Wednesday, October 15, 2008

We basically live in a barn

The title comes from something Edith said last night, as we were discussing the (de)merits of board-and-batten style siding over dinner. It is a certainly a cheap and relatively easy way of siding a structure, but I don't think it's a good idea for a house. At the very least, it requires more maintenance than might first appear. You have to be sure to replace the boards as they crack/rot, and also be sure that the battens are securely fastened to the boards. Otherwise, you're likely to have water problems, as it runs down the side of the house and behind the boards. If you are crazy enough to NAIL YOUR SIDING DIRECTLY TO YOUR STUDS, and leave 1" gaps in some places, it's also not a terribly effective insulator. We know all of these things now.

On Day 1, the crew did mostly demolition work, removing most of the battens and the existing clapboard siding. They also started wrapping the front part of the house with Tyvek, and removed the old porch off the back. Look out below! Near the porch you can see an area where there was previously some termite activity, and that the house was obviously painted red before. Also pictured is one of the aforementioned 1" gaps, and finally, a section on the east side where we were investigating what was going on at the weird overlapping line in the existing siding. Turns out the studs on the second floor actually stick out an extra 3/4", which serves to make this project more difficult. How bizarre.

There were no other big surprises after 11AM, that I know of.









2 comments:

Christi said...

That looks like insulation in those walls. Does that mean that they won't be able to blow the cellulose stuff in?

Brian said...

You're right. To my mild surprise, we found insulation behind most of the walls. I don't know for sure whether it is even still possible to blow it in the walls, or if it is only more difficult, but I think it is mostly off the table for us now.

I think we lost a lot of heat in the winter because once it got past the insulation, it was pretty much home free (errr, free of our home). With the old siding as sheathing, homewrap, and new siding, it should all do a much better job. The homewrap alone is probably a big deal. The driveway side of the house and apartment will be getting new fiberglass insulation behind the new sheathing, and new windows through most of the house will also help a lot.