siding repair (major vs minor)
I'm about to have the exterior of our house painting and the siding needs some repair first. I've had several contractors and painters look at it (all names were obtained though Eichler Network) and have gotten a wide variety of suggestions. First of all, the majority of the siding has splash/sprinkler induced rot along the bottom surface. However, in most sections there appears to be about 1-2 inches of damage, and it doesn't penetrate the full thickness of the wood (if you reach underneath with your fingers, the back side of the siding feels intact).
The 3 options that have ben presented to me are: 1) Replace the entire panel (at $500 per 4x9 foot section) which is WAY out of our pricerange, 2) Patch it with z-bar flashing, probably 6 inches up from the bottom of the siding, which would be visible around the entire perimeter of the house (most of our siding has this rot along the bottom), or 3) dig out the rot and fill it with some sort of apoxy, which could be blended and grooved to not show, for minimal cost. You can probably tell that #3 is my preference (for cost, aesthetics, etc) but not if it's unwise in the long term.
If anyone has any insight on this matter, I'd greatly appreciate it. I don't want to go with #3 just because he's told me what I want to hear! Is this option too good to be true?
Thanks, Tera
- "First of all, the majority of the siding has splash/sprinkler induced rot along the bottom surface. "
If this is actually dryrot (spores), I believe it will need to be either removed or treated to stop the spread/continued deterioration. Perhaps renman will comment or someone else with technical knowledge of wood.
- "Replace the entire panel (at $500 per 4x9 foot section) which is WAY out of our pricerange."
I'm missing something here--a 4 x 9 panel runs somewhere around $100, last I knew. What's pushing up the price--not simply the removal and installation I hope. Tom B., I think you had this kind of work done recently--does the price sound correct to you?
- "dig out the rot and fill it with some sort of apoxy, which could be blended and grooved to not show, for minimal cost."
This sounds very labor intensive so I'm surprised you consider it minimal cost--unlesss you are doing the work yourself... I'd do it if the percentage damage realy was minor and you were sure repairs would be invisible.
A lot of this is hard to tell without seeing the extent of damage. However, offhand, my choices in order would be to: keep the original panelling ; replace the entire panel. When I got my house, they had used the z-bar approach as you described on one of the atrium walls. It was the first thing i tore out.
Good luck.
Jake
That info REALLY helps, thank you Jake. The epoxy option seems low-cost because the painter has offered to do it as part of the prep work, and his bid for painting the entire exterior of the house is under $6000, prep included.
It helps to know that you found the z-bar look so offensive...I was having a hard time picturing it. Thanks again.
BTW, the $500 per section of siding represented materials, installation and new insulation. I only got one quote though. Sounds like too much? I still need to replace at least 3 sections in total, regardless of what I decide to do on the rest of the house.
Which is the water being sprayed onto ****AND**** that your siding isn't painted/etc well enough.
Then decide on the siding band aids or replace.
If me, I'd replace the siding panels affected and then repaint with good primer and finish. Make sure that they have additional anti-fungus treatment.
BTW, the $500 per section of siding represented materials, installation and new insulation. I only got one quote though. Sounds like too much? I still need to replace at least 3 sections in total, regardless of what I decide to do on the rest of the house.
We just replaced a little more than three sections of thinline siding in our atrium. Luckily, I know a guy that does construction and he and I did it in about four hours total, and that included the trip to Home Depot. It's not a hard job. I think the hardest part was getting the old stuff off! A couple of handy guys (or gals) could do it if you take your time and think about what you're doing. You definitely need two people -- one to hold up the siding and the other to put some nails in it. But you really only need one person who knows what they're doing! ;-)
See if you can find a construction worker who'll do a side-job and offer him a few hundred bucks for an afternoon's work. If you provide the materials (Eichler siding being about $85/sheet), you could do the whole job for around five or six hundred bucks. Oh, and prime the backside of everything ahead of time and it will last years.
Good luck!
