My House: Major Siding - outside refurb..... Hardie Plank - Day 36 - Getting close!!

Bartee Lamar

Member
Messages
499
Location
Alpharetta GA ( Metro Atlanta)
My home is about 20+ old.

It's a "contemporay" design, with verticle cedar siding.

I have two descriptions of the siding

1. Squirrel food
2. Kindling ( the house across the street burned to the ground in about 45 mins)

So it's time to replace it.

I am replacing all of the siding and sofets with hardie plank. New paint job.

New gutters.

New expanded deck with steps to back yard.

New front door and new sliding glass door to rear deck.

12 new sliding windows
2 fixed windows.

Total price $26,000.

Here is a picture of the front of the house and the rear after 6 hours....

The holes you see are squirrels. They lived in the walls and seem to love to eat thru the walls into the house.

Here is complete album

I will try to post each day...
 

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From the pics in your album, it doesn't look all that bad on the outside, but man, what a mess beneath the surface. :eek: Are you doing the work yourself, or did you contract it out?
 
Looking forward to watching the progress. I'm sure you will enjoy the house mucho more afterwards.
BTW: What is 'hardie plank'? Just better stuff or a brand name? e.g. Hardie Plank
As long as you are doing the gutters, I would like to suggest you consider the kind that do not clog with leaves.
We had our house done a year ago with those. The cost was about 3X more than standard. (not counting the heart attack as I wrote the check :eek: )
But I/we have sworn off ladders as much as possible.
We had a recently retired pastor from my church take a bad fall in January. He will now be 'enjoying' his retirement as a cripple. Visit any emergency room and ask. Ladders are bad news.
I'm glad we did this. Cheaper than an e-room visit.
 

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yu must have a whole nut grove inside your house bartee,,wow at first glance i was thinkun porky pine work but you know what yu got, they even wanted inside threw the sheet rock... what mess.. just think at the sleep you are gonna get now after things get closed back up.. no more things that bump in the night:)
 
You might make those squirrels mad putting Hardie Plank on. Considering the size of those holes, I don't think I would want to get on the bad side of them. You better start "packing".
 
Vaughn,

Using a contractor. He will be done and done in two weeks !!!

Frank,

I agree with you on ladders and old age. I am 61 and in pretty good shape. I exercise 4-7 times a week. BUT.. a fall can ruin the rest of my life. I am very careful any time I go up and down stairs.

Hardie Plank is a brand name product. Here is link to their website.. Their byline is "World Leader in Fiber Cement Siding and backerboard". All of the facia and sofets will be Hardie material.

So yes Larry I hope the critters are mad. I had the scratching thru my living room wall. That was the last straw.

More pics tomorrow...
 
DAY 2

WOW....

It's late so I cannot see everything but...

Today, Tuesday is the 2nd day the crew worked and the 1st full day.

ALL of the siding of OFF the house and in an enormous trailer in my driveway.

I came home at lunch and the driveway was full of siding. It's gone... I will get pictures in the morning..

The contractor purchased 12 sheets of 3/4" hard insulation. And 2 rolls of new R13 to replace the squirrel damaged insulation.

He told me to climb the latter and look at the attic space over the main bedroom ( on the right of the front porch ). There is very little insulation so I think we are going to have 12"+ blown in while we can get to it easily.

New pictures today. And the Album has been updated with some more before pictures.
 

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Good progress, Bartee. It looks like some of the foam board damage came from the siding demo, but I'm sure the contractor has that figured into his process and expenses.

I need to show your album to LOML to illustrate why I'm not interested in having squirrel feeders in the yard.
 
man what a disaster, its good that he has taken the time to show you your insul problem now.. instead of mentioning it later.. makes one think twice about puttin on styrofoam sheating any more...whats the hardi board run a sq. over in your parts? and are yu gettin it pre painted? for the cost of the prepainted you might get a painter to paint it for you after its up..also check to see how the contractor deals with the butte jionts..some around her will caulk the joints to keep the moisture from gettin in there as well.
 
Now is the time to maybe think about upgrading the windows. I am surprised that there is no solid building material on the outside of the building like ply or shiplap boards under the ridgid insulation. How was the old wood siding supported, just nailed to the ridgid insulation? I have seen similar constructin here with dona cona over the framing, but the siding was usually horizontal. Is the contractor installing solid sheathing and building paper? It sure makes it easier when installing the hardi plank.
 
I am surprised that there is no solid building material on the outside of the building like ply or shiplap boards under the ridgid insulation. How was the old wood siding supported, just nailed to the ridgid insulation?

Yeah, that would not fly here in earthquake country. I don't think cedar siding is considered structural. Were the corners wrapped with ply?

I can understand the rigid insulation on the outside, because in your climate the vapor barrier needs to be to the outside, but you think they would seal the seams in some way. Does it not cause a problem? At least you people in the NE & SE have moisture flow in one direction (but opposite) and a definite course of action. Here in the Pacific Northwest we have a mixed humid climate, I am not sure having any vapor barrier is a good idea for us.

You must feel good about getting this done. I have Hardie plank on my current house, but am not 100% happy about it. I think the problem was with my installer. I don't think he cut the lengths correctly, because the butt joints really vary in spacing, causing problems with the caulking and in some places the appearance. Like everything, you need to have someone who knows what he is doing. Hardie plank recommends that you butter each end of the planks with caulk, push the two pieces tightly together and allow the excess to flow out. You then take a damp rag and wipe away any excess.

I bought the house that way, at least you are there to make sure it is done correctly. Suggest you go over to the Hardie plank website and brush up on the basics so that you can critique your installation.
 
Larry,

Getting it standard NOT pre-painted. My installer is a GOLD Hardie Plank contractor. He seems to know his stuff. He recommends to let him paint it. I like that so it gets caulked and then painted. He says its a 10-12 year paint job when he gets done.

I will make sure to get some close shots of the joints and caulking.

Drew,

Getting 12 new vinyl replacement windows with argon gas that meet gov't specks for $1500 tax credit. Also replacing 2 big fixed windows on the sunny side of the house.

Bill,

The construction is 2x4 studs. ( with old style 2x4 45 degree braces ). No corner ply like they do now. There was insulation in between the studs.

Then foam board over the studs. Over that was horizonal 1x4 about every 2-3 feet to nail the verticle siding boards.

I am all over this guy. I have met with him each morning and inspect each night.

He is VERY concerned with the bad construction and condition of the foam etc. They are patching and taping the foam insulation. More pictures tonight that show the repairs.

The contractor has purchased 2 rolls of r13 and 12 4x8 sheets of 3/4" foam insulation.

More later......

back to work...
 
Day 3

This is from Day 3, Wednesday morning at 8am.

This is the work they completed the day before.

They are busy repairing the 3/4" hard foam insulation board and filling in the insulation the squirrels destroyed.

I meet with John, The Siding Guy, ( aka the contractor ) and we talked about the day.

So here are those pictures.

The entire album is here
 

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This is from Day 3, Wednesday at about 6pm. After the work day.

So you can see a lot of the new foam board installed.

Also they decided the chimney should be wrapped in osb board to give it some more strength. A good call.

Also the 1/4" ply under the kitchen bump out was gone. They will replace this with hardie material.

Tomorrow is Permit Inspection. Normally you only need an inspection after the house is wrapped, but with so much damage, the contractor did not want a problem with the inspections.

Also you can see we pulled the siding off the garage door. This took a LOT of weight off the door and will give it more life I think. The only problem is a lot of nails would not come out ( ring shank ) so they cut them off flush. I am afraid this will result in rust spots under the paint job. I am going to try to counter sink them and then fill the holes.
 

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looks like its to late now but on the garage door header,, it looks like yu have a small laminated beam in ther ein my area that wouldnt pass..on a 10ft open span with load bearing wall above i had to have a 14" lam beam..yours appears to be around 18ft and only 6":dunno::dunno: something to look into.
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