldn't be the end of the world to caulk it, but then you've added a significant maintenance hassle. Keep in mind the siding is going to move with temp./humidity changes, and your caulking may not look so hot after a few years. Then it's worse than before you started.
I would think twice about it.
I wouldn't waste the caulk in that location.
BTW, are you sure that is hgundred year old wood siding? It looks more like vinyl with every other lap wwider
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Seth
I'm with Piffin on this, the siding doesn't look like 100 yr old siding.
Way back when they were installing that wood siding they would have put that rake board up and then butted their siding to it, makes for a better look. Then there isn't any need to caulk an unpleasant looking detail.
Now days I see siding done that way, much easier to put the siding up, don't have to worry about the ends fitting proper, then cover with that rake board.
You would know better but it sure does look like vinyl.
Doug
Doug@es,
Your eyes deceive you! See attached photo.
Thanks!
Seth"Nothing is a
mistake. There is no win
and there is no fail . . . there is only
make."
John Cage
Seth
I couldn't see the original photo all that well and the two that you attached to me did not open for me.
I believe that its not vinyl, just looks that way in the first pic.
Maybe that practice of putting the rake board over the siding has been around longer than I thought, where I come from I never see it on older homes.
Now that I live here in TX I see it all the time, and I'm pretty sure why its done that way.
Doug
I learned to do it that way from working on old houses. A cheap one inch shim blocking to cut the siding snug to, and then trim over with the frieze lipping down another inch or so.
The second batch of photos didn't open for me either.
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Piffin
I haven't seen it that way unless it was on newer houses. I see it all the time now but I'm thinking that there doing it that way in order to cut down on the fitting it nicely to the frieze(rake).
It may be a regional thing, plus I didnt do a lot of that kind of work, I don't recall seeing it on older homes, coarse I haven't see all the older homes, even in my own little area! And I'm sure I wasn't paying attention all the time. :)
I know that on the houses that are getting Hardi siding around here its done so as to conserve on labor, don't have to fit the siding tight to the corners.
Doug
We still fit it snug, as did the old ones. I wouldn't want to trust to a bead of caulk and a snug fit only. The freize lapping down over lets water shed downhill.
How 'bout on the straight walls instead of this gabled end? You lap the freize over the siding there don't you? This gable end gets more wind blow rain than that would up under the soffit.
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Piffin
How 'bout on the straight walls instead of this gabled end? You lap the freize over the siding there don't you?
Do you mean the horizontal freize? If so then yes, but usually you dont see such a gap. Maybe I just dont remember it as I thought I did. I do get what your saying about the water shed, and it makes perfect sense to me.
Maybe the next time I excape from TX and get back up to Iowa I will have to pay a little more attention to those details. I own an old brick house there and I know for a fact(cause I just rebuilt them)that the brick goes up under the rake. So it only makes sense that the wood siding would also.
Doug
I'm not familiar with brick in that scenario. The few I've seen had no roof overhang on the rake so the fascia is what lapped over the brick.
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Piffin
Maybe semantics? I call any board or trim that is running at an angle a rake, something I picked up from an old guy that I worked with, back when I was just a young boy. This old timer would not call a fascia that was running at an angle a fascia, he always refered to it as a rake!
Maybe the reason for the confusion, I dont do a lot of exterior stuff anymore so I'm not all that particular about my particulars!
Doug
For me, the rake is a particular edge of the roof. The edge that runs up the gable end of the house. A fascia is a trim board that covers rafters whether at the eave ends or the rakes. A frieze board is a step below the fascia and sometimes separated from it by the soffit panel.
This might be from my roofing background when we might have two kinds of meetal trim, the eave trim and the rake trim, each slightly different from one another.
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I'm thinking were on the same page now, or at least the same book!
Doug
"twas a good discussion
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I've always called your rake boards, 'bardge(sp) boards'. I think I read it in one of the older carpentry text books.
I'm think that "bargeboard" is the term for the vertical surface that is just below the drip edge of a roof on a gable and forward of the siding and frieze. I looked it up in a Victorian architecture book which confirmed this in some configurations, but also called this area the fascia in other configurations.
Thanks.
Seth
"Nothing is a
mistake. There is no win
and there is no fail . . . there is only
make."
John Cage
Couldn't be any more absolutely positive about original siding. It's wood and matches every historic photo of the house in every detail.
If you did want to waste caulk, would you not do it for any functional reasons?
Thanks.
Seth
Edited 5/22/2004 11:02 am ET by Seth Frankel
There is a functional reason why we avoid caulking down facing laps and edges. If any moisture developes behind the trim and siding, it will want a way to weep out again.
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I think it will be quite hard to caulk that so that it looks good. Caulk doesn't really want to be tooled into a flat surface, and you'll want it to look like an extension of the rake trim. You'll probably find it looks worse if you try it, and the benefits of the ventilation are significant. I wouldn't caulk it.
This is just one of many ways to install trim. Quite common on new homes. Saves money on labor because the clapboards are slipped under rather than cut to fit the freize. Wide trim like that will shrink and open the fit if they were cut to the bottom edge. Caulking is not meant to be built up to 1/2". Wasps need a place to live! Bats too. I would not worry about it. There is nothing behind it but sheathing and framing, probably not living space either. Nice condition for an old place.
Thanks Hammer and thanks all for the advice. Indeed, sounds like more maintenance than it's worth. Hammer, not even sheathing behind, just siding on framing!
Seth"Nothing is a
mistake. There is no win
and there is no fail . . . there is only
make."
John Cage
i would caulk these spaces. i'm partial to using OSI quad it comes in so many colors sometimes it matches paint or stain perfectly. plus when it dries it accepts paint good.