I have a brick house with an addition that has wood siding on it. The siding has splits and I believe the construction is single wall from the 70’s with minimal insulation. The rooms are quite cold in the Michigan winter and I want to fix it right with out breaking the bank (baby on the way etc etc). I am planning on replacing the three windows with Anderson 400 series (tax credit cover the upgrade I think) and I already picked up 8 square of 12″ X 12 foot Hardie board from a builder who had it left over from a past job.
Assuming I tear into the wall from the outside what materials should I be considering using to rebuild the wall(OSB, house wrap, foam and fiberglass insulation?? etc) Any guidance greatly appreciated. Has anyone had good luck with the DIY spray foam? I plan on gathering up my materials in the next week or two so I could use the advice.
Also I think I may want to rip the Hardie board in half for a shorter reveal. Can I do this with one diamond coated Hardie blade, or is this a bad idea?
Thanks,
Will
Edited 8/4/2009 11:56 am ET by will35
Replies
Tax credit will only pay for 30% of the cost of windows and insulation, assuming the windows are certified by the manufacturer .
What kind of saw were you planning to use to rip Hardie? That's a lot of fiber cement dust to be inhaling, even if the blade holds up, which I wouldn't be too sure of.
Will-
I don't know about ripping that much Hardi- you're going to go through a couple blades and you're going to make a heck of a lot of dust. Plus, if you leave the siding as is, you'll get the house covered faster. As for the wall, the standard route would be to strip it down to the studs, insulate (fiberglass is par for the course, kraft paper facing inward), resheath with OSB (cheapest), wrap it with 15 lb. tar paper or Tyvek, and side it. If you want to use foam, that's a whole nother ball of wax, and I'm sure there a bunch of guys in the energy forum that would be glad to debate what thickness you should use, how to properly flash your windows and doors, etc.
Another option is to leave the stud cavities empty, put up the OSB, then drill holes to blow in cellulose. Better insulation than using fiberglass, cheaper than foam.
As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place. --Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz
You want to rip 80 square? You really have 80 above the brick? Wow. thats 8K sqft. Is that right?
Use it as is, thats insane to rip.
I'd chock the stud bays with solid foam, or cellulose, fully sheathe in OSB, 30lb felt, then side.
Just as a BTW, on my gables, I used the hardie vertically. A full "stick", a 6" gap ( 7.5" Certainteed, FC siding, no grain) then another stick. I then nailed a face stick over the gap. Like a board on board look, excellent for my log homes looks up there above.
This gives me the good coverage, less waste ( I had 3/12 and 11/12 pitches on each stick) and didn't look so common as vinyl or claps would appear. Makes for no long narrow fragile points on the 3/12 rakes, and the resulting triangle of waste.
Face nails all but disappear when painted, SS 2" ringshanks in a siding nailer.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"
Jed Clampitt
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Bad idea to rip the hardy. Too much dust, noise, blades, etc. What type of saw were you planning to rip it with?
can you rip hardi ,yes. i use a 7.25 blade in a cheap table saw. it will probably rip 300 ft before the blade is pretty shot.
i don't think it's worthwhile to have 12" and rip to 6", by the time you do a 1.25 overlap your only covering 4.75 " for each strip. thats a lot of ripping,dust,nailing, etc. also i think you might find with blind nailing that the bottom will "stick out to much on the overlap.
either nail the 12 up ,or run a ad on cl and sell it and go buy what you want,8.25 or 6.25 hardi.
the older i get ,
the more people tick me off
I edited my post I have 8 square not 80. Its to cover a wood sided edition on a brick house. I bought a diamond coated Hitachi Hardie blade to do the work.
Could I get a link to the poster who places the siding vertically. I am interested how that looks....
Thanks,
Will
Thats me, as soon as this nasty storm passses, I'll go take a pic for ya. I'm in KY, and we're on the news about Louisville,and its headed right at me.
I'd do it now, but I'm gonna lose my satellite probably. And I'm eatin lunch.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"Jed Clampitt
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Here ya go..a quick shot. Its NOT painted yet, just dirty from laying around.
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Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"
Jed Clampitt
View Image
Edited 8/4/2009 12:42 pm ET by Sphere
A little finiky having to plumb as you go, but I used a marking gage to pre mark my overlap boundaries, I just checked plumb every few hunks as I went.
My upper roof had some discrepancy, so my top cuts were a clue if I was still running good. Or not. A bead of caulk top and bottom and you are good to go. The face boards snugged up nice and water tight to the under boards.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"Jed Clampitt
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I saw a job done with Hardiplank ripped as you propose and it looked very fine. It was new construction, but it made the place look like a Victorian farmhouse that had been there for decades. I was there to buy some extras the contractor had for sale, so i was able to talk to him about it, asked the same Q's about ripping all that FC board that others have mentioned. He shrugged, said he wanted it and was willing to do what it took to get the look he envisioned.
I thought about it some more and realized one could get a pretty special look by ripping it off-center, like the staggered reveal on these Craftsman shingles: http://craftsmanremodel.com/rapidblog/files/craftsman-shingle-stone-siding.jpg
Wear a good respirator. As far as your insulation, foam is the cat's meow for R-value in a small space, but check out "dense-pack cellulose" on this site and elsewhere. You can do it yourself with a helper to feed the cellulose hopper, and it much cheaper for a DIY. When i reinsulated my house with 2x4 walls, i blew cells in the walls, then put a layer of 3/4" foamboard over the sheathing for a thermal break, then overlaid that with 1x2 furring strips vertically.
I used a stringline to get all the furring strips in plane since the old wall wasn't perfect, which also provided a "rain screen" gap. Any bows in your walls will be more obvious when you use FC compared to stiffer wood siding.
You'll have to figure out your door and window jamb extensions for this since the wall ends up being thicker. If you're replacing the windows, it won't be a big deal to order them the depth you want, but doors are a consideration.