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FAQ: Siding

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Should I back prime redwood siding?
B.R. writes:
Could you give me your thoughts on the requirement of back-priming of redwood siding. Also if this procedure is not performed what steps could be used to mitigate any problems.

Paul Fisette answers:
I think it is a MUST to back-prime any wood siding. If wood siding is not basc-primed, the back of the siding stores water and swells/shrinks at a different rate than the front of the siding. As a result you have paint failure. Also, you can store water in the back of siding and when the sun comes out, vapor pressure increases on the siding surface and as the water evaporates, it is driven into the wall of the house. There really is no substitute for back-priming unfortunately.

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What should I do about failing red cedar siding?
A.S. writes:
We have a 20 year old house that was sided in western red cedar shakes and roofed with the same material in shingles. The house is a cape cod style with 3500 sf. Roof pitch, I am guessing, is 8/12. We live in the finger lakes region of New York and have wild fluctuations in temp., humidity and sunlight. In addition we are at the top of the plateau between the lakes and get tremendous, predominately westerly, winds. The shingles were installed on strip sheathing. The shakes, however, were installed on what appears to be fiberboard and have approx. 12-14" exposure, nailed at bottom of the shake. (Each row of shakes is completely backed by this fiberboard - I can stick my pinky finger beneath the shake and up 3/8" and scratch it with my fingernail.)

The problem is that the shakes on the southern and western side of the house and garage (detached) are disintegrating on the thin end. Is this a problem in moisture build up in the fiberboard or is the overlap not sufficient and too much of the shake is exposed to the elements. Or is the material inherently unsuited to our environmental conditions? The real problem is: Hubby detests any and all maintenance and I feel the same about vinyl. (We once had a vinyl rep come to the house to quote us on vinyl for one end of the house not shake sided and he said the house was too nice to use vinyl siding!) So he does not want to paint, stain, or waterproof on any kind of regular basis (maybe once in a lifetime?) In addition, I will become the wicked witch of the north if vinyl comes near my house - also, in this rural area, the skilled, reliable contractors don't have time for little jobs - they do whole houses. And we have not been impressed with the quality or reliabilty of the little guys hungry enough to make the trek up here on the hill.

Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. The house needs attention. (We also plan to beef up the insulation on residing - the house has electric heat with NYSEG highest in the country electric rates - any suggestions here would be also appreciated.)

Paul Fisette answers:
Questions like this are very difficult to answer since I do not get to see the failure, detailing, design, exposure conditions, etc. What I can tell you is that i am familiar with the siding product that you describe. Ususally the siding (that you are calling shakes) are not shakes, but a shingle that has a squared and rebutted configuration (that means the bottom and sides are at perfect 90 degree angle). However the face of the shingle is stridated --- it has narrow grooves textured into the surface. I THINK (!!!) the problem, since it is happening only on one side, is related to exposure and the nature of the material. The wind and rain act to abrade the shingle and the sun degrades the lignen and wood fiber in general. So what happens is that the shingle wears out! The problem I have had with this type of shingle is two-fold:

1. I do not like the fact that the shingles only provide single-layer protection. In other words, if rain penetrates the joint between the sides of adjoining shingles, you get very little redundant prtection. The fiber board doesn't provide much.
2. Because these shingles are exposed to 12 or 14 inches of weather, you are left with a very thin crossection of wood at the uppermost point in the shingle, just below the overlap of the upper course.

I like all-heart red cedar shingles more than any other siding. They should last for many decades with very little maintnenace. However, the style that provides (at least from my experience) the best performance is the type of application where you do not use the fiberboard, but merely hold the shingles to a smaller course exposure where you get triple coverage. If you use 18-inch shingles then the course should be limited to 6-inches. If you use 24-inch shingles, then limit the courses to 8-inches. You get more protection and the shingle that is exposed to the weather is thicker. As you may have guessed this is not a cheap solution, but it is one that i would think about if I were in your situation.

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