Hello,
I am hoping for some constructive feedback. My husband and I are building a small cabin in a very wet climate, on the ocean, in the pacific northwest. We are planning on installing vertical cedar board and batten siding. Our neighbour out at the cabin is currently milling some 1×8 boards for us and 1×2 battens. We currently have 1/2″ sheathing up on the cabin and a housewrap over the sheathing. I have come to the conclusion that we need to strap the building before installing the boards. I know that most people strap the outside of the building. My concern is that any moisture that gets behind the siding should be allowed to run down the housewrap and then out. Won’t the strapping just collect moisture and thus become a likely spot for rot and failure? Did I mention that it was a very wet environment. My thought was to apply the strapping to the inside of the sheathing (albeit more work) to prevent this. Any thoughts? Thanks for your help regarding this.
Replies
use treated material for the spacing. no siding is a perfect barrier for the elements but the amount of moisture that gets behind your cedar should be minimal at best if properly installed and maintained.
Strapping young studs
By strapping I think you mean adding nailers to the outside of the house wrap. These nailers allow water that has penetrated the siding to escape from behind the siding allowing the siding to dry. For horizontal siding, we use vertical strapping on each stud. Water from driven rain or condensation will flow down and air can circulate to dry out the wall assembly. There are even products to add at the top for a convection system to dry it out. For vertical siding such as your board and batten, we put the strapping on at an angle of 45 degrees. This allows the moisture to flow down and gives us places to nail vertically. I don't know why one would strap inside the sheathing. If you are far enough along to be sheathed and wrapped but the siding I just being milled, I would be worried about timing. The siding needs to dry out and the house wrap is probably only good for 180 days exposure. Unless your neighbor has a kiln, I would wait to strap until the siding is dry and maybe re-wrap before the straps. Are you planning to paint or stain? After the boards are dry, finish all six sides, even cut edges. Also nailing needs to be considered. We use stainless nails. We use as few nails as possible in the boards and never nail through the batten into the board. The batten should be nailed into the straps only. The boards will move seasonally and too many nails will split them as will nailing the battens through.
I love the idea of using strapping at 45 deg. I hadn't thought of that. Good point regarding the house wrap. The wrap will have been on the building for a full year before the siding. I would hate to re-wrap the building but would do if necessary. Is there a way to assess the condition of the wrap? Was planning on using 316 ss (expensive) screws. I was planning on installing one screw in the centre of each board spaced 24" apart and one screw in the centre of each batten on 24" centres and screwed down the the strapping only and The cedar will be cut from salvaged trees that my neighbour has been storing and will sit for around 6 months before we install. I will ask my neighbour if he thinks this is Ok. Was going to leave the cedar untreated. I appreciate all your advice.
Depending on the wind exposure...
Bear with me for a little background: My folks built a house at Neatarts Bay outside of Tillamook in 1985. They were at the top of a smaill hill and the SW wall faced directly at the Bay...and the Ocean over a small spit. We bought them a digital wind guage...it only had a two digit display and in the first month (January) they were in the house...it hit over "90" three times. The gable end with a lot of glass faced the SW...the rain would soak the underside of the 4' eave overhang - actually blowing rain upwards against it. The windows had large fixed panes over 2' high x 4' wide sliders on the bottom for some ventilation. The pressure from the winds would not allow the rain hitting the sliders to escape the track weep holes...the water would bubble into the house over the window slider tracks. About 5 years ago, they had a super storm come thru and the wind got up under that eave, pealed the roof back and depositied half of it on the neighbors back yard over 150' away.
The exterior was shiplap siding...not that much different from the board and batt you are proposing. Within 5 years, the entire SW wall had to be torn out and reframed. The studs were decimated by rot...the OSB was nothing but rotten sawdust and the galvainzed flashing was rusted through. Water had gotten through every single siding joint. It was very impressive to see so much damage in such a relatilvely short amount of time.
We replaced the windows with units with no operable openings, we replaced all the flashing with stainless steel and we replaced the vertical siding with cedar shingles. Since 1990....almost 25 years...not a single leak (until the roof blew off) on that SW wall...
Soooo....step carefully Grasshopper....if your wind exposure is anything like this, I would be very careful about vertical siding. If you are in an area protected from the wind, should be no problem...
One approach is to simply assume that the B&B is nowhere near weather-tight and treat it just as a cosmetic layer over your real waterproof exterior. Rather than housewrap you might consider a more robust rainscreen product. And make sure that all openings are sealed to the rainscreen layer, not so much to the B&B.