ShareExterior Maintenance
With the amount of simulated wood sidings that are popular on newer homes, roughly fifteen years old and less, it is extremely important to keep up the outside as opposed to a home with real wood siding. I’m sure there are many people that don’t even know that the siding on their home is not real wood. Some of the simulated wood grains are so good that it can be difficult for a pro to know for sure until they take a piece off the house. It is my opinion that the problem associated with these pseudo sidings is far more serious than the potential consequences regarding the new wind load codes. With the wind load codes, you might have a problem when we have a major storm. If you don’t take extremely good care of these types of siding, you will have to replace all the siding on your home!
So what do you need to do? Paint the exterior of your home about every three to five years. Be sure that you or your painting contractor uses top quality paint. In between coats of paint, be sure that all joints are adequately caulked. If you look closely around windows, doors and corner posts, you’ll probably see a fine crack where water and even just moisture will get in. Some will be much more obvious than a fine crack. In either case, they must be filled with a good quality caulk. This is not only necessary with the synthetic sidings, but with wood and brick as well. The synthetic stuff will just deteriorate much faster. In the older homes, a superior moisture barrier was used that would prevent the moisture from penetrating to the wall substrate or sheathing. It has been my experience that moisture penetrates the newer types of moisture barriers, particularly when they’re not properly installed.
So to avoid extremely high costs of having to repair
or replace all of your siding, a few ounces of prevention is worth tons of cure.
Estimated time: Varies with condition of home.
Tools/materials needed:
Paint, caulking, ladders, etc.
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