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Q. We have a wood frame home built in late 1981. Lovely design but crappy construction. We have cedar siding, seven inch wide strips by 22 feet long in some places. Many have curled and begun to pull away from whatever they were nailed to, despite a grea t paint job a few years ago. The high wind we had a couple weeks ago pulled one long panel off the house and needs replacing as do other panels appearing ready to curl away. My question to you is should I keep repairing the cedar boards or should I go to a metal or vinyl, total replacement job? A quick and dirty answer would be much appreciated as my house is currently "exposed" to the elements.
A. “Quick and dirty” is what got your house in trouble in the first place. I remember well back in the 1970s when thin lap western red cedar siding was both cheap (relatively) and popular. We put acres of it on the sides of houses around here. The hou ses looked great just after the job was done but I remember wondering back then what this stuff was going to look like 25 years in the future. We know now. I drive around town these days and almost all of the townhouse and condos that had it on them bac k then have been resided and mostly in vinyl.
The answer boils down to economics-- yours. I’ll bet the side of the house most affected by this slow siding degeneration gets a lot of sunlight. It’s the UV rays of the sun that break down the wood fibers and they weather away weakening the siding boa rd with curling and splitting. Raw cedar losses about a quarter of an inch a century exposed to the weather. Each side of your house lives in a slightly different environment so look at each side separately. If the worst side is west and south facing sid es and the others are in good condition then a sound decision might be to replace those whole sides and then paint or stain to mach the others. If the whole job ranges from split and missing to ratty and old looking then a complete reside with a differen t material would probably be the best way to go. The siding types of choice today are vinyl and fiber cement siding.
Both of these siding types range from the basic to the elaborate in design, texture and, and in the case on vinyl, colors. I have seen manufactured siding, a vinyl, that looked so wood-like that I had to get out of my car, walk up to it and put my hand o n it to determine exactly what it was. It was a sawn cedar shingle design and from a distance of only a few feet would fool anyone (except the owner or installer). Fiber cement touts its harsh weather durability but is more costly than vinyl both in ter ms of material as well as installation labor costs.
Although you feel exposed with a few boards blown off you have some time to go siding shopping as the weather will be kept out of the house by the sheathing and housewrap (or felt paper) over the sheathing and under the siding as was required back when y our house was built.
Select the product you chose carefully and pick the installer carefully as well. The quality of the finished job depends heavily upon the skill of the installer. You really don’t want quick and dirty-- ever.