House of Questions - Page 2

Bad prep work, people overspraying, overapplying and filling in the grooves. And I think that's one of the reasons why Eichler people want contractors who have worked on Eichlers before, because they know the ins and outs of these types of things.

The first job we did, we tried to roll it out [with a paint roller] and said, 'Oh no, this is not going to work!' And so, it has to be done by hand. It has to be brushed out so that everything looks sharp and crisp at the end of the job. You can't even really roll it and then back brush it because, especially on warm days, because the paint dries so fast.

Nichols: I get asked this question quite a bit: 'Can I just put my new siding over my old siding?' Most contractors don't recommend that. The homeowner says, 'Well, it will be twice as strong; why wouldn't we do that?' Well, a couple of reasons. One is, just from a purely inspection perspective, you don't know what's underneath that old siding. If it's deteriorated, it might be just the siding deteriorated, but the studs might also be deteriorated. You might have a water leak back there, just from the roof edge. You won't see any of that if you leave the old stuff on.

And I think the only other thing is that, from a paint perspective, some installers don't take the time for good-quality priming the material. Because, again, we're back to the siding's only as good as the protection you get out of your paint.