how to use cement lap siding (1 Viewer)

[fledglingme]

lately i've been surfing the web as research for the summer season home improvement project on casa fledgling. the old siding is wood chips glued together and a wood grain facing to ward off water. now when i bought the home the supplying company was laboring under a suit for defective product... it seemed that rather that the water being deflected away from the building, a small amount was being absorbed into the matrix from the bottom edge of each lap. fast foward to this year- it's apparent that this year i have to replace. so been looking at cement lap siding. leaning towards certainteed fiber cement siding. thru all the information i've reviewed, one element remains unclear- to me. the "drip edge" of the old installation was started about 1/4" down to 0", in some places, above the pavement-oddly there's no tell tail disintegration visable on these "starters" even though they are sometimes in direct contact with concrete!( conctreete that is wet or damp for about 6months a year). my question is...being that the new product is cement fiber matrix, can the starters be allowed to make contact with the pavement? or if not ,. what would be an reasonable hight to start?what would be a good way to cover the building up to the point where i start the siding? ---thanking all in advance

 

[PAToyota]

I used Hardie lap siding on my workshop. Their instructions are to meet local codes or to at least have 6" minimum between siding and adjacent grade. Certainteed should have a similar spec sheet.

Here is the one for Hardie: http://www.jameshardie.com/pdf/best-practices/hz/hz5-2012-v6-1-hardieplank.pdf

 

[90FJ]

what he said^

follow the Hardie or Certainteed guidlines, there are also a lot of clearance requirements for roof to wall interfaces plus hold offs for flashing and trim. Make sure you attend to window flashing and housewrap before recladding, where do you live and what is your average rainfall? Was it LP siding to begin with?

but I'm confused as to where your stemwall ends and sheathing begins? A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[nspctr1]

Yep. and pay attn to the sealant you use on the joints. Buy the better product or you will be recaulking and painting your house in 2 years when they all come apart. NP1 is good but there are other elastomeric sealants out there that arent as expensive.

GL

 

[90FJ]

Hardie doesn't actually want you to use sealant on the butt joints anymore, you need to cut counterflashing shingles out of building paper, "Bear Skims" or you can use tin and place it behind the joints.

Too much expansion and contraction through wetting cycles and as you mentioned sealants always fail. We like Sonolastic tx150 around here, made by BASF.

 

[fledglingme]

ok, did some more reading and found out that it's a "skirt board" that fills in between the grade up to the starting siding board.( none are present on the the org. exterior). 6" to grade, and 1" to driveway,deck, etc. of course if local codes deviate from this, so will fledglingme. certainteed carrys pvc skirtboards 6" & 8"wide- i assume that these can be cut down to create smallish boards. ......yes, it was l.p. siding that came with the house. been living with it, untill i was up on a ladder last summer- up close it looked really sad. we get about 37inches of water- not all that much as these things go, but in general, we don't get a huge down pours. but rather an almost constant drizzel. we only get a good drying out in the summer months( i've lived in many northern u.s. states and the summers here are exceptional! they almost, make up for the gloomy weather of the other 9months). this will most likely be a di myself project. and will take most the summer. rather than renting an siding nailer and compressor- it occured to me that considering my situation, i might be better off using self drilling screws to attach the siding. any input on going this route?.... - i can easyly pull apart the bad examples on the exterior,so all the old stuff will have to go to the dump, rather than simply nailing new on top of old.. fwiw- i haven seen the framing (going to save that for when i do the "tear off"-at which time i'm sure there'll be enough surprises .) the flashing and house wrap are in the plans as well as quality caulking.

 

[nspctr1]

Hardie doesn't actually want you to use sealant on the butt joints anymore, you need to cut counterflashing shingles out of building paper, "Bear Skims" or you can use tin and place it behind the joints.

Too much expansion and contraction through wetting cycles and as you mentioned sealants always fail. We like Sonolastic tx150 around here, made by BASF.

SO, what do you use if your siding has been installed for over ten years now? Probably stuck applying sealant every few years....

 

[90FJ]

ok, did some more reading and found out that it's a "skirt board" that fills in between the grade up to the starting siding board.( none are present on the the org. exterior). 6" to grade, and 1" to driveway,deck, etc. of course if local codes deviate from this, so will fledglingme. certainteed carrys pvc skirtboards 6" & 8"wide- i assume that these can be cut down to create smallish boards. ......yes, it was l.p. siding that came with the house. been living with it, untill i was up on a ladder last summer- up close it looked really sad. we get about 37inches of water- not all that much as these things go, but in general, we don't get a huge down pours. but rather an almost constant drizzel. we only get a good drying out in the summer months( i've lived in many northern u.s. states and the summers here are exceptional! they almost, make up for the gloomy weather of the other 9months). this will most likely be a di myself project. and will take most the summer. rather than renting an siding nailer and compressor- it occured to me that considering my situation, i might be better off using self drilling screws to attach the siding. any input on going this route?.... - i can easyly pull apart the bad examples on the exterior,so all the old stuff will have to go to the dump, rather than simply nailing new on top of old.. fwiw- i haven seen the framing (going to save that for when i do the "tear off"-at which time i'm sure there'll be enough surprises .) the flashing and house wrap are in the plans as well as quality caulking.

I'm still confused, is this slab on grade? How far off the ground is your wall sheathing? That is where your skirt or first row of Hardie should go, and as PA mentioned typically it's 6" off of grade. Post a pic dude, that will help a lot.

37" is a decent amount of rain, what state are you in?

Follow the Hardie spec, use a nailer and ring shanks.

SO, what do you use if your siding has been installed for over ten years now? Probably stuck applying sealant every few years....

I've seen guys dig the sealant out and install flashing behind the joints but depending on the nailing that might not be an option. My siding is 10 year old Hardie with caulked butt joints as well, I havn't done anything but I plan to re-caulk this summer.

Hardie is currently fending off a decent amount of lawsuits right now, I like fiber cement but I think there are a lot of bad installs out there.

 

[nspctr1]

I hear that. A local contractor installed my hardie w/o any kind of backer or felt paper. I have to make sure the joints stay sealed.