July 19, 2005
siding!
After the termite repair, we replaced the siding that had been pulled down.
(Click the image for larger context.)
We replaced siding along the bottom 8 feet or so of the front wall. That is where the termite damage was so bad.
We had ordered pretty good amount of siding the previous week, knowing that since were were finished pulling down shingles that we we would need to fix some of what we’d found underneath.
We’d ordered the siding from Siewers, a local lumber yard. Since the order was over a specific $$ amount, we got free delivery. That sure beats hauling 16-foot siding in our little truck. We were expecting delivery over the next few days; it came in 6 hours! Amazingly good customer service… It is nice to be able to buy from a local company and know that it couldn’t be done any better.
We got almost 700 feet of basic 1/2″ x 7-1/4″ yellow pine siding. What is on the house now may be cedar, but we can’t afford that. We’ve also got around 100 feet of 1-3/8″ yellow pine quarter round.
Our plan is to replace all of the siding on the long wall at the front of the house. These pieces are 14 feet long and there are no windows or doors, so it should be a fairly straightforward job. The siding that is up now is mostly only damaged at the edges, so we can get re-usable shorter lengths to use on other parts of the house. This should take care of our siding needs, and give us one very nice, newly sided wall.
After the termite repair, we set to replacing the siding that we’d pulled for access to the studs. We pre-primed the boards and marked where the over-lap should be before we put them up.
Our routine seemed to work well. We’d get the board up and on one of the over-lap marks and put one nail in near the middle. We’d then use the level to get the board straight and put the rest of the nails in. The boards are all straight and the spacing is very regular.
It feels good and right to be putting up wooden siding. Early on, in our anti-termite stance, we’d looked at Hardie siding, but as we’ve gotten familiar with seeing it applied on houses through the neighborhood we’ve decided that it just looks too different than the actual wood siding. We never considered vinyl siding, for many reasons.
We hope to be able to finish this one wall on Friday or over the weekend.
Your house looks so pretty without those shingles!
So hard to believe such a beautiful house has been hidden under shingles for so long! I’m still stunned by the new photo in the corner of your blog - what a difference; it must be very satisfying to have such a dramatic result from all your hard work.
It does feel nice, after all of this time. Looking back at some of the old photos, I can’t believe that we so drastically underestimated the work involved. It is so obvious now…
Wow, it’s really looking beautiful! What a difference a little siding and paint can make. Great job!
We are in the process of taking off aluminum siding and we too considered hardie plank siding and recently have seen it on houses and don’t like it. Our contractor recommeded pine and then spraypaint. Does pine look as good as clapboard and what would be the differenc?
Our new siding is pine, replacing what I think was cedar, and it looks great. We’ve primed all of the new stuff but haven’t put on the real paint yet. I’m not sure what the difference would be — maybe it won’t last as long as the original stuff… Still, the only thing that looks right to me is the real wood. Vinyl & hardiplank are just too *false*.
pine won’t last as long as cedar but you’re supposed to use stainless fasteners ($$) with cedar that won’t react to the “tannin.” Pine’s fine just make sure you prime all four sides (if you can) before it goes up.