Siding and more siding

After considerable deliberation, Matt decided on cement board siding.  This particular type is Certainteed cement board siding with a 6" reveal.  Plus, a contractor in town had either ordered or been delivered two pallets rather than one - we never heard the real story.  Matt got a great price on it.

With my questionable skills, I always like to start on the least visible side!  That's not exactly accurate, we actually went around the building once with what we could reach without a ladder or scaffolding.  We started with a 8 inch cedar "band" which matched the old house.  We also put 3/8" furring strips on the housewrap so that there was breathing space between the wrap and the siding.  That's been the new custom and it makes sense, but I've ripped siding off a 15 year old house without it and not seen a bit of problem. 


In the photo above, we've finished and are "painting down."  We gave everything at least one coat of paint before we put it up and a then caulked and painted our way down so that all edges were sealed and had two coats of paint.  We've taken one set of scaffolding down.  Whew, it was plenty high for me and Matt wore his rock climbing helmet the whole time.

Now we're at the back side.  Luckily, we only need two layers of scaffolding on this side.  You can see the furring strips up on top above the siding.  You can also see the brown 5/4" by 4" rough cut cedar wrap around the windows.  We thought that gave the building a nice look.  We put a ledger board for a future deck on this side too.

The "third" side was a little sketchy on the right side.  We were able to put one section of scaffolding on the roof by building a wall.  Then we had to use a ladder jack with a ladder and a plank on the right side.  I can do it, but it's not my favorite.  I confess that I use my boat maxim: "One hand for yourself, one for the boat."  In this case, it was one hand holding on to the house for balance and one hand to work.    Matt declined the opportunity to use the plank!



The 4th side will have to wait a couple weeks.  We ran out of planks and Matt had visitors and City Assembly stuff.  I want to get it finished so he doesn't have to worry about it over the winter and I don't have to do it later!