I’m residing my house. It’s 35 years old, and I’m pretty sure that this siding has been on the house since the beginning.
When I started taking off the old siding, instead of any kind of housewrap I recognized, I found what looks like plain old, thin, clear plastic sheeting. Is that what they used to use for housewrap, or did the people that built my house just use saran wrap (OK, I’m exaggerating, it’s not THAT thin)?
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Woof! Did your house have a mold or mildew problem? I'd be really suprised if it didn't. Plastic between the siding and the rest of the wall is a sure way to trap moisture in the walls. I'm thinking the origional builder was a diy homeowner who thought he was gonna beat that ol' draft in the wintertime problem.
Sounds to me like a clear case of having just enough knowledge to get ones'self into trouble.
pm didn't say where he hails from in his profile.
as Buddha said to the hotdog vendor .... "make me one with everything"
Re the location of the vapor barrier, it depends on where the building is located. If he is in the deep south east, it might have been more of a standard building practice than we think... (statement is past tense). Hopefully there is not a vapor barrier on the interior sides of the walls too...
Personally I've never seen it... but I'm not a remodeler... Seems like they could have at least used black plastic... I'd just replace it with housewrap or felt and have a nice day...
I'm in the Chicago area, and the house was built by a builder.
There's a little bit of black mold under the wrap, but not as much as I would have thought. And luckily, no vapor barrier on the inside.
And yes, I'm replacing it with housewrap. I was just curious whether this was the state of the art in housewrap 35 years ago.
I've learned new things about construction techniques every time I've worked on this house!
Even 35 years ago that was not "standard practice". However, that was before the concept of vapor barrier was "common knowledge", so the guy may have thought he was doing a good thing. And in Chicago it may have been OK (but just barely), depending on the details of construction and insulation.
Would have been a disaster in Minnesota.
>> Would have been a disaster in Minnesota. <<
What's the big difference between Chicago and Minisota? I mean I've been both places once or twice, but to me they are both just 'up there'.
20-30 degrees in the winter time.
Oh - I didn't know it was that much. My cus lives in Minneapolis and we go there occasionally to visit. I thought Chicago was just as cold...
Not nearly.